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The Benefits of Social Media to Businesses

Establishing the benefits of social media within your business is likely the first concern before thinking to undertakethe implementation and execution of a sound marketing campaign.

An important point to remember, which many businesses fail to realise, is that advancing with wider social mediabenefits will increase the potential to enhance your priority objective.

Here is a list containing some of the main benefits of social media to businesses…

Branding

Whether users directly engage with your brand or not, they will still see your brand name within the networks they use.The more impressions a consumer gets of your business, the more likely they will remember your name in the future.

Social media provides greater favourable perceptions of a brand and a better understanding of the customer’sperceptions of the brand. Regardless of the type of business you operate, consistent brand awareness and exposure isvital for your continued success.

Lead Generation

Social media can help act as a means of finding customers for your business, advocates for your cause or as a meansto make many other beneficial connections. Conversations are happening constantly within each social network andmonitoring these conversations and reaping the benefits is key to a sound social media strategy.

These leads can be anything from an idea for an article to an online sale. For example, just by searching throughTwitter, you get a feel for the buzz in your industry, who’s saying what and possibly interact with interested futurecustomers.

Lead magnets are often used to drive targeted traffic into the sales funnel. Social media acts as a catalyst to generatetraffic, but also retains momentum by nurturing visitors and moving them towards leads.

Image source: Marketo

Marketing and Promotion

Social media has a huge scope and enables companies to reach massive, targeted audiences and develop targetedmarketing activities to these audiences.

Social marketing allows companies to pitch products in a more human, interactive way. It increases customer loyaltyand trust and has efficient marketing costs – not having mounds of cost associated with paper, ink, and printing.

Reputation Management

Managing your online reputation is essential within social media because your brand or industry is being talked aboutregardless of whether you take part in the conversation. It’s beneficial to know what your customers think about yourproducts, cause, services etc, and with this input in mind you can react accordingly.

Since social media is open to everyone. Anyone has the ability to say what they want about your company. Therefore,making sure what is being said is truthful, not necessarily positive, is key to developing the trust of your audience andinfluencing them in a positive manner.

Feedback from Social Media can influence your decision-making about how you deal with your clients or market yourbusiness. It allows the ability to monitor conversations in real-time about the organisation, providing feedback whichcan be assessed and reacted to immediately.

Identifying both positive and negative comments is useful – it can prove to be an early warning indicator of potentialproduct or service issues.

Managing reputation also creates goodwill and a good customer referral is the most powerful form of marketing thereis.

Growth

The Harvard Business Review Analytics Services conducted a survey of 2,100 organisations and discovered that 79%are currently using social media channels. Social media enables targeted audience building, which in turn increases

traffic to other channels and websites.

Effective management allows greater control of your web or business content, boosts organic Google listings andbetter search engine rankings. Social media pages are highly visible in search engines.

Social media enables collaborative knowledge sharing, allowing a company to showcase their talents and establishthemselves as an expert within their industry. It provides more channels of communication, which allows the businessto target, collaborate and communicate with thought leaders.

Continual developments in social networking have largely increased the effectiveness of social media marketing. Thiscreates stronger links to relevant audiences and increases a brands visibility and exposure. Constant activity withinsocial media can easily be achieved through the use of social media tools and applications.

An immediate benefit to using social media within business is the real-time ability to remain up to date on the latestnews and connect with these people to bounce ideas off them.

Image source: Socialikemedia

Customer Service and Feedback

Providing support to your customers is vital to the success of any business and social media is no exception to the rule.

When a person reaches out to you, whether their input is good or bad, it is extremely important to respond in a timelyand helpful manner. Social media provides the platform for consumers to interact on a person to person level, so thatthey aren’t talking to a faceless representative over the phone or via email.

Effective customer service in social media should seek to respond whenever a user reaches out, just not to usersacting profane, misleading or hateful. Providing this level of service, which can be something as simple as thankingsomeone for mentioning your brand, is completely transparent to your entire network and shows how dedicated youare to your audience.

Educational Asset

In any industry, it is important to remain innovative in your field and find the best ways to continue the conversationsabout what you do. Stay ahead of the curve on a modern form of media can bring many advantages to your business.

Data: Social media provides your brand with a free source of constant information from other brands, media outlets,friends, co-workers and even your competition.

Research: Social media is a very cost-effective and efficient way to conduct market or customer research, improveinsights about target markets, and identifying new product or service opportunities.

Competitive Analysis: In any industry it’s important to keep pace with your competitors. Social media merely makesthis process easier by allowing for complete transparency of the content and conversations your competitors arehaving on their various social accounts.

Tracking: Social media can help keep you on track with other non-profits, businesses, publications or whoever yourinterested in keeping tabs on or on the other side of the fence looking to partner with in the future for a promotion,campaign or some other type of partnership.

Measurement: Social media provides the ability to measure the frequency of the discussion about a particularcompany or brand, creating opportunities for establishing competitive advantages and avoiding competitors becomingmore competitive.

There Are Clear Benefits of Social Media To Businesses

Which of these benefits matters most to your business?

Which of these are your social media campaigns directed at fulfilling?

I take it your answer is the same for both questions? If not, time to revise your social media strategies.

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