To many entrepreneurs and some big businesses, social media marketing is the “linchpin of success,” a temporary yet a powerful fad that must be taken seriously while it’s still in the relevant limelight. To others, it’s a buzzword with no practical advantages steeped with some complicated learning curve.
Ever since it arrived, social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing fad, and by extension, an unprofitable one. The statistics, however, paint a different story. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, along with 80% of them indicating that their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media—but 85% of participants are not sure what the right social media tools to use are.
This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales and growth, but also a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results. Here’s a look at just some of the ways social media marketing can improve your business:
1. Increased Brand Recognition: Every opportunity you have to improve your content and increase your visibility is crucial. Your social media networks are just new channels to promote your brand’s voice and content. For example, a regular Twitter user could hear about your company or it’s product for the first time only after stumbling upon it in a newsfeed. Or, an otherwise new or potential customer might become better acquainted with your brand after seeing its presence on multiple networks.
2. Improved brand loyalty: According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. The report concludes “Companies should take advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience. A strategic and open social media plan could prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand loyal.”
3. More Opportunities to Convert: Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. When you build a following, you’ll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them. Every blog post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually a conversion.
4. Higher conversion rates: Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways. Perhaps the most significant is its humanization element; the fact that brands become more humanized by interacting on social media channels. Social media is a place where brands can act as people do, and this is important because of people like doing business with other people; not with companies.
5. Higher Brand Authority: Interacting with your customers regularly is a show of good faith for other customers. When people go to compliment or brag about a product or service, they turn to social media. And when they post your brand name, new audience members will want to follow you for updates. The more people that are talking about you on social media, the more valuable and authoritative your brand will seem to new users. Not to mention, if you can interact with major influencers on Twitter or other social networks, your visible authority and reach will skyrocket.
6. Enhanced SEO rankings: Social media presence is becoming a vital factor in calculating rankings. These days, to secure a successful ranking, SEO requirements are continuously varying. Therefore, it is no longer enough to simply optimize your website and regularly update your blog. Businesses sharing their content on social media are sending out a brand signal to search engine that speaks to your brand validity, integrity, and constancy.
There is no denying that Social media marketing has many advantages for startups and established brands. By regular updating the right social media marketing strategy, it will lead to increased traffic, better SEO, improved brand loyalty, healthier customer satisfaction and much more. Your competition is already increasing on social media day by day, so don’t let your competitors take your probable customers. The earlier you start, the faster you see the growth in your business.