To some of us, Social Media Marketing is the “next big thing”, a powerful fad that we must take advantage of while it’s still in the spotlight. To others, it’s an empty buzzword with no practical advantages and a steep, complicated learning curve. Because it appeared so quickly, social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing interest, and therefore, an unprofitable one. The statistics however, illustrate a different picture! More than 90 % of marketers claimed that their social media marketing efforts increased traffic to their websites and assisted with conversion in the last year. This demonstrates a HUGE potential for social media marketing to increase business. We’re going to look at some of the ways social media marketing tools can be applied to help improve your business:
- Increased brand recognition: We’ve come across this one before in our first article! It just shows you the importance of syndicating your content and how valuable increasing your visibility is. Your social media platforms and content represents your voice and therefore makes you more accessible to new guests and makes you more familiar and recognizable to existing or returning guests.
- Improved brand loyalty: According to research done by reputable universities, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their guests. A strategic social media plan could prove very influential in morphing consumers into being more brand loyal.
- More opportunities to convert: Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for potential clients 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 post, image or video you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually a conversion.
- Higher conversion rates: Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways. One of the most significant is its humanization element. Brands become more humanized by interacting in social media channels. This is a place where brands can act like people do. Studies have also shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing.
- Higher Brand Authority: Interacting with your guests regularly is a show of good faith for other potential guests. When people go to compliment or brag about a product of service, they turn to social media. And when they post your brand name, new audience members will want to follow you for updates.
- Increased Inbound Traffic: Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people already familiar with your brand and individuals searching for keywords you currently rank for. Every social media profile you add is another path leading back to your site and every piece of content you syndicate on those profiles is another opportunity for a new visitor.
Decreased Marketing Costs: If you could lend just one hour a day to developing your content and syndication strategy, you could start seeing the results of your efforts. Even paid advertising through Facebook and Twitter is relatively cheap (and comes highly recommended).- Better Search Engine Rankings: SEO is the best way to capture relevant traffic from search engines, but the requirements for success are always changing. Bind active on social media could act as a “brand signal” to search engines that your brand is legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. That means, if you want to rank for a given set of keywords, having a strong social media presence could be almost mandatory!
- Richer Customer Experiences: Social media, at its core, is a communication channel like email of phone calls. Every customer interaction you have on social media is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your customer service level and enrich your relationship with your potential guests. It’s a personal experience that let guests know you care about them.
- Improved Customer insights: Social media also gives you an opportunity to gain valuable information about what your guests are interested in and how they behave, via social listening. For example, you can monitor user comments to see what people think of your business directly. You can segment your content syndication lists based on topic and see which types of content generate the most interest—and then produce more of that type of content. You can measure conversions based on different promotions posted on various social media channels and eventually find a perfect combination to generate revenue.
These are the benefits of sustaining a long-term social media campaign, but if you’re still apprehensive about getting started, consider these points:
Your Competition Is Already Involved.
Your competitors are already involved on social media, which means your potential social media traffic and conversions are being poached. Don’t let your competitors reap all the benefits while you stand idly by. If, somehow, your competition is not involved on social media, there’s even more of a reason to get started—the field is open.
The Sooner You Start, the Sooner You Reap the Benefits.
Social media is all about relationship building, and it tends to grow exponentially as your followers tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends, and so on. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be able to start growing that audience.
Potential Losses Are Insignificant.
Realistically, you don’t have anything to lose by getting involved in social media. The amount of time and money it takes to create your profiles and start posting is usually minimal, compared to other marketing channels. Just six hours a week or a few hundred dollars is all it takes to establish your presence.
The longer you wait, the more you have to lose. Social media marketing, when done right, can lead to more customers, more traffic, and more conversions, and it’s here to stay.