Importance of Social Media in Business

business growing at warp speed

The importance of social media in business is growing at warp speed. With more and more people joining social media sites and using them regularly/efficiently, the social media industry is bound to become bigger in the coming years. It’s booming like never before.

social media marketing

every business today needs to leverage proper social media channels in the best possible way. Not because it’s the “in thing”, and not because it sounds simple, but because their target audience is hanging around the popular social networks. And they’re engaging with their favorite brands and connecting with them on different levels.

According to an infographic published by Ambassador, 71% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand to others if they have a positive experience with it on social media

Here are some more social media statistics that prove beyond doubt the importance of social media in business. Your business needs to leverage sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to keep up with the competition.

• According to 2019 social media statistics, there are now 3.2 billion users around the globe. That is about 42% of our total present population.
• 68% of adults based in the U.S reportedly have a Facebook account.
• Active social media users are composed of 48.2% Baby Boomers, 77.5% Generation X and 90.4% Millennials.
• Interesting research shows that a user spends an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes in his social media account every day including messaging.
• 73% of online marketers agree that their efforts in implementing a social media marketing strategy for their business have been effective.
• 2 million businesses today use Facebook advertising for promoting their products and services.

Boost Brand Awareness

Social media proves to be a powerful tool when it comes to growing your brand awareness. There are businesses who dismiss it as a way to build a brand, but by doing that, they’re leaving an open ground for competitors. On the other hand, many reputable chief marketing officers agree that social media has a definite impact on brand awareness.

Increasing your brand awareness via social media isn’t rocket science. Here are a few tips on how you can do so.

1. Find Your Audience: Before you start focusing on a particular social platform, find out whether your target audience is on it. You can do this by searching for relevant conversations about your product or industry. For example, a B2B company may find its audience on LinkedIn rather than Facebook. Don’t just assume or follow other brands.
2. Use Visuals: Once you know where your target audience is, it’s time to grab their attention by using eye-catching visuals with your content. Images and videos play a big role in helping you grow your brand awareness on social media channels. Because they not only increase engagement but also boost social shares.
3. Create Conversations: Social media is all about building conversations. If you use these social platforms for one-way communication, you’ll only grab so much attention. Instead, talk and listen. Get involved. Showcase your personality by conversing, tagging, and mentioning others.
4. Measure Your Efforts: Don’t just aim in the dark. Use the tracking tools provided by the platforms (eg: Facebook Page Insights) along with other external tools such as URL shorteners, Google Analytics, etc. to measure your social media activity. Use the insights you gain to understand what’s working so that you can optimize your efforts and build a stronger brand with social media.

Increase Inbound Traffic

Inbound marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate targeted traffic to your website. It’s the kind of traffic that actually converts because it’s super relevant. However, if you leave to ignore the importance of social media in business, you will be limited to your inner circle of customers or the people that are already familiar with your market or brand.

By putting in more effort in social media promotion, you create a whole new channel to draw in laser targeted inbound traffic and get more inbound links.

For example, having an active blog makes it easy for you to connect with your audience with the help of fresh content. But by having them share this content (at the right time) on Twitter or Facebook increases your reach 10X. You’re suddenly reaching out to a bigger audience that may like plus share your content, follow your brand, and ultimately become a customer.

Improve Search Engine Optimization

Every seasoned social media marketer knows that there is some connection between social media and search engine optimization. While Google has clearly stated that it does take “social signals” into consideration when ranking a page, there’s more to it.

Here’s how understanding the importance of social media in business and working on it can help improve your SEO.

• Higher Chances to be Found via Web Search — According to Matt Cutts, the former spam head of Google, social shares have no impact on your website’s ranking. But, it’s a fact that social media properties do dominate the front of the search engine result pages for brand names. This means, social media profiles indeed have the power to rank in the top 10 results. Social media profiles are a great way to connect to your prospects and customers. They work as a doorway to your business website because they show your human side. They not only inform the searcher about your business but also help them become a part of your conversations.
• Ability to Reach More People Via Social Media Search — People are no longer dependent on Google search when they need to connect to something or someone. Today, a search is not limited to the mighty web search engines. It has moved beyond, which is why social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are the new search engines.

Increase Conversion Rates

Another importance of social media in business is the fact that it is great for capturing targeted leads for your business, but it doesn’t stop there. Getting quality leads is only one part of the equation. The other part is converting those into sales.

Can social media help you increase your conversion rates? Does it have the ‘x’ factor when it comes to giving you the ground to achieve more sales?

The answer is a resounding yes, but only, if you do it the right way. Here are some ways you can use social media for better conversion rates.

• Use It for Social Proof: According to Wikipedia, “Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation.” In simple terms, people do what others do. They like to believe what the majority likes to believe. The reason why social proof works are that it gives a sense of assurance to your prospects and lets them know about the benefits of your product, without any selling. Social media is brimming with an activity that can be used for social proof. If someone commented on your Facebook post praising your company, use it. When someone tweets you about how your product changed their life, use it.
• Use it for User-Generated Content Creating quality content for social media is crucial. But what better way to create this content than have your loyal fans do it for you. People that follow you on social media may mention you on a positive note, which you can use to feature them on your social profile. The UGC acts like social proof that indirectly helps you increase conversions. Also, this doesn’t need to happen by chance. In fact, you can engineer it by asking people to share specific content for a chance to get featured to a wide audience. Given that you have a decent audience size, most social media users would be thrilled to have such an opportunity. You need to get creative in your approach and ask people. When Belkin did the launch for their Lego iPhone cases, they tapped into the power of their social community. They asked customers to personalize their cases in their own unique way and share the pictures on Instagram.

Satisfy Your Customers

Losing a customer is hard, and gaining a new one is harder. But retaining an existing customer is 10 times easier. This is why customer satisfaction should be your topmost priority.

By using social media to connect with your customers, you have the opportunity to monitor what they want, the problems they’re facing, and how you could serve them.

In order to truly satisfy your customers and make their life easier, you need to offer customer service that is more personalized and effective. And social media helps you do just that.

Customers these days know that social media is a lot more approachable and friendly than a call center executive, thousands of miles away, who has a hard time resolving your problem. In other words, customers want superior service without the hassle.

Increasing customer satisfaction with social media includes:

• Monitoring conversations to see if your customers are talking about your brand and in what context.
• Broadcasting important messages, announcements, and offers to customers via a social media platform such as Twitter.
• Offering prompt customer service to customers who are facing genuine problems or need some help with the product or service.

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