While many continue to embrace social media in their online marketing strategies, there are still a number of businesses who remain wary of using such a vehicle for networking or marketing purposes.
Social media is has become a fundamental element of online marketing. It can make other online marketing systems work more effectively while also boosting a business’s reputation and visibility.
If your business hasn’t integrated social media into your online marketing strategies, here are five benefits of using social media to help convince you otherwise.
It is an online version of networking
Social media has ultimately created a new way to connect with other industry professionals and customers (both potential and current). Businesses who use social media as a networking tool can achieve much of the same goals a business may aim for with networking in-person minus the restrictions of schedule, geography or travel arrangements and costs.
People use social media before making a purchase
The way potential customers now learn about a business before making a commitment to that business is seeking information from online sources of information, which includes social media platforms. For businesses to remain relevant and competitive, they need to go where potential customers seek information, which ultimately means participating on social media.
It helps deliver business content to a wider audience
Social media provides an easy and cheap way to promote your business’s online content to a larger audience. An additional benefit is that if a business publishes content that their target audience finds relevant and helpful, the audience is likely to share it with their own network, which in turn can attract new visitors to the business’s online profile.
It can drive traffic to a business’s website
Social media can be a significant source of traffic to a business’s website. With so many people using social media, new visitors may discover a business through the content the business publishes on social media, or any conversations they are participating in on a social platform. And if new visitors like what they see on your social platforms, they are likely to visit your website to find out more.
It can influence SEO
While social media isn’t a known factor in Google’s algorithm, sharing business content with a wide audience through social media creates opportunities for people to link to and engage with a business’s content. Links contribute to a business’s website page ranking, and social media can help this factor by connecting more people to business content and signaling to search engines, like Google, that the content is relevant.