How Can Social Media Marketing Help My Business?

Nearly every business, from small and local neighborhood shops to large, international power brands, appear to have some sort of online presence – and since nearly everyone is online, you are bound to lose out to some of the competition if you are not a part of it. While any social media interaction is typically positive, using it effectively and efficiently is what will make the real difference for your business. Likewise, utilizing social media poorly can reflect badly on your business and drive potential customers to a competitor with a stronger online presence.

Using social media networks helps to increase your company’s branding and can funnel traffic from your social media accounts back to your website. Your brand awareness and website traffic only increases when you create meaningful content for your readers and fans to interact with and share among their own friends and followers. Giveaways and promotions designed just for social media only increase the amount of shares and interactions you’ll encounter – in fact, approximately three out of four social media users will share content that they like online with friends and family members. While your fans and customers share your page and posts, you can often take advantage of the social media website analytics to see exactly what users are viewing and sharing the most, thereby making your future posts more effective for reaching your target market.

In general, social media marketing can be used to both reach your target market and manage your company’s reputation all at once. Social media gives your customers a direct way to contact you for general feedback, questions, and complaints that is often easier than calling a toll-free number or filling out a generic “Contact Us” form on your website, resulting in higher levels of customer interaction. Similarly, social media also provides you with an easy and direct way to respond quickly, as well as accurately and consistently measure your feedback.

In addition to remaining an inexpensive method for marketing your business, social media marketing is also effective while working together with other marketing methods, like email campaigns. And since each social media network offers something slightly different in terms of usability, user demographics, and interaction level, the possibilities for managing your company with social media are endless.