Benefits of social media marketing
Why social media marketing ?
Social Media Marketing is fast becoming the biggest weapon of an entrepreneur, provided he has an innate understanding of the term and knows how to harness it. The trick lies in knowing your audience, the trend, and playing accordingly.
According to recent statistics global active internet users total 3.175 billion, which is nearly half of the world’s population. There are more than 2.206 billion active social media users, a rise in 176 million from last year. Even more incredible is the fact that Facebook adds half-a-million new users every day, six new profiles every second, while 2 million smart phones are sold worldwide every single day. All these stats emphasise the fact that social media marketing is only going to get bigger.
From a small business perspective, social media marketing is more than just merely gaining
likes, fans, repins and retweets, but rather getting benefits that will make a great impact on your business.
Here are some benefits of social media marketing, especially for small businesses.
1. Expand website traffic and search ranking
Driving conversions and traffic from social media requires a combination of tweaks to your
posts, and some structural changes to your website and blog. At the same time, you need to
keep a close eye on your social media stats to understand which content is performing well and how you can leverage it to increase your overall social media engagement. If you can get this combination right, you can create sustainable stream of high converting social media traffic to your blog or website.
2. Produce drive at minimum cost
Unlike traditional marketing techniques, social media marketing can achieve results at a reasonable cost.
3. Improves 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.
4. Increases brand recognition
Every opportunity you have to syndicate your content and increase your visibility is valuable. This is important because it simultaneously makes you easier and more accessible for new customers, and makes you more familiar and recognisable for existing customers. According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands that engage on social media channels enjoy higher customer loyalty.
5. Increases sales
Engagement generates a following and brands that have developed such fan base can generate sales from as much as 71 per cent of these followers. That’s how effective social media marketing is. 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.
6. Richer customer experiences
Every customer interaction you have on social media is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your customer service level and enrich your relationship with your customers. For example, if a customer complains about your product on Twitter, you can immediately address the comment, apologise publicly, and take action to make it right. Or, if a customer compliments you, you can thank him/her and recommend additional products. It’s a personal experience that lets customers know you care about them.
7. Audience insight
Social media also gives you an opportunity to gain valuable information about what your customers are interested in and how they behave, through social listening.
You can monitor user comments to see what people think of your business. You can measure conversions based on different promotions posted on various social media channels and eventually find a perfect combination to generate revenue.
8. More opportunity to convert
Every blog post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for customers to react. Every reaction could lead to a site visit and eventually a conversion. Not every interaction with your brand results in a conversion, but every positive interaction increases the likelihood of an eventual conversion. When you build a following, you’ll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customersand old customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them.