Why You Need a Social MediaPresence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Every business needs a social media presence, and most can bene t from actively trying tomarket and generate leads on the most popular social platforms.

The fact of the matter is that social media has become the preferred form of media in ourday and age. 67% of people say they get their news from social media rst, for instance.News breaking most often comes from shares or second-hand sources on platforms likeFacebook and Twitter. In e ect, content publishers have to have social media at the frontof their mind if they hope for their outlet to get exposure for breaking a story as opposed toa competitor.

For businesses, this same principle holds true. If you aren’t active on social media, othersmay talk about your business and seize control of the narrative. Or, even worse, yourbusiness is all but invisible until someone else shares content or news talking about you.

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

In addition to providing visibility, having a proactive social media marketing strategy canhelp boost your sales performance and help you achieve your marketing goals. You canearn new customer leads, increase brand awareness, and even o er customer supportthrough social channels.

To cover the full scope of why your business needs to be on social media, consider thefollowing ve bene ts described below and how they are an essential part of any digitalmarketing strategy.

Create a Highly Visible “Hub” for Your Business’s Newsand Announcements

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Let’s be honest. Very few people are going to religiously check your business website’s“News” or “Blog” page for announcements and press releases. If most people don’t visitnews sites to get news, they certainly aren’t actively going to business’s websites to see thelatest developments.

This assertion isn’t meant to discourage you from tending to your website at all, but ratherto make you realize just how much more visibility being on social media adds for yourbusiness. Sharing news and announcements on social is dead simple, and your followersmay even help share those materials for you once you release them into the wild.

In this way, your social media pro les serve as your business’s online “hub” away from itsmain website. Your pro le photo, the content you share, and the announcements youmake all have the e ect of turning your social accounts into an o cial mouthpiece foryour brand. From here, you can help shape your public image and control the ow ofinformation you release into the world.

Increase Your Visibility on Search EnginesThe jury is still out as to whether social media engagement and content shares can raise thesearch engine ranking for a business’s website pages. Hootsuite, for instance, found a smallcorrelation but concluded that a deeper study with more data points was needed.

Even if social media can’t help raise your web page rankings, it can help you occupy a moreobvious spot in the rankings altogether. Why? Because social media platforms have greatdomain authority, which allows them to rank highly any time a search is made.

So, if someone searches for your business name or a related topic online, your social mediapage and posts talking about your business are highly likely to appear near the top of searchresults. Twitter is especially good at earning top ranks, since Google features recent tweetssimilar to how they would news posts.

Having a social media pro le and actively discussing your areas of business can thereforegive you additional opportunities at ranking near the top of search engine results.

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Publish Your Content and Earn Tra c for Your MarketingCampaigns

While people are more likely to check your social media pages than your homepage forbusiness news, you can encourage more traffic to your website by posting on social media.

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

With the right images and messaging, you can easily pull in huge amounts of tra c justfrom one post. The aim is to get people’s attention and to make full use of your availableresources. In other words, you are going to craft great content previews for content likeshared blog posts.

For campaign-related tra c, you can describe your o er in attractive terms to earnattention and tra c. A retail business can describe a sale for their website store, forinstance. Or, you can encourage people to sign up for entry in a contest by posting a linkto the relevant landing page.

Social media posting is particularly useful for boosting the ROI of your content marketingcampaigns. Without social sharing, many businesses would get little tra c to their blogs.By posting on social, the business can boost tra c and potentially up their correlateddomain authority, which explains the positive e ect Hootsuite saw between socialengagement and SEO rank.

Raise Brand Awareness and Earn New Customer LeadsSocial media creates opportunities for countless people to discover your business and whatit does. Google searches for business names spike if that business can generate social buzz,for example.

You also have the opportunity to earn exposures through people who follow and engagewith your brand on social media. For instance, someone who “likes” or comments on yourpost on Facebook can have those interactions appear on their friend’s newsfeeds.

Social media advertising is also another potential source of signi cant new impressions andcustomer leads. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn have powerfulaudience customization tools that allow you to get in front of your most valuable buyerpersonas with just a minimal budget.

A landscaping company could target business owners in their area, for instance, byselecting job titles as an audience filter.

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Or, they could target a wealthy neighborhood with large estate-style land plots that canoffer lucrative contracts.

Software companies can similarly o er free demos or pitch their product’s bene ts torelevant audiences. Social media provides the visibility, and once you have someone onyour landing page or on your email list, you have opportunities to convert.

Interact With Your Audiences and Provide CustomerSupport

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Brands can do an excellent job of building relationships with their audiences when theycan create content that encourages engagement.

The UPS Store, for example, came out with a powerful social media post that piggybackedo the popularity of a recent Nintendo product release. To date, the post has gotten 3,200shares, over 200 comments, and 10,000 “likes.”

Interactions like these don’t just multiply brand impressions. They also change the waypeople might perceive a brand. Someone who loves the playful tone of the post can thentranslate these positive associations to the business posting it. Or, the brand can help forgestrong associations between itself and the values it cares about most.

People who interact with the brand can therefore end up being more loyal customers,while repeating the desired positive brand associations to their friends and followers.According to one survey, 48% of people say they are more likely to make repeat purchasesfrom a brand that engages with them, and 90% of millennials consider it “cool” when abrand responds to their questions.

But what about people who have nasty things to say about your business on social media,or people who have a complaint? That is actually a great opportunity!

After voicing a complaint about a company on social media, 71% of people who have apositive experience and have their issue resolved say they are likely to recommend thatcompany to others. They also say they are likely to spend 21% more than they normallywould.

Don’t Ignore Social Media Marketing, Or the World CouldIgnore You!Because of all these bene ts social media marketing provides, especially for visibility,having a social media strategy is no longer optional for businesses. Even if they do notintend to advertise or promote themselves on the major social platforms, they need aprofessional presence that responds actively to people looking for support and answers.

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

Why You Need a Social Media Presence

If you want help forming your own social media strategy for your business, look nofurther than us! We have experience creating content, earning followers, interacting withaudiences, supporting cross-channel marketing campaigns, and creating paid social mediaadvertising campaigns based on your goals.

Contact us today to get started!

Why You Need a Social Media Presence