It’s surprising how many companies are neglecting one of the most important tools they have for driving sales, increasing and interacting with their client base, and driving traffic back to their website.
Many of you may know that social media is a growing cultural phenomenon, but did you know that there are more people worldwide with access to a smart phone than there are who own toothbrushes*? In fact, Facebook reports over 1 billion mobile app users (not including their Instagram and Facebook Messenger applications), and that number is only growing, as you can see from their graph below.
So, why should your business get involved with social media? Here are the top ten reasons:
1. Your competitors are.
Approximately 85% of companies use Facebook for marketing**. This means your competitors are likely already reaching your target audience through social media accounts, while you’re falling behind.
2. It’s cheap & easy to use.
Social media is one of the most effective ways to reach potential clients, and it’s free to create an account and share photos, check-ins and more with your followers. If you want to promote your posts, you can choose how much to spend – some sites offer promotional status updates as low as $40.
3. Lead generation.
Social media offers a unique way to reach customers you aren’t already engaging with conventional advertising methods. Those of you looking to reach young adults should set up an account with YouTube. Videos shared on that site reach more U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 34 than any cable network***. And it’s free to set up an account.
4. It’s a way to provide good customer service.
With social media, you can respond to customer comments and complaints in real time, and in a more personal way, elevating your customer service capabilities significantly.
5. Add mobile exposure and access to your company.
Since smartphones are popular throughout the world, it only makes sense to reach out to your customer in the most convenient way for them. Do you have a lot of visitors to your business’ location? Create an account on Foursquare so you can monitor who is “checking in” to your business, and how best to market to them.
6. It increases traffic to your website.
The more active you are with your social media account, the more exposure you will generate for your website. Your customers are using social media to interact with their friends and family. If they are interacting with you online, their friends and family are likely seeing those interactions and learning about your business. It’s no surprise, then, that you will see more visits to your website.
7. It shows you’re relevant.
It’s important to keep up with technology. Since the marketplace is going social and mobile, you need to keep up and stay current.
8. Brand perception monitoring.
Easy way to monitor target audience’s perception of your brand through social media tools like Facebook’s Insights or Twitter for Business. You can also monitor what people are saying about your business through independent companies like HootSuite or shortened links like Bit.ly.
9. It benefits your SEO rankings.
The more your business is mentioned online, the better your SEO rankings are. You want your business to be searchable, and you want people to be able to leave reviews for your business. If you don’t have a Google+ account established for your business, now is the time to set it up.
10. Hiring/recruitment.
Social media can be used to help launch your brand following, or to help your client demographic grow exponentially. The best employees you will ever have are those who believe in and support your brand – so why not approach the people who choose to “like” or “follow” your company on their own time?
If you want to get your business set up with the right social media accounts to reach your target audience, get in touch with us! We have social media experts on staff who can help you find what social media outlets will best suit your business and client needs.
*”There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush.” This information is from the Hubspot Blog, which can be found here.
**This information can be found in the Social Media Examiner’s Industry report here.
***This statistic can be found on YouTube’s statistics page here.