8 Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Small Business

The past few years witnessed the tremendous rise of social media, pervading the online consciousness of Internet users from all over the globe. It did not end there however as the influence of social media reached beyond commercial and business circles.

Hubspot reported that as much as 92% of marketers from surveys performed in 2014 highlighted the importance of social media marketing for their business.

The State of Inbound 2014-2015 Report, also from Hubspot, placed social media as one of the most important lead sources for the more than 3,500 online professionals surveyed in this report. It’s no wonder then why as much as 97% of marketers now participate or at least have a significant presence in social media as confirmed by Social Media Examiner.

The problem however lies not in having a social media presence but as to how these businesses place social media to good use. From a small business perspective, social media marketing is more than just merely gaining likes, fans, repins and retweets, but rather getting the following top benefits, and more, that will make a great impact on the business.

1. Social Media Marketing Increases Website Traffic and Search Ranking

The Hubspot report mentioned earlier claims that business do treat social media marketing as an important business tool. What’s more notable however is that 80% of these marketers claimed that social media is indeed effective in helping generate more website traffic. This may come not as a surprise, considering that more than 73% of adult online users make use of social media networks.  

(Source: Business Insider)

The chart above from Business Insider Intelligence gives online users and idea as to how big the largest social networks in the world are. Facebook generates the most number of users, and according to Pew Research Center, 64% of these users visit the site on a daily basis. That’s a big website traffic potential from a pool of potential customers.

2. Social Media Marketing Generates Leads at Minimum Costs

Wat’s even better with social media marketing is that you can generate valuable leads at just a fraction of the cost of what it would take you when using traditional techniques – saving you as much as 80% of your lead generation costs.

Social networks also offer cost-effective paid advertising options like Facebook Ads and Twitter Ads, which will only cost you as little as a third of traditional lead generation costs. Generating leads is an important business process, and doing it at minimum costs is a great big plus that you can get from social media.     

3. Social Media Marketing Boosts Content Marketing

Changes in search engine algorithms have placed greater importance on content, particularly in the creation and distribution of high-quality content that generates leads and converts them into sales. In fact, content marketing was touted as the most commercially important digital marketing trend for 2015 according to the recent digital marketing trends poll from Smart Insight.

AOL and Nielsen conducted a joint study where it was established that online users spend as much as 50% or even more of the time they spent online engaged in various forms of content. 30% of their remaining online time is then spent on social networks – a great channel where they can share the content they’ve consumed previously – making social media marketing a valuable and effective tool for promoting highly targeted content that generates results.

4. Social Media Marketing Increases Brand Awareness

With its huge user base, social media presents a great channel for increasing brand awareness and new customer generation, as what 78% of small businesses that use social media marketing have experienced.

While TV advertising remains the top channel where 29% of US Millenials receive information about new brands, products and services, social medial follows a close second at 26%. Another report, this time from eMarketer, backs this up highlighting that up to 33% of consumers learn about new products, brands and services through social networks. It will only be a matter of time before social media eventually catches up.

Brand awareness is very important as it can influence the buying behavior of consumers as well as reinforce the loyalty of customers to certain brands, just like what 75% of online users in America have experienced after getting information about a brand through social media. The more consumers are aware of a particular brand, the more they are most likely to become costumers – and eventually become brand ambassadors.

5. Social Media Marketing Legitimizes Your Brand

Aside from brand awareness, what many small business strive for is for consumers to recognize their products or services as a legitimate brand. How brands interact with their existing and targeted costumers through social media spell a great deal about the brand, which is far better than the static pages of traditional websites and industry listings.

Consumers do search for more information about a brand online and according to Ballihoo, 63% of such consumers will engage with a particular brand if they find more information about them through social media. Social media engagement tells people that your brand is active and legitimate – and consumers will most likely do business with brands that are alive.  

6. Social Media Marketing Increases Sales

Engagement generates a following and brands that have developed such fan base can generate sales from as much as 71% of these followers. That’s how effective social media marketing is for generating sales. People like, share and recommend content through social media, and in many cases these content are embedded with sales and marketing elements – and people believe them.

This is evident in studies conducted by Adroit Digital where it highlighted that the buying behavior of up to 75% of American consumers is influenced by what they consume through social media. On top of that, up to 48% of online consumers would trust a social media ad better than the trust they give banner and other online advertising. With social media packing a big wallop like this, it would be of no wonder if a small business generates more sales from their social media marketing methods.

7. Social Media Marketing Gives You Great Audience Insight

Knowing your audience and gaining a big insight of what makes them tick is an important factor that will spell success for your business. This is an advantage that you can get with social media marketing as most social networks provide analytics information that will give you great insights that will allow you to learn about your targeted costumers more.

You can get good demographics information like age, gender, language and other indices. For example, Pew Research Center highlighted that up to 96% of of internet users aged 18 to 29 years old from the African American online community use social media. Brands targeting such demographic can streamline their campaigns, offer better content to their costumers, generate sales and offer better Return of Investment.  

8. Social Media Marketing Improves Brand Loyalty

One of the major strengths of social media marketing is engagement. It is the “social” in social media, where brands can have a great opportunity to interact and engage with targeted audiences. It is from the strong connection developed through engagement where loyal customers and brand ambassadors are born. This is what Texas Tech University highlighted in their report. This is confirmed by another study, this time conducted by Convince & Convert, which highlighted that up to 53% of brand followers will most likely be loyal to the brand.

There are many more benefits that businesses can get from their use of social media. What all these benefits simply tell is that social media works, and will be a big factor for small businesses if they want to gain a significant success from all their endeavors.

Published originally on CJG Digital Marketing. Also seen on Business 2 Community.