Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to market a business on the Internet. Whether you run an online business or a regular bricks and mortar business, social media marketing can be a valuable asset to your overall marketing efforts. Most businesses, both small and large, are now using social media to market and promote the business and to connect with consumers.
Studies show that more than 80% of marketers are now using social channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to raise brand awareness, build communities and drive sales. Of this, nearly 60% spend 6 hours or more each week, 34% spend 11 or more hours per week, and 15% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on their social media marketing efforts.
Social media marketing offers several benefits for businesses. If done correctly, it can have a significant impact on the overall success of businesses. Businesses can receive several benefits ranging from increased sales, increased traffic to improved search rankings. The more time a business spends on social media marketing, the more noticeable the benefits will be.
In this article we take a look at 10 key marketing benefits of social media. The findings are based on The Social Media Marketing Industry Report commissioned by Social Media Examiner that includes the insights of over 3000 social media marketers who participated in the study.
1. Generate More Business Exposure
Social media is a great way to promote your business online, get extra exposure for your brand and create awareness about your products and services. A staggering 85% of marketers surveyed in the Social Media Marketing Industry Report noted gains in business exposure due to social media use.
2. Develop Loyal Fans
58% of marketers using social media see an increase in loyal, dedicated fans. For those who utilise social media for a year or more, the acquisition of loyal fan-bases increased even higher to 65%.
Responding to posts personally, following up promptly to positive as well as negative comments, and staying considerate of your consumers? needs are some ways to become trustworthy and build a loyal customer base.
3. Improved Search Rankings
Social signals are playing increasingly important role in search engine ranking. Additionally, social media can also provide quality back-links to your website content. According to the Social Media Marketing industry report, over 55% of marketers saw an increase in their search engine rankings from the use of social media. The more time you spend on social media marketing, the more of a search ranking increase you will see.
4. Increase Traffic
Increasing traffic to website is one of the most important marketing benefits of social media. Posting links to new content on the share website is one of the most common day-to-day tasks in social media marketing. Referral traffic from social media websites is one of the main traffic sources for the website for many businesses today, particularly businesses that have their own blog.
This blog, for example, receives a steady stream of daily traffic from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. On days when one of the posts becomes popular, our blog can receive over a 1000 visits from a single social network.
Referral traffic is not just limited to Facebook and Twitter. Sites like Pinterest and Google plus are equally powerful referral sources for driving website traffic. Similarly, social bookmarking sites like Stumble upon can easily outperform other social networks in sending new visitors to your website or blog.
According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 69% of businesses that use social media note an increase in overall traffic as a direct result of their social media marketing efforts.
5. Market Research and Insight
Social media is a very effective tool for market research. It is far more reliable and cost effective than traditional market research.
According to Nielsen, today nearly four in five active internet users engage in social media. Social media is making it possible for marketers to know just about everything on the minds of their consumer segments. It can help businesses to derive deep, unexpected insights into the needs, desires and behaviours of consumers, and uses for products.
65% of marketers polled for the Social Media Marketing Industry Report used social media as a marketplace intelligence booster. Those who spend 6 to 10 hours per week or more on social media were most likely to gain market insight.
6. Generate Leads
Generating new leads for the business is one the main objectives for any marketing strategy. Social media marketing is no different.
How you create and share content helps your business stand out from the crowd, gets your brand noticed and allows you to develop connections with consumers. Over time, these can result in new leads for the business. Other more engaging methods such as contests and promotions are also very effective for generating leads.
According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 54% of marketers with an active social strategy enjoyed an increase in lead generation. This was even higher for small businesses.
7. Grow Business Partnerships
Social media is also beneficial for finding new partnership opportunities for your business. The potential for new partnerships increases with the amount of time you spend on social media marketing. Companies that spend the most time on their social media marketing endeavours seem to gain the most partnerships. Overall 51% of marketers polled for the social Media Marketing Industry Report were able to grow business partnerships from using social media.
8. Reduced Marketing Expenses
Another crucial marketing benefit of social media is lower marketing costs.
Nearly half of all businesses that use social media marketing experienced a reduction in marketing expenditure. This is even higher for small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs where nearly 60% are more likely to benefit from reduced marketing expenditure as a direct result of social media.
9. Improved Sales
Although social media should not be used as a channel for hard selling, it can prove to be one of the most effective ways to increase sales over time.? A significant 40% of businesses polled as part of the Social Media Marketing Industry Report acknowledged noticeable increase in sales as direct result of their social media marketing efforts. This was even better for small businesses with 2 or more employees where over half of the businesses were likely to benefit from increase in sales.
10. Increased Influence and Authority /Reach
Not all benefits of social media are tangible or can be directly measured. One such key benefit of social media marketing is increase in influence and authority. The type of information a business shares can over time contribute to the overall online influence and help establish expertise in its niche. Online reputation and influence are becoming increasingly important online and the benefits for a business can be priceless.
What About You?
Are you taking advantage of social media? What strategy are you using? Are you receiving the above marketing benefits as a result of your social media marketing efforts? Please share your response by leaving a comment below?
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Source: http://www.kronikmedia.co.uk/blog/social-media-marketing-benefits/6297/
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