Social Media: Not Just A Personal Tool

Stimulate your online marketing strategy

For a lot of people, social media is a tool for personal use, maybe even a distraction. Many use it to keep in contact with distant relatives, whilst a lot of users take advantage of social media by sharing content such as consumer goods, and highlighting their favourite music artists etc. These are a few great ways to use the resources offered, but this is not the limitation; social media can also be utilised for your business.

Source: xlntelecom.co.uk

Social media is now a huge part of everyday life, and many would wonder how the human brain and body would continue to function without it. As a result of its popularity, many companies are now incorporating it into their marketing strategies to ensure that their products reach a massive number of people who before were possibly oblivious to what the company could offer.

Below are seven reasons to give social media a big part in your company’s future:

1. Brand Visibility: When setting up a business, there is always a long-term goal, and aspirations that at the start may seem unattainable, but by using social media, your brand could grow enormously due to online attention. By gaining attention online, groups on social media sites will start to speak about your brand, and this is more effective than basic advertising. By using social media, you are able to update your followers in real-time, so they are learning about the company’s progression as it happens, and this includes any offers launched. By doing this, more people online are likely to recommend the company to their peer group. In order to gain this success it is vital that you give social media the attention it deserves, and managing all the accounts appropriately will do this.

2. Huge Customer Base: Billions of people log onto social media sites everyday, so if you’re not using these sites to try and gain new customers then you are missing out on success. Not only does social media give you all these people to connect with, you can do it in a very informal and relaxed way.

3. Free Marketing: Social media is a resource that doesn’t cost anything, and the objective of business is to make money, so surely the benefit here is obvious? This is the biggest attraction because grouped together with the massive amount of people that can be directed towards your business, all this can be done by keeping costs down.

4. Sell Your Products: By selecting the appropriate apps on a Facebook page, creating an online store is just a couple of clicks away. The key here is to make your customers feel secure, and finding a safe payment authorisation method is vital. As a result you will receive recommendations from returning customers.

Source: mashable.com

5. Trends and Competitors: Social media monitoring allows you to track the competition, and the trends. Tracking trends is helpful as it is usually what is in the public eye, and you can strategize around what the public want. There are a number of sites that offer research and analysis tools that are important in the success of social media utilisation (see HootSuite, Klout and TweetReach). These monitor how your brand is represented online, and how you can increase the company in terms of attractiveness on the Internet. The most impressive feature is that you can check which social media sites are talking the most about your company.

6. Customer Relation Building: The open environment of social media ensures that you can share and interact with your customer in a relaxed manner. If you can create conversation in the social media world then you are on the road to success. Do this by asking for feedback, joining conversation topics, and posting your thoughts on photos and links. The better your relationship is online with your customers, the more likely they are to invest in your products.

7. Employees as Brand Ambassadors: One of the best things about social media is that you can get all your staff involved. This creates a sense of community between you and your customers, and also places emphasis on the more ‘human’ side of business. Not only will this reflect on sales, but also your employees will be happier, as they will feel a part of something bigger. Just create some short rules on what to post and what not to, and let your employees go to work online. The benefits of this will work from both sides of your business, and will create a happy atmosphere.

As you can see, social media may be daunting at first, and understandably so. Our society is essentially primitive in terms of the Internet due to how fast technology moves in comparison to the evolution of our species. Despite this there are some massive benefits out of utilising social media in the correct manner. By taking the seven points above on board, there should be a successful social media plan in place in no time.

Alex Smith

Alex is an English Literature and Sociology undergraduate whose love for written word has led him to write about some obscure topics in his time. Currently a content writer at Social Media Frontiers, be sure to follow him @AlexSatSMF.

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