7 valid reasons why you should not ignore social media marketing

Social media is everywhere. Ingrained in our society, it permeates everything that we do today.

Introduced to us, as a means to enhance and grow social connections, social media is now a way of life. 

By Meena Azzollini
honeyweb.com.au

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We meet new people on social media and we connect with old ones on social media.

In that network of people lie the foundations of Social Media Marketing.

After all marketing is about connecting your business with people - your audience.

Social media marketing has exploded over the past few years and the reason behind it is the numbers – with over 4 billion internet users, there are over 2.8 billion users active on social media, making social media one of the most favorable platforms to reach and connect with new customers every day.

Screenshot taken 26th June 2017.  Source: Smart Insights

Still not sure if you need social media marketing? Or you have tried reaching out on all the platforms but think that you are wasting time?

Then think again.

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HERE ARE 7 VALID REASONS WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS IMPORTANT FOR ANY BUSINESS:

1. Opens your doors to new customers

Whether you are a brick and mortar business or an online one, chances are most of your customers - existing and new ones are online.

This means that you can reach out to a larger chunk of the population to market your products and services. And with you in control of your social media, you can target a particular section of the market based on your goals and objectives. Perhaps you want to target your posts and online ads towards people with a particular interest or if you are a locally operating business you might want to target your marketing efforts within your city limits. All this is possible with social media, and by implementing the right strategies you can maximize returns.

2. Build relationships and encourage engagement

Social media brings you in direct contact with your audience whether they are your existing customers or not. By having a strong social media presence you can encourage greater engagement with them by engaging them with valuable content, by directly responding to their messages and comments and by providing them the answers they seek.

Social media is not a place to blast your advertising messages, but a space for real two-way conversations and building rich relationships.

According to Sensis Social Media Report 2016 “Brands are more likely to build trust if they interact positively with customers on social media, make their content engaging and relevant, and keep it regularly updated.” The same report cites 52% of the people stopped following a brand in 2016 as the content was irrelevant or unappealing.

Great content is what drives social media marketing success. According to Forrester Research, businesses that create valuable content and stories will create better relationships with their audience.

This leads to increased returns in your business and all this is through providing valuable good content to your audience.

This kind of engagement cannot be found anywhere else in any other form of marketing.

3. Build brand awareness and brand loyalty

While you are building relationships on social media you also have the potential to build brand loyalty. Engaged conversations that truly reach out to your audience generates  loyalty towards your brand and when the word spreads on social media about your business, new markets become aware of your products and services.

One of the other perks of social media is that your audience gets a chance to really know who you are - what your business is about and get a more profound understanding of your ethos and ethics.

Your audience can now connect with you on different levels after knowing more about you – things that you like, charities you support, sporting games you follow and even they kinds of food you enjoy.

All these aspects create an opportunity for engagement and it encourages them to share user-generated content on your social media. This extends your brand loyalty and your business’s reach in the community.

4. Enriched customer experiences

The power of social media lies in its ability to facilitate two-way conversations easily – giving customers opportunities to give feedback or seek a particular business to solve problems – or even to complain.

With 87% percent of Australians who use the internet daily, there is a good chance that a huge portion of that population will seek you out on social media for customer service.

You have the opportunity to provide good customer service experience by being there to respond quickly and help them out immediately, thus improving your relationships and increasing brand loyalty.

Screenshot taken 25/06/2017 Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2017

 

Brand loyalty and trust starts with a positive relationships between brands and consumers and this sentiment is shared by 2017 Sensis Social Media Report which states “Almost two thirds of consumers (64%) in Australia will be more likely to trust a brand if interacts with consumers in a positive way on social media.”

When customers are enriched by their experience with a brand they are more likely to recommend the business to others.

According to Ambassador, 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.

5. Better customer insights

At the heart of any marketing plan or business activity is your knowledge about your customers – what they like, what they don’t like, how they consume media, what are their pain points, information about their demographics, what do they feel about your product or service etc.

These are valuable answers and with that kind of data you can plan your strategies for maximum return on investment.

On average there are 500 million tweets sent every day, while 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded on Facebook every 60 seconds.

In these whopping numbers lie important information about your customers, ideal clients and future markets and by engagement and active social listening you can gain valuable insight into your audience which will help you make strategic decisions about your business.

Better customer information also gives you better insight into how your campaigns are working as you can measure traffic, conversions, engagement and leads and tailor your promotions to suit your target market.

With streamlined and efficient social media marketing you are in the position to generate higher converting leads and drive more traffic to your website.

6. Increased website traffic and better ranking on search

One of the biggest advantages of having a strong social media presence is the ability to drive traffic to your website, landing page or even your brick and mortar store.

And again this is possible with good valuable content and establishing a meaningful bond with your audience. The more they like you, the more they want to know you and buy from you – it’s as simple as that!

About 92% of marketers say that social media is important to their businesses and 88% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses according to the 2017 Social Media Examiner.

And exposure on social media translates into more traffic!

Screenshot taken 26th June 2017.  Source: Smart Insights

 

With social media you have an avenue to share your blog posts - which is a great way to create authoritative and original content – information about about your business and other curated content quicker with thousands of followers, offering them invaluable information which resonates with them.

When you share interesting and engaging content, more people on social media are likely to share with others. And this sky rockets your search rankings, increases the reach of your content and your business and creates more inbound traffic – more people want to read your blog posts, more people want to link with you, more people want to know about your business and more people turn into paying customers.

It’s a win-win scenario.

7. Its organic marketing – no monetary investment

Social media marketing lowers your business marketing costs as having a social media presence, sharing content and engaging with customers have no real costs.

Although, when you run business, you should invest in creating good and effective content and in managing your social media along with social media marketing.

If you use your social media to leverage your business, you need someone who knows the nuances of social networks and how to draw the best from them for your business benefits.

Even if you choose to utilize paid Facebook and Twitter ads for your marketing purposes, the costs of such ads are not very high and a business can start with a small budget for maximum returns.

In fact with as little as 6 hours a week spent on social media marketing, marketers saw lead generation benefits in 2017.

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Social media usage is increasing by the day. More people research brands, products and services on social media besides seeking information and sharing content. Building a social media presence takes time but when done properly, it can generate increased business.

But if you wait or don’t take any action now, you’ll lose out.

If you’re one of those businesses that has been waiting on the sidelines, get in touch with Honeyweb today to start your social media marketing strategy today.