For some entrepreneurs, social media marketing is the “next big thing,” a fad that’s just passing but powerful and should be seized while it’s still in the spotlight. For others, it’s a fad with no practical benefits and a steep, complicated learning curve.
For some, because it has so quickly emerged, social media has developed a reputation as a fleeting and therefore unprofitable marketing interest. Statistics, however, paint a different picture. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers said that social media marketing was important to their business in 2014, with 80% indicating that their efforts have increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are participating in social media, but 85% of respondents don’t know which social media tools are best to use.
This shows that there is huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but also a lack of understanding about how to achieve these results. Here is a summary of some of the ways social media marketing can improve your business:
1. Increased Brand Awareness: Every opportunity you have to distribute your content and increase your visibility is valuable. Your social media networks are simply new channels for your brand’s voice and content. This is important because it makes you more accessible and accessible to new customers while also making you more familiar and recognizable to existing customers. For example, a frequent Twitter user may first hear about your company after coming across a news feed. Or an apathetic customer may become familiar with your brand after seeing your presence on multiple networks.
2. Increased brand loyalty: According to a report architects mailing lists published by Texas Tech University, brands that engage on social media channels enjoy greater loyalty from their customers. The report concludes, “Businesses should take advantage of the tools that social media gives them when connecting with their audiences. A strategic and open social media plan can be influential in turning consumers into brand loyalists.” Another study published by Convince & Convert found that 53% of Americans who follow brands on social are more loyal to those brands.
3. More Opportunities to Convert: Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. As you build a following, you’ll have access to new customers, recent customers, and past customers at the same time, and you’ll be able to interact with them all. Every blog post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction can lead to a website 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. Even if your click-through rates are low, the sheer number of opportunities you have on social media is significant. “Opportunity” is the first element of any action.
4. Higher Conversion Rates: Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways. Perhaps the most significant is its humanizing element; the fact that brands become more humanized when interacting on social media channels. Social media is a place where brands can act like people, and that’s important because people like to do business with other people; not companies.
Additionally, studies have shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than inbound marketing, and a larger social media following tends to improve trust and credibility in your brand, representing social proof. So simply building your social media audience can improve conversion rates from existing traffic.
5. Increased Brand Authority: Interacting with your customers regularly shows your trust to other customers. When people are praising or bragging about a product or service, they turn to social media. And when they post your brand name, new audience members will want to follow you for updates. The more people who are talking about you on social media, the more valuable and authoritative your brand will seem to new users. Plus, if you can interact with big influencers on Twitter or other social networks, your visible authority and reach will skyrocket.
6. Increased Inbound Traffic: Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people who already know your brand and people who are searching for keywords that you currently rank for. Every social media profile you add is another path back to your website, and every piece of content you distribute on those profiles is another opportunity for a new visitor. The more quality content you distribute on social media, the more inbound traffic you will generate, and more traffic means more leads and more conversions.
7. Lower marketing costs: According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers found that just six hours of work per week was enough to drive more traffic. Six hours isn’t a significant investment for a channel as large as social media. If you can spend just one hour a day developing your content strategy and distribution, you can start to see the results of your efforts. Even paid advertising through Facebook and Twitter is relatively inexpensive (depending on your goals, of course). Start small and you’ll never have to worry about going over budget. Once you have a better idea of what to expect, you can increase your budget and increase your conversions accordingly.
8. Improved Search Engine Rankings: SEO is the best way to capture relevant traffic from search engines, but the requirements for success are always changing. It’s no longer enough to regularly update your blog, ensure optimized title tags and meta descriptions, and distribute links pointing to your site. Google and other search engines may be calculating your rankings using social media presence as a significant factor, due to the fact that strong brands almost always use social media. As such, being active on social media can act as a “brand signal” to search engines that your brand is legitimate and trustworthy. This means that if you want to rank for a certain set of keywords, having a strong social media presence may be almost mandatory.
9. Improved customer experiences: Social media, at its core, is a communication channel like email or phone calls. Every interaction you have with a customer on social media is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your level of customer service and enrich your relationship. For example, if a customer complains about your product on Twitter, you can address the comment immediately, publicly apologize, and take steps to correct the issue. Or, if a customer compliments you, you can thank them and recommend additional products. It’s a personal experience that lets customers know you care.
10. Richer customer experience: Social media also gives you the opportunity to gain valuable insights into your customers’ interests and behaviors through social listening. For example, you can monitor user comments to see what people think of your company directly. You can segment your content distribution lists based on topic and see which types of content generate the most interest – and produce more of that type of content. You can measure conversions based on different promotions posted on various social media channels and eventually find the perfect combination to drive revenue.