10 Reasons You Should Use Social Media for Your Business

Advantages of Social Media

Every day, social media digs its roots deeper into the foundation of a successful web presence for businesses. Its grasp is so strong, that if you resist, your company may feel the consequences of depriving your brand of the marketing stamina it provides.

What Social Media Marketing Can Accomplish for Your Business:

1. Make Your Brand a Big Deal

Social media is another opportunity to promote your content and spotlight your visibility. Any opportunity to do that is valuable.

Utilizing social media networks as new channels for sharing your brand immediately stretches your accessibility to new customers and your familiarity with old customers.

Research shows that over eighty percent of all Americans participate in social media. With the majority of the country waiting to be greeted, social media serves as an excellent ground on which to introduce them to your company while controlling the initial impression they receive.

In each social media environment, you can customize your online personality, and by taking command of your company’s social media profile, you can build the reputation you want based on the specific values and intentions of your company. Seventy-eight percent of small businesses have already been able to attract new customers through social media.

2. Flaunt Your Legitimacy

Social media helps you control the image of your brand that audiences intake, and when done correctly, it can prove to potential customers that your brand is authentic and available.

When people hear about a company they don’t know, they often check out the scene on social media to get more information, so maintaining social media profiles is a powerful way to keep your business active, up-to-date, and interesting.

Your company should look alive, and as websites are naturally more static, social media is the place to release your company’s energy. Keeping social media pages and posts constantly updated will prove your company has a pulse, and visitors will see that you are accumulating fans, which will reassure them of the legitimacy of your business.

Conversely, if your profile is a wasteland with decaying posts, customers will assume the worse, and your company will not reach the maximum potential for exposure that social media has to offer. So, be sure to maintain a healthy pace on your profiles. The speed of your influence will follow suit, as everyone, including other businesses, will want to tune in to the action of a booming brand.

3. Earn All the Loyalty

Taking advantage of social media tools strengthens customer loyalty. The point of social media is to gather a community of people together in order to develop relationships and serve others with your company’s experience and expertise.

If you are regularly demonstrating sincere consideration for your followers, you’ll build the reputation of being a lovable company. Interacting with your customers out in the open helps you connect with more people at once because visitors are watching how you respond to other visitors.

Customer service on social media creates a significant opportunity to endear users to your brand with posts and conversations that are calm and considerate. Communicating with your customers in public is especially effective for convincing others that your company is ready and willing and wonderful to work with anyone.

4. Rake in the Opportunities

With the following you have amassed, your company will find more chances to move your audience through the lifecycle: from a visitor to a lead to a customer. Every positive interaction you have through your profile is an opportunity to step closer to a conversion.

Successful sales require repeat exposure: customers usually need to see a product or service several times before they are willing to buy, so always giving them content will keep them interested. Even if the results come slowly, consistent effort is the key to engaging people, so continue posting through the profitable times and the less profitable.

5. Bump Up Conversion Rates

An active social media presence can produce one of the most cost-efficient returns on investments in marketing for a company, as Hubspot reports that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. One reason for this improvement is that social media humanizes a company: businesses have the chance to act like people on social media, and people prefer to do business with other people, not with companies.

Other businesses also like to work with social businesses, and social media can now connect your company with other entrepreneurs and business owners around the world. These types of connections can lead to what Forbes.com calls “big wins” (def: an experience or occasion that can lead to something significant for your company). While they do not happen often, big wins are prime moments in your company’s history that continue to affect your success over time. Consider these as well when weighing the benefits of social media.

6. Represent Your Authority

If you regularly produce quality content that reflects how deeply you know your field and how well you are able to address the needs of your readers, your social media profile will establish your company as a leading resource in the industry.

Becoming an author of assistance will grow your audience as more and more people trust you to help them. Answer questions, share information, and genuinely serve your visitors, and people will start talking about your company.

7. Turn up the Traffic

Every social media account is another road sign pointing back to your brand. Social media sends out a fresh invitation to those with whom you have not yet connected. Posting quality content every day or so is like regularly delivering a different casserole to the doors of neighbors to entice them to come to the party at your website. If your social media page is active, fun, and attentive to newcomers, it can become a leading traffic generator for your website.

8. Drop Marketing Costs

Social media has a great ROI. Hubspot research confirms that as few as six hours of effort a week is enough to bring extra traffic to your site. Your prescription: Start with an hour of social media work per day to generate content or spend a small amount of money on ads to see results. You can increase your input when you feel more comfortable, and your conversions will increase as well.

9. Best the Search Engines

Satisfying the search engines is an ever-present goal of online business, and even though the standards for success are always changing, social media inherently helps you accomplish that goal. Leading search engines like Google and Bing both monitor social signals and take them into account when determining ratings for search results pages.

Therefore, social media accounts can have a positive impact on your rankings, as they report back to search engines that your company is real, reliable, and relevant.

10. Cater to Customers

The main purpose of social media is communication, but the main attraction of social media is relationships. When you have a resource that lets you interact with customers more sincerely, reach out to unknown faces more considerately, and meet the needs of your community more directly, you have the chance to provide an exquisite customer experience.

Social media pages let you listen really well to what your customers are saying, and analytics allow you to know who the people in your audience really are. Every time you write a message, answer a question, or respond to a comment, you have the ability to convey genuine concern for your customers. The moral: Be personal, because people want to work with other people, not with businesses, remember?

More Fuel for the Fire

In case you need a little more convincing, consider this: your competition is already involved. They could be beating you to the customers right now. The path to social media success is open to you, so gain a competitive edge by building a dynamic, interactive, and informative social media presence.