Social media platforms are some of the most visited and trusted places in the digital market. It’s where people spend most of their time (about 2 hours and 27 minutes on average) for a number of reasons, be it work, entertainment, social interaction, news, shopping, or connecting with friends and family.
With over 4.55 billion active users, and increasing (which makes up for more than half of the world), social media thus calls for plenty of action from the world of business.
Better known as social media marketing in business terms, it’s where you use social media to your advantage so as to promote your brand, products, or services, and drive more sales and profit.
The importance of social media marketing can be further stated by a couple of facts. One, that a solid 75% of consumers use social media to make informed decisions when making a purchase. And second, that 88% of marketers believe it to be an essential aspect of modern digital marketing.
And which clearly indicates that social media marketing is a must-have in any effective digital marketing campaign regardless of the business you run and the sector you come from.
With that said, let’s take a look at the top 10 advantages of social media marketing for your business.
1. Build Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is where it all begins. The more the people know your brand, the more likely they’re to make a purchase. And should they like what you have to offer, the more likely they’re to promote it or share it with others.
Social media platforms being the most crowded places in that sense can get you brand visibility faster and easier than any other traditional or digital mode of communication.
2. Drive Sales & Traffic
Sales and profit is the ultimate goal of any business, and for which you need existing customers, as well as new organic traffic your way on a regular basis. Social media being the hub of internet users can do just that by giving you a wider reach and access to organic and genuine buyers.
3. Reduce Costs
Cost reduction is yet another major benefit of social media marketing. The latter may very well be the cheapest solution to all your advertising and marketing needs. That’s because most social media sites are completely free to use and connect with unlike dating sites and streaming services.
Although there are paid promotions and sponsored ads that you can invest in to meet your marketing goals, most of them are relatively affordable compared to traditional hoardings and commercials.
4. Gain valuable insights by social listening
Social listening, which includes social media measurement and social media analytics is a way of tracking your brand’s popularity by closely paying attention to what people are saying about your brand and business in general.
It involves gathering information and data from the internet, or social media channels to be more specific, in order to gain feedback and valuable insights about your brand and customers respectively.
The information you collect helps you improve your services, develop new products, and come-up with new ways of growing your business.
5. Strengthen customer relation
Since social media provides you with a direct means of communication with the masses, it’s best to use it to the best of your ability in all the ways you can.
And that includes interacting, engaging, and supporting your customers as well as prospects through social media instead of directing them to customer care when not needed. Along with satisfying the customer, it will help you build long-term relationships with customers for future endeavors.
6. Promote your content
Content sharing is one the greatest advantages of social media due to the power it holds to make anything go viral. Plus it’s an effective way of advertising what you have in store for your dear customers.
Be it through storytelling or product sampling, social media gives you a lot of room to use your marketing tactics and draw the right consumers to your products.
Besides, with 49% of people sharing content that they like, it’s a great way of ensuring that your word gets heard right. You can do that by focusing on keeping your content fresh, original, and relevant, and by striving for quality over quantity.
7. Improve Search Engine Rankings
When you implement better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices into your social media accounts, it automatically improves your SEO rankings, gains more visibility for your brand, and drives more organic traffic your way.
8. Get higher Conversion rates and ROI
Cost-cutting isn’t the only factor with social media marketing as it can also help you generate more leads, more conversions, and a higher return on overall investment.
9. Gain Authority in the market (Be a thought-leader)
As more and more people follow you on social media, talk and comment about your brand, it creates more opportunities for you to use your ideas and showcase your vision.
By posting and sharing relevant content and valuable information with your customers, you can also show the industry experts and competitors the value you can offer as a thought-leader in your niche.
10. Track your performance, and competition
While your competition may certainly be aware of your social media activities, you too can get a lot of insights into what your competitors are doing differently. Most social media sites would also allow you to check your daily activity and track your performance with comprehensive figures and infographics.
You can also take aid from a variety of other digital marketing tools to analyze your day to day performance.