why social media communications?
16 Reasons Why Your Business NEEDS Social Media Marketing
Did you know that social media marketing has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing? Or that 84% of B2B marketers use social media in some form? No matter what you sell and who you sell it to, using social media as a marketing tool can help you grow your brand and pad your wallet.
At this point in the game, not having an active social media presence is kind of like pulling out a flip phone at a business meeting and then not understanding why your boss keeps giving Brad all the new accounts.
But some people still own flip phones, and some people dig in their heels and say, what is social media marketing going to do for me? Do I really need it? Yes. Yes you do — and here are some of the most compelling reasons why:
The Importance of Social Media for Web Traffic
1. Social media posts can be used to drive targeted traffic. Creating a new page on your site is like taking a really great selfie. You want the world to see it and bask in its brilliance, but you don’t want to beg for attention (or worse, pay for it). That’s why for selfies and landing pages, well-placed social media posts can make all the difference. We’ve seen a single link on Reddit drive over 20,000 visitors in one weekend and links submitted to StumbleUpon can take a page that was consistently earning a handful of visitors a day and increase that number to hundreds. Who wouldn’t want to capitalize on that?
2. Using social media for business boosts your site’s SEO. Search engine crawlers know which pages are consistently earning traffic and which are just floating out there, forgotten and ignored. A killer content strategy for SEO is the most important part of earning top spots in search engine rankings, but driving traffic to your optimized pages will cause them to climb much faster in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Quick case study: Astroglide is one of TCF’s clients, and in less than a year we got the website to rank in the top 100 SERPs for 15,000 new keywords – as a result, traffic to the website has increased dramatically. A solid and consistent presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social channels was a BIG part of that success.
Social Media is THE BEST Tool to Connect with (and Learn from!) Consumers & Industry Leaders
3. If you’re doing it right, social media will lead to real relationship building. Part of what makes things like Twitter and Instagram marketing so cool is the interaction you get to have with your customer base — you can read their tweets and status updates to get insights into their daily lives (and maybe adjust your marketing strategy as a result). What products are they buying and why? What are they doing on the weekend? What kind of posts do they love to share, and from what websites?
You can also use social media as a tool for connecting with complementary, non-competing businesses, thought leaders and tastemakers in your space, as well as journalists who cover your industry. Sometimes, becoming besties starts with a simple retweet.
Of course it doesn’t hurt to go the extra mile. When we saw that our client Astroglide was mentioned on The Celebrity Name Game by Rick Fox, we quickly jumped on the opportunity to create a gif and mention both accounts on Twitter. This resulted in interaction not just from Rick Fox, but from the Celebrity Name Game account as well!
4. Users are receptive to your messages. People view Twitter and Facebook as social networks, not marketing machines. As a result, they’re less likely to see what you post as an advertisement and will be more likely to hear what you have to say. This translates to serious web traffic when you link to your site and posts that market themselves as your friends and followers share what you’ve posted.
5. Social media ads allow targeting and retargeting. One of the reasons social media is important is because of the highly customizable nature of social media ads. Facebook ads, for example, allow you to target users by things like location, education level, industry and even purchase history and the pages they’ve liked. You also have to the option to install a Facebook pixel on your site and use it to retarget the users who visit you — these people are far more likely to convert into solid leads and sales!
6. Social media can help you get noticed at events, and even generate earned media coverage. Whether your business is sponsoring a charity fundraiser or attending a major trade show, there’s no better way to leverage your presence than with the help of social media. In fact, we once sent a tweet during CES that lead to a client getting a feature article written about them in Wired magazine (check out our guide to marketing your business at trade shows and events to learn how you can achieve similar results).
The Importance of Social Media Marketing for Brand Image
7. You can respond to problems immediately. If there’s a problem with your product or service, you want to know about it right away. With the feedback you get in the process of social media marketing, you’ll be the first to know when there are issues – and you can take steps to resolve them right away. Study after study has shown that consumers appreciate companies that respond to customer complaints (and don’t hesitate to rant online to anyone who will listen when companies don’t take the time to make things right).
8. A strong social media presence builds brand loyalty. A report published by Texas Tech University found that brands with active social media profiles have more loyal customers. It’s easy to imagine why: when you’re engaging and interacting on social media (not just tossing your posts out onto the web hoping someone will stumble upon them) you become less like a corporation and more like what you truly are — a unified group of people who share a vision.
The Right Social Media Marketing Strategy Can Help You Slay the Competition
9. Your competition is getting social, so you should too. Did you know that 91% of brands are using more than one social media platform? This isn’t something you want to fall behind the competition on, because it’s much harder (and more expensive) to play catch up than it is to get in on the game early. If your competitors get to your potential customers first, they’ll earn their loyalty and you’ll have a hard time winning them over. If you’re active and engaging on a variety of networks, you can gain those friends and followers first and your competition will be playing catch up instead of the other way around.
10. The social media marketing arena is a (fairly) level playing field. Some brands may have bigger ad budgets than others, but all companies start off on pretty equal footing when it comes to social media marketing. The people and brands who thrive and go viral in are those with the most clever, attention grabbing tactics (and the most ridiculous gifs) and the most useful, link worthy content. In short, they’re providing value to their target audience while also showing personality and being entertaining. If you want to get lots of traffic and really increase your sales online, you’re going to have to outwit, outnetwork and outwrite your competition while offering superior products and customer service. Isn’t that what business is all about, anyway?
11. When it comes to newsjacking, social media is king. Sometimes your brand is mentioned on a cable TV show. Sometimes it’s not, but you know just how to slide your product into the story to aim the spotlight in your direction. Facebook, Twitter and even Reddit marketing give you a front row seat to the news that’s becoming viral right as it’s happening. Jump in at just the right time and you’ll earn some major media attention — and that’s something you just can’t do with a traditional ad campaign.
The Importance of Social Media Marketing for Sales and ROI
12. Social media marketing will get you more sales. Did you know that 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired customers through Facebook? Or that 84% of CEOs and VPs say they use social media to help make purchasing decisions?
Not surprisingly, when you stay in front of your customer base, they’re more likely to buy from you when they need the products you sell. Social media marketing doesn’t just keep your company’s name in front of potential buyers, but it also gives you the opportunity to constantly give them incentives to buy. Try sharing coupon codes, with a unique code for each social channel – you may be surprised at which social network drives the most sales.
13. You’ll find customers you didn’t know existed. If you set up streams to follow keywords in Twitter (Hootsuite makes this simple), you can find people who are looking for the products you sell and direct them to your site. Using Twitter for marketing is great that way – telling people who want your products how to get them from your company is just an @ away.
14. Customers you didn’t know existed will find (and buy from) you. In the process of marketing with Facebook, you’ll probably join a ton of groups related to your products, industry and customer base. By posting links in these groups, you’ll help influence customers to check out your site. Answering questions on Quora is another option. Post a link today, and two weeks/months/years later you might see a sale from it.
You Can't Beat the Price (or ROI) of Social Media
15. You heard that right — it’s free. How can you argue with that? If you handle your own social media management, running a social networking campaign is as cheap as it gets. If you hire a social media management or online PR agency (like us), it will cost around $3,000-$7,000 per month, but it’ll be an investment that you’ll be likely to see a return on. If you’re intimidated by interacting with people online or your writing skills leave something to be desired, hiring an online PR agency is definitely the way to go. Posting poorly written content or conveying the wrong kind of messages on social networking sites can seriously affect your digital PR presence.
16. The ROI on social media ads is unbeatable. The average cost per click on Google Adwords is between $1 and $2 and depending on the keyword targeted, you can end up paying $50 or more for a single click. Through targeted boosted post, we’ve been able to send traffic via Facebook and Pinterest for as little as $0.12 per click. Why pay ten or twenty times as much for each visit when social media ads make earning that traffic quick and easy?
Simply put, social media marketing is part of doing business in the new millennium. If your business isn’t already active on social networking sites, now is the time to start.
Why is Social Media Important?
Why is social media important to businesses? Because your brand doesn’t really exist online if you’re not represented across all social channels – and regularly interacting with your followers, journalists who cover your industry, thought leaders and tastemakers, etc.
Here’s one very important reason you may not have considered — it’s fun! Hosting a Twitter chat to celebrate a new product launch, getting your geek on while you A/B test Facebook ads, or sharing pop-culture polls for your followers to weigh in on — these are all activities that build brand awareness, boost web traffic and lead to loyal customers. But unlike many traditional marketing tactics with the same goals, these tasks are actually fun in addition to driving real value for your company.
Are you ready to rocket ahead of your competitors and take the social media world by storm? Want to see your search engine rankings climb and your traffic soar? Pull out that flip phone and give us call. We’ll get you on the path to success.
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The whole marketing landscape has changed with the introduction of Social Media. New avenues were opened for marketers that before did not exist or were too complicated. Now we have an easy to use and powerful tool at our finger tips that can share a piece of content all over the world in seconds.
Many people use Social Media for personal reasons but now if you are not using it for business reasons you’re already behind. You will be surprised how using Social Media can reach into other parts of your marketing strategy.
Driving Traffic:
Every website owner wants to increase their traffic; Social networks top the list of site referrals. Not to mention that they triumph in time spent on site, as well.
Search Engines used to be the sole focus for driving traffic and marketers allocated all their resources there. SEO still exists but it has now become more social.
SEO:
With every coming update to a search engine, more social results are being integrated. Whether it is being using Facebook or Google using Google +, algorithms are not taking social results into account.
Even Social networks themselves are becoming search engines. For example Facebook’s graph search or Twitter being a real-time search engine.
Your efforts though social will become more significant in your SEO strategies. You can no longer do one and not the other without compromising your results.
Engagement:
Communication is important for any business but positive engagement with the customer base can really lead to improved reputation. Social allows brands and user to interact freely and quickly.
The brand takes on a personal role and becomes a member of a conversation. Resulting exposure can develop a quality brand image.
Branding:
With every profile being unique, businesses can give brands a personality on social networks. How they interact, the look and feel of the profile, all encompass the general characteristics of the brand. For many businesses your social profile may be more important than your website.
Mobile:
At the forefront of social is mobile, because most of the social activity that is being done is being done through a mobile device. Remember that most internet activity is being done through mobile devices; plan accordingly when developing your social strategy.
Everything on a mobile device can be shared with any social network, take that into perspective. Your website most likely will be viewed through a mobile device, be sure it is compatible and offers the viewer a positive experience.
Recently, Facebook reported that its quarterly profit jumped 90% from the same time last year. This is somewhat due to spiralling advertising revenue, but it also highlighted an increase in its monthly active users, now totalling 1.35 billon people worldwide.
Coincidentally, the 1st October this year marked the third anniversary of the film, “The Social Network”, signifying a milestone in the growth and societal impact of not just Facebook, as social media was considered prevalent enough that millions of dollars were invested in producing a film about it. As much as the film highlighted the importance of social media for the general public as a platform where they could voice their opinions and converse with friends across the globe, we are left with the question of how we can transfer this to the commercial and business context. Can social media be as important to businesses?
People gravitate to social media sites for information and interaction, whether it be for entertainment or insight. Social media sites offer businesses the opportunity to utilise its volume economy, presenting them with a rapidly increasing vast user base of potential customers and communications targets for free. The success of the two dominant social media giants, Facebook and Twitter should be encouragement enough. Facebook alone has risen from 100 million active users in 2008, to its current 1.35 billion, whilst Twitter is on 271 million active users. Whether it is LinkedIn, Twitter, Ello, or dominant Facebook, each social media platform presents an opportunity for businesses to form unique relationships with and reach out to a wider consumer base, share key content about the business and provide marketing and networking potential.
Social media allows a business to promote and market its own brand, with 46% of customers using social media as a primary source in their purchase decisions. Social media is a key element in assisting consumers in their decision making process. Branded social media pages increase recognition and awareness online and companies can advertise their business to potential and also current customers and clients daily, through posting relevant content. Such content can consist of news and information about your company’s services but can also contain useful links increasing exposure to your site. As of early 2014, statistics state that 71% of all internet users are now active on social media sites. More and more companies are developing content marketing strategies, sharing blogs, infographics, and whitepapers at every opportunity. But if companies aren’t afraid to also share content from other brands that may be of interest to their target audience, they are putting their customers’ interest first, and may gain a fresh perspective themselves.
Customers and clients can also interact directly with businesses via social media. Appearing responsive and attentive to consumers provides an invaluable opportunity for businesses to build customer loyalty and strengthen brand image. An important feature of such interpersonal interaction with consumers is the humanization of the brand in an increasingly digital world, whereby consumers can relate to and attach a personality, maybe even names and faces to the business which aides them in building up a rapport with consumers, allowing them to connect emotionally with the company. Social media sites provide a breeding ground for people who are influential and trusted enough to give their opinions and endorsements for businesses and their products. For example, Microsoft’s LinkedIn page features behind the scenes information, Q&A posts, and blogs, providing invaluable information for small and large businesses alike. Social media can facilitate endorsement from within these groups, acting like a sort of trusted inner circle of friends.
There are many ways to track the reputation of your business and how you are performing on social media sites. A few examples include;
· CTRs (click through rate) - measuring the number of users that click on your specific link/site.
· The number of comments, ‘likes’, ‘shares’, ‘retweets’, ‘favourites’ or mentions you receive on content on your social media page.
· Statistical programs such as Google Analytics to tell you how many people are visiting your site, how they are using your site and where they were directed to your site from features that allow you to see exactly who is viewing your page such as that featured on LinkedIn.
· Opinion polls to gauge reaction to content and also clarity on how many people are engaged enough with your content to participate in the poll.
It is clear to see from statistics, that using social media sites to promote a business proves successful in expanding the overall growth and helps to solidify the businesses concept and meaning. In conclusion, social media presents a large opportunity across multiple channels to build on and promote service, content, advocacy building and insight.
By Katie Alyward and Chloe Hutchinson-Brown, Northstar Research Partners.
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Reference:
https://www.contentfac.com/9-reasons-social-media-marketing-should-top-your-to-do-list/
https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/5-reasons-why-social-media-marketing-important-172938196.html
http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/the-importance-of-social-media-within-a-business/1274
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