By For some business owner, social media marketing is the “next big thing”, a temporary fury, but strong enough to be tapped when still in the vanguard. While to others, it is a keyword with no practical advantages and a sharp, complex learning curve.
Because it appeared quickly, social networks have developed a reputation for some like the fact that marketing is a commercial interest, and therefore a little attractive. Statistics, however, show a different picture. According to a survey, 94% of marketers in 2015 stated that social media marketing was important to their business, with 80% indicating that it has increased the traffic in their websites. Also, 97% of operators are currently participating in social networks – but 85% of those surveyed are not sure which social media tools are the best to utilize.
This shows a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but lack of understanding on how to achieve these results. Below are some tips on how social media marketing can improve your business:
Gain Valuable Customer Knowledge
Social networks also give you the opportunity to gain valuable insight into what your customers like and how they react. For example, you can monitor user feedback to see what people think about your business directly. You can sort the contents of the coverage list and can see which content types generate the most interest – and then produce more of this content type. You can seize the advance of diverse offers posted on different social media and finally find the right combination to boost your income.
Social media creates a huge amount of data about your customers in real time. Behind these amazing numbers is a wealth of information about your customers – who they are, what they like and how they feel about your brand.
Every day through active participation and social listening, you can collect customer data and use this information to make smarter decisions. With Hoot Suite Insights, for example, you can collect information about all social networks in real time – allowing you to measure customer interest to find conversations around your brand and generate real-time reports.
Propel Brand Awareness and Loyalty
When you have a presence in social media, it makes it easy for your customers to find and connect with you. When you connect with your customers in the social media, they are more likely to increase customer retention and brand loyalty. A study of social habits shows that 53 percent of Americans who follow social brands are more loyal to these brands. Each opportunity should combine its content and improve its visibility, it is valuable. The social network is a new scope for your content and most importantly your brand. This is important because while it is easier, it makes it more accessible to new customers and makes you more familiar and recognizable by your existing customers. For instance, a frequent Twitter user could get information about your company for the first time only after seeing it in a news feed. Or, an otherwise evasive customer can better know your brand after seeing them on multiple networks.
Perform Targeted Ads With Real-Time Results
Social ads are an inexpensive way to promote your business and content distribution. They also offer powerful guidance options so you can reach the right audience. For instance, if you engage in an ad campaign on LinkedIn, you can sort by location, sex, position, company, and age etc. If you run an ad on Facebook, you can target based on location, interests, demographics, behaviors, and connections. You can track and measure the performance of your social ads in real time.
Provide an Exceptional Customer Experience
Social media marketing is just like any other means of communication such as phone call, text messages or emails. Any discussion you have with a customer on social media is an opportunity to publicly show your level of customer service and improve your relationship with your customers. For example, if a customer complains about your product on Twitter, you can go immediately to make comments, apologize publicly and take steps to do it right. Or, if a customer congratulates you, you can thank and recommend additional products. Customers will only know you care about them when treating their issues personally.
Even if you are not socially interactive, most customers expect you to be. More than 67% of consumers go to social media for customer service. They expect fast turnaround times and support all day long, all year round.
Increase Site Traffic and Search Ranking
Without social media, incoming traffic is restricted to people who are already familiar with the brand and people who coincidentally search for the related keyword based on their needs. Each social networking profiles that are added is another path that leads back to your website and each piece of content that links these profiles is another opportunity for a new visitor. The higher the quality of content you are advertising on social media, the more incoming traffic and this will create more drivers and more conversions.
Gain More Insights About Your Competitors
Your competitors are already involved in social networking, which means that they incur potential traffic to your social media page and your conversions received. Do not remain inactive while your competitors receive all the interest from social media marketing. If your competition is not involved in social media, there is still a reason to start – the domain is open.
By monitoring social networks you can get basic information about your competitors. This type of information will allow you to make strategic business decisions to stay ahead of them. For example, you can create search feeds in Hootsuite to keep track of industry keywords and competitors’ names and products. Based on the results, you can improve your business to provide improvements in the product, service or content that may be missing.
More Opportunities For Conversion
All the submissions you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. When a next one is created, it will arrive at the same time to new customers, recent customers and old customers and be able to interact with all customers. Every posting of pictures, blogs, video or commentary they share is an opportunity for customers to say something and any positive comment could lead to a visit to the area and eventually to a conversion. Not all interactions about your product will lead to a conversion but each positive comment increases the chances of a conversion. Even if click-through rates are low, the large number of opportunities you have in social media is important.
By Harnil Oza – info@hyperlinkinfosystem.com