Social media is short attention span marketing. It fits well with the attention span of today’s people… In fact, if you’re a marketer you probably realize you have just a few seconds to grab someone’s attention.

Though social media feeds can be busy, you still need to participate. Because if you’re not part of the noise, do you even exist?

Many people use a business’s social media profile as a way to gauge how involved you are with customers. A Facebook or Twitter page that has current posts, comments, and reviews can be a deciding factor for some potential leads.

Why is social media important for business?

We all know marketing is the process of communicating value to customers. Social media is a tool or channel for marketing and aids in helping brands build their visibility and social currency.

Social networks aren’t just about you connecting with your customers, but also it allows them to connect with you. In fact, 73.4% of users will follow a brand because of their interest in the product or service.

To further reiterate why social media is so important for your business, let’s take a look at these points…

Builds brand awareness

By having a social site, you have essentially increased your channels to share and syndicate your content. This means you have the opportunity to not only share but to be shared too. Though you may not go ‘viral’, you have made it easier for people to talk about you.

It only takes one customer to share your content or your page to get leads. Because with that share, a whole new group of people has the chance of stumbling upon your name while scrolling through a feed.

But, that’s not it. You become way more accessible too. Even if you have a website and can be searched, your social networks make it that much easier for customers to find you.

Think of it like this, a social site is like an extension of you. For example, if someone searches for your business by name or product, you might pop up in a variety of searches whether it be your website or your Facebook page. Making it easier for people to recognize you and thus building your brand awareness.

Can be cost-effective

Social profiles are free. So you can essentially build an empire with a free profile. And, if you’re like most businesses, you may pay to promote a post or two. Or you may even run an ad. But you don’t have to. This is why social media is important for businesses. It allows you the flexibility to pay as much or as little as you like while allowing you to have all the functions of a business page.

Though ads, even social media ads can be expensive you have the flexibility to choose how much you spend, how long your ad runs, and you can even choose which audience it gets sent out to.

Really the only ‘cost’ you might incur is your time. Luckily, you probably won’t even have to spend too much time on it. According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers found as little as six hours of work on their social sites per week was enough to generate increased traffic.

And, compared to traditional advertising or marketing campaigns, you’re likely to save a bit of money (this can be true even if you hire a social media manager too!).

Does social media increase sales?

Social media and social media advertising rely heavily on word of mouth marketing. Essentially you are sharing your business, content, and expertise, and getting people to talk about you because of your need for social currency.

When someone tags or mentions your business in a comment, you become a trusted recommendation to their friends. Plus, you’re likely to be put in front of quality leads this way. Therefore, increasing your leads and referrals, and potentially increasing your sales all over the globe.

Social media does have the potential to increase your sales, even while being a cost-effective channel!

Easy to engage with customers

Social media is a communication tool. Therefore meaning a specific tool you can use to communicate directly with customers. You can publicly communicate by commenting, or you can even reach out privately.

Most of the time this works in your favor. Because customers are already on these sites, sometimes multiple times a day they are more likely to share their good and bad experience with your business here. Giving you the perfect opportunity to respond accordingly.

If something negative were to be said, you have the ability to get in contact with the customer right away. Plus, you can use this as an opportunity to publicly apologize and move forward. Though this is a public setting, this interaction is personalized and can help strengthen that customer’s trust in you.

Though you may prefer receiving reviews on your review profiles, customers aren’t always on them. Nor do they want to always sign up for a new profile. If you turn on your reviews on your social sites, you are essentially creating a convenient space (where customers already spend a lot of time) to write reviews and to engage with you.

Social sharing buttons make it even easier to share and be shared

You can also engage with customers by sharing their user-generated content. For example, someone may publicly talk about you on their Twitter. You can easily retweet what they said and use that to increase your brand authority and trust.

And if you’re actively sharing and commenting on these types of posts, customers will also want to be more engaged. Meaning they may continue to share your content or their experience with your brand to their followers.

This will increase your chances of being seen by potential leads too. Whether it be a quick search or a friend of your customer simply browsing through their feed. Growth Gurus mentions “63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use ones with an informative social media presence”.

So if you’re actively engaging on your social site, you have a better chance of being chosen than a competitor who is not on active on social media.

Enhances your SEO rankings

As we have mentioned, social media can help

you increase your content’s visibility. This is because you are essentially providing a second residence for your content. And making it incredibly shareable.

Because your content becomes much easier to share, you are increasing your chances of creating quality backlinks. This is because your content is much easier to find.

Be sure you are using your social profiles to your full advantage. Hashtags, optimizing your profiles, and creating catchy headlines/tweets can make your engagement skyrocket and boosts your SEO.

Is a paid, owned, and earned channel

It’s uncommon for marketers to rely on just one media channel. Unlike most options, your social profiles can fall into all channels, paid, owned, and earned media. In many instances, you’ll see a brand hit on all three of these types of media with one single post.

For example, a brand will publish an article on their blog (owned channel). They will promote that article on Facebook (paid channel). Then you will see people sharing that post or article (earned channel).

Social media as a paid channel – social media ads have become really popular. The ads themselves tend to blend in with the content around them and look like the rest of the feed around them (until you see the tiny ‘promoted’ stamped on it). With paid social media ads and boosted content you have a lot of leverage to choose what you want to spend and how long you want it to run.

Social media as an owned channel – You’re right, you don’t own the platform. But you do own your own little slice of real estate on it. Your profile is considered owned media. It’s a free channel that you can use to talk about yourself, share what’s going on with your company. You can really post whatever it is your heart desires, and in return, you can build your word of mouth.

Social media as an earned channel – As we mentioned this is a platform for you to share your content. On the flip side, this is also where you’ll see people talking about you and sharing your content. Because social media channels are so versatile and rely on communication, it’s a great channel for word of mouth to occur. Notice how Business Insider shared an article and within just 8 minutes, they have been retweeted and liked by a handful of people.

Article written by: Megan Mosley