Here are some quick facts showing the tremendous role of social media in today’s business world, as per the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report:
- A significant 86% of marketers said that social media was important to their businesses.
- By spending as little as 6 hours per week, 64%+ of marketers see lead generation benefits with social media.
- 75% of marketers reporting positive results in terms of traffic increase as one of the major benefits of social media.
- A significant 89% of all businesses that have a dedicated social media platform as part of their marketing strategy reported an increase in their market exposure.
- More than half of marketers who have used social media marketing for over 3 years reported an increase in sales over that period.
Now that we have understood the influence of social media on your target market, let’s discover the applied benefits it offers to your business.
- Showcase Your Brand
Handling a strong social media presence is an efficient way to build your company’s reputation and showcase your business. By regularly updating your prospects on all the brand and social happenings, they subconsciously start to view your company as an authority. Once you define your business objective–whether creating brand awareness, relationship building or driving new sales–you can work in parallel on all of them. It is just a question of how well you will manage to position your business on the major social media networks.
- Develop a loyal community of prospects
In reality people simply enjoy being part of a business that is proactively building a lively community. Studies have discovered that customers would purchase from businesses with an active Facebook fan page rather than without. An emotional connection with your prospects will vouch for your positive business reputation. Community strength is a very powerful branding force, and social media offers exactly this kind of relationship-building opportunity that is virtually limitless. From a marketing perspective, it delivers the best chances for brands to create a massive community of loyal and active customers.
- Increase digital exposure
If you are eager to be found among the millions of sites on the web, you sure need to work hard on enhancing your social presence. Social media leads to massive exposure due to its worldwide access, sharing capabilities, and huge amount of daily users. It delivers instant information in the digital marketplace, thus giving businesses the ability to advertise their products, going beyond distance. Statistics have proven that interacting in social media networks even 2-3 times per week can significantly increase your online presence in both the traditional and digital market space, while you are building new relationships outside the four walls of your office.
