Why Should Small Businesses Use Social Media Marketing?
You may have heard a lot of buzz about social media marketing lately, but do you know what it is? Many companies are now using it to promote their products and services, and therefore are building a stronger and larger business. With the popularity of any social media site today, real-time conversations are happening every day that define your market and brand – whether you choose to participate or not.
Don’t get left behind: those real-time conversations can be harnessed, monitored and measured to drive highly relevant conversations across multiple channels. Creating a social media marketing strategy is more than just creating a Facebook page or a Twitter page. You want return on your investment. You decide the engagement strategy needed which results in sales.
The engagement strategies generating the most return are marketing engagement and servicing engagement. Marketing engagement relies on brand management and awareness while connecting with customers. Servicing engagement places the focus on troubleshooting problems.
Having said that, there are lots of reasons as to why small businesses should be using social media for marketing and business engagement purposes. Here are six compelling reasons:
1. Branding
Social Media Marketing can create a recognisable identity for your product or service. This is extremely
important for a small business. Social Media tools can get the word out about
your brand in a way that promotes online conversation and creates buzz.
2. Word of mouth marketing
Exposure is a key to growing your small business. Word of mouth may not generate business but with social media, you can create buzz around your business and brand. More than 80% of online marketing firms agree social media engagement is based upon social interaction between the customer and the business.
3. Reputation management
Social Media tools let you keep an eye on what other people and sites are saying about your name, company, or brand online. You can then use the insights to fix any problems, if need be. You could use forums and message boards to answer questions professionally, honestly, and correctly, which will earn you respect as an expert in your niche. People will look to you for answers.
4. Find out what works and what doesn't
Your business does not move forward unless you understand your prior faults. Social media gives you a chance to look at your prior engagement year over year, to find out what worked and what did not work. By doing so, you can review your social media metric tools and engagement score.
5. Helps with search engine rankings
Social media also helps you move up in the search engine rankings because of links. Many social news sites and social networking sites have “follow” links in their profile pages. These “follow” links can provide your online properties with a higher ranking on search engines such as Bing.
6. Cost-effective marketing and advertising alternative
Social media marketing shouldn’t cost a small business nearly as much as traditional advertising. And, if you do it yourself, it might not cost a dime. However, it will cost you time. Depending how much your time is worth, it might be worthwhile to hire someone to help with the social media marketing. But, all in all, social media marketing is just a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing and advertising.
Social media is becoming more and more of a necessity each day for businesses ranging from big corporations down to your average corner shop. Along with a clearly defined identity and already proven to work marketing tricks, social media is a great way of boosting your business both economically and brand wise.
If you've used social media to support your business, feel free to share your experience in the comments section.
Comments
- Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Thanks, Michael. How are you using social media for your business? - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
thank you - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
thank you - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Thanks - feel free to share your list. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
thanks - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
thank you - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Thank you very much good sir. I've added your blog to my list of recommend things to read to some of the business I talk to about managing their social media. Very well thought out and nicely explained. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Thank you very much good sir. I've added your blog to my list of recommend things to read to some of the business I talk to about managing their social media. Very well thought out and nicely explained. - Anonymous
August 29, 2013
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
September 07, 2013
Lots of truth here. In order to be successful in business today and increase revenues, it's imperative that you match the way you market your products to the way people are learn about and purchase your products. Today, more than ever, this is via social engagement. If your business is not actively participating socially you're leaving huge revenues on the table.
Anonymous
October 02, 2013
Great Post..Brand building is any activity which influences the customer of your product in a positive manner... a brand is not about a slogan, advertising or marketing campaign only - it is about trust and credibility. We all need good <a href="www.neeti.biz/">Brand Marketing Company</a>Anonymous
October 03, 2013
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 09, 2013
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 13, 2013
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October 14, 2013
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October 28, 2013
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November 10, 2013
I believe that you have deleted some of the other comments that were here. why?Anonymous
November 12, 2013
The comment has been removedAnonymous
January 22, 2014
Social media plays a vital role in today marketing field which really helps to promote your business instantlyAnonymous
February 26, 2014
Great post. I love the idea of Branding itself.Anonymous
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December 29, 2014
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March 16, 2015
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March 16, 2015
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May 05, 2015
The comment has been removedAnonymous
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January 21, 2016
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