Four Ways Social Media Can Add Muscle to Your Marketing
Social Media – love it or loathe it, you can’t ignore it! With well over half of the world’s population now actively using at least one platform, organizations need to be incorporating social media into their overall marketing strategy…and they need to be doing it well. Social is now a vital component of every marketing campaign so let’s take a look at four major benefits it can help to deliver.
1. Building Your Brand – it’s a numbers game!
4.8 billion people actively use social media. Yes, we said BILLION. If you get your social strategy right, there’s no limit to your business or organization’s exposure!
The sheer number of social media users means that businesses can build brand awareness faster (and more cost-effectively) on social platforms than any other advertising medium. Of course, all platforms are not created equal, and you will find that your audience uses a particular platform more than others – LinkedIn V Facebook, for example – but hitting the right people at the right time in the right place will come with experience.
Consistency is key when it comes to building brand awareness on social media. Your content should be consistently relevant, consistently engaging and consistently posted! One of the biggest mistakes people make is creating a couple of posts to “see how they do,” and making decisions based on that limited exposure. The algorithms don’t work that way – more exposure leads to more engagement which leads to more exposure which leads to…. well, you get the picture!
A coherent and consistent approach to social media allows you to develop a brand voice and persona that resonates with your audience. Marketing studies show that 77% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they follow on social media, and 90% of marketers say social media marketing has increased their brand’s exposure!
2. Customer Engagement – a two-way street!
Traditional forms of advertising push your message out to your audience. Hit that “send” button and whether it’s direct mail, TV commercials or print advertising, once it’s gone, it’s gone. Interaction with your audience is limited to whatever call to action that you provide, and it’s certainly not regular or timely.
That’s not the case with social media. More than any other advertising channel, social allows your audience to interact directly with you and your brand. This level of engagement helps to foster a sense of loyalty between your audience and your organization – it’s personal and people like to buy from people!
Positive and authentic communication with your customers doesn’t go unnoticed. When consumers report having a positive engagement with a business or brand, 70% of them are likely to recommend that brand to others – and on social media, those recommendations can spread far and wide very quickly indeed.
However, that comes with a caveat – one single poor interaction, whether right or wrong, can have an exponentially negative impact on your brand. So, remember, it pays to be nice!
79% of customers expect brands to respond within 24 hours when contacted via social media – so if you have a social presence, make sure it’s not neglected!
3. Targeted Advertising – no splatter tactics needed!
Marketers work hard to segment their audience. We’ll obsess over how to build ideal customer personas, looking at demographics such as age, gender, location, interests, and even online behavior! All that segmentation is great, but if your outbound marketing methods can’t distinguish between the segments, it’s a bit of a waste of time. That’s where social media comes in!
Platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn help you “ultra-target” your audience, sometimes using categories that you hadn’t even thought of! Their business model is built on using data-driven insights to encourage specific behavior and activity. Marketers accessing and using that same data can create extremely efficient and effective campaigns. External tools like Click Social and built-in analytics tools on most platforms allow advertisers to track user engagement metrics, examine demographic trends and adjust ad performance in real time.
4. Drive Traffic to Your Website – boost that SEO!
For most organizations, a website is their lifeblood. It’s the main source of information about your business. It’s a showcase, representing who you are, what you do, and why you do it. A website contains multiple calls to action (CTAs), ranging from demo requests, purchase now, join our mailing list etc. It is these CTA’s that create the leads and opportunities that power your business.
Social media is now one of the single most powerful tools that marketers have to drive traffic to their website. A report by Hootsuite and We Are Social found that social media drives 31% of all referral traffic to websites. That’s a considerable amount of traffic that will be sorely missed if your social media marketing isn’t up to scratch!
How to drive traffic using social media:
- Sharing blog posts (like this one!) will help drive traffic to your website.
- Create posts that have CTA’s which direct users to your landing pages.
- Social interactions such as shares, likes, and comments can help boost SEO for your website by driving organic traffic and potentially earning backlinks from other pages.
Conclusion.
The numbers tell their own story. Leveraging social media marketing isn’t just for consumer businesses and influencers. Properly targeted campaigns WILL reach your audience, helping you to build your brand, engage with your customers and drive traffic to your website.
External tools such as Click Social let you plan, run, and manage your social media campaigns easily and cost effectively, with calendars, cross-posting functionality and more.
For more information, visit our Social Marketing page or speak to an expert by scheduling a demo session.
