Six Reasons Why Social Media is Important for Business

Why is social media important for business? Whether your company is small, medium, or large, social media provides several benefits that you can’t find with other forms of publicity and advertising. Here are six key benefits of social media for business.

1. Increase Your Brand’s Awareness Among Target Audiences

To understand why social media is an essential part of the marketing mix, all you have to do is see how many people are using it. Virtually everyone uses some form of social media. Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults finds that roughly seven in ten Facebook users ­– and around six-in-ten Snapchat and Instagram users – visit each social media site daily.

Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram Users Visit Sites Daily

Social media has become one of the most cost-effective ways to regularly get your company’s name and its products or services out in front of your audience. Investing only a handful of hours per week in creating posts that link to your business website will significantly increase your exposure and generate a bigger audience for your company

Social Media Increases Your Exposure and Generates a Bigger Audience

2. Improved Search Engine Rankings

The name of the game is making sure your company appears on the first page of Google search results for keywords that are important to your operations. Keywords aren’t everything. Google also attributes a large portion of the engines’ algorithms to link-related factors. 

Using social media doesn’t directly improve your search engine rankings. However, your audience will likely click on links when your company receives regular exposure through tweets and click-worthy postings on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Search engines that crawl the internet will notice and think your brand is credible.

If a lot of people share your content on social media, then it is likely that people will link to it and that sharing improves your exposure and your page authority.

How Social Media Supports SEO

3. Increase in Inbound Traffic

Every time you post, you automatically increase traffic to your website. Using social media as part of your marketing strategy helps you reach out to new customers who otherwise would not know about you. By publishing links to your content on multiple social media sites, you’ll reach a wider audience of varied ages and interests. Increasing your audience is one of the most significant benefits of social media for business, as reaching more customers will help you grow your company.

Brands Use Social Media to Increase Inbound Traffic

4. Higher Conversion Rates and Customer Satisfaction

Studies show that brands that post frequent, interactive content have higher conversion rates. Interaction personifies your brand, making it more personal or human to potential customers. Even before your visitors become customers, you form a relationship with them and establish your company as an authoritative entity that can be counted upon to deliver satisfactory goods and services. Studies show that social media marketing has a higher success rate than traditional inbound methods. An effective social media strategy should include different ways to interact with your customers and prospects. Interactive content includes any content a user can click on, click-through, answer, or engage with.

Example of Interactive Social Media Content

5. Improved Brand Loyalty and Authority

Every business wants a loyal customer base. Especially when it comes to millennials, engaging customers on a regular basis is crucial to brand loyalty as these customers see social media postings as a way to communicate directly with you. Regularly interacting with your customers and giving them information that they need reinforces your authority in your field, leading to a sense of security.

Social Media Increases Brand Loyalty and Sales

6. Gain Marketplace Insights

By talking directly to your audience on a regular basis, you’ll get a better idea of what your customers need. Through social media analytics, you’ll be better able to serve them by gathering insight that you may not otherwise attain through traditional methods.

Example How IBM Uses Social Media to Gather Insights

Get Help with Your Social Media

Social media is unlike any other communications medium your company has ever used. It has tremendous power to grab the hearts and minds of your customers. But to make it work, you need an experienced guide. Customer Insight Group’s Social Media Exploration program gets your company up to speed and competitive in social media in the shortest possible time. Your company will go from social media newbies to pros in just a few short weeks.

• Learn how your customers are already using social media, including their interactions with your competitors.
• Discover the best social media tools for your brand.
• See how to integrate it with your existing communications channels.
• Develop a plan to build and nurture a community of customers.
• Create fresh, relevant content.
• Set up a dashboard to track and measure results.

Contact us today and learn how you can use social media to build your brand, customer base, and profits. Call +1 303-422-9758 today.

Filed under: Social Media Marketing