Why Social Media Marketing is needed for business ?

[ranib]

Because it is the right solution at right time can ensure an exponential business growth for your company.

[Fulcrum]

Please expand on this as I'm curious how this would apply to a tier 1 automotive supplier.

[jeffscott]

It is because social media is the most widely used medium in the web in which you can reach your target audience and introduce your business.

[RjMaan]

Actually, in these days, a lot of people are using social media for one purpose or the other and it becomes one of the best way to promote business online.

[retailjack]

We do almost all of our marketing on facebook and instagram. I have a gift shop at a popular tourist destination so we tend to promote the destination itself through unique photos instead of posting product ads and what have you. And then when people are there they remember us from the social media as if we are almost part of the destination experience itself. We are not the only gift shop and our biggest rival does no website advertising at all, instead relying totally on foot traffic walking by. They look on in sheer wonder when they see passersby run to our shop as if we were an attraction ourselves. They haven't been that hurt by it yet and I don't even think it's dawned on them what our approach has been but it's working for us and that's what matters. The trick is in being truly creative. You can't just post pictures of the place, you have to come up with your own unique concepts for the destination that people will remember.

[sbcbd]

Social media can work great, I find in my line of business that a healthy mix of lifestyle and ad posts works good!

[Syn Gates]

Not all social media is good for all business. It depends on behaviors of your customers.

[davidlee21]

Social media can help a business in many ways.
How social media can be used for business:
1. Business Branding
2. Business Awareness
3. Promotion of products
4. Listening to customer queries.

[Harold Mansfield]

Social media is not the right thing for every business, and you will find more and more that brands are moving away from Facebook specifically. Instagram is still a hit, especially for fashion and lifestyle brands...but what everyone above is describing is advertising. Like advertising effective social media marketing requires a strategy, and some kind of budget to create the engaging content...that you then need to pay to promote if you ever hope anyone is going to see it other than the same 8 people.

It's not as easy as you're all making it out to be, and not as effective as it used to be 5 years ago. Having a lot of followers is not the same thing as having that same number of customers and most small businesses don't convert followers into customers at a rate that makes the ROI worth it. Again, depends on the business and what the product is, and how well your overall all marketing of that product or service is. Social media won't do it for it, it's just a place to amplify it.

[Katane]

How important is social media for business success? In a recent poll, 46% of consumers use social media in making purchase decisions. When almost half of all consumers rely on social media, it is extremely important to not only be on social media, but to use it to convey the right messages that will lead to consumers choosing you over the plethora of available options.
if you don’t have a steady stream of content, then your page is going to be filled with dead air. For a platform like Facebook dead air can be a day or two of zero content. For Twitter and its rapid pace, dead air can occur if you’re not posting more than 3 times a day. If you don’t have a steady stream of content, your page will look dead and your audience will just move on.
Your content needs to achieve one of three things: be entertaining, informative or helpful to potential customers. If it’s not doing one of those things then you need to rethink your content strategy. Also, be sure to mix it up and offer some variety. Nobody wants to be sold to in every post they see. The best format is to offer two pieces of entertaining, informative, or helpful pieces of content for every sales pitch you make.

[Harold Mansfield]

How important is social media for business success? In a recent poll, 46% of consumers use social media in making purchase decisions. When almost half of all consumers rely on social media, it is extremely important to not only be on social media, but to use it to convey the right messages that will lead to consumers choosing you over the plethora of available options.
if you don’t have a steady stream of content, then your page is going to be filled with dead air. For a platform like Facebook dead air can be a day or two of zero content. For Twitter and its rapid pace, dead air can occur if you’re not posting more than 3 times a day. If you don’t have a steady stream of content, your page will look dead and your audience will just move on.
Your content needs to achieve one of three things: be entertaining, informative or helpful to potential customers. If it’s not doing one of those things then you need to rethink your content strategy. Also, be sure to mix it up and offer some variety. Nobody wants to be sold to in every post they see. The best format is to offer two pieces of entertaining, informative, or helpful pieces of content for every sales pitch you make.

But when you take stats like that, which are general, and try to apply them across the board as if it applies to every business and every situation...that's where people start getting into trouble and start getting frustrated when it doesn't work for them the same way it works for say...Nike.

"46% of consumers use social media in making purchase decisions. "

ALL purchasing decisions? Or just certain types of products? Every demographic? Or just millennials? Exactly where are they doing this consulting? What platforms? Are you talking about peers or product reviews?

The distinction is important for that electrician in Rhode Island. You need to understand more than just a few stats in a passing article to determine if it's the right strategy for you and your target demographic.

I'm not saying social media isn't viable. What I'm saying is that it's not going to be beneficial to everyone and every kind of business.

Something else to think about: Remember a couple of years ago when EVERY brand was tagging all their media advertising with "Join us on Facebook"? That big push by everyone to grow followers, remember that?
They don't do that anymore do they? Ever wonder why?

I think when you understand both sides of the coin...why it works for some, and also why big brands have stopped pushing follower growth and dependence on the social platforms they way they used to, you'll have a more balanced attitude of the pros and cons based on your specific goals.

Last thought, if you think more followers means more potential customers you will find that it doesn't. It's part of a strategy. Not the whole strategy. I'd focus on all the other stuff first or else whatever you do on social media will be half assed.

JMO of course.

[davidlee21]

Here are few views of how Social Media Marketing is important for Business:

1. Improve Rankings
Social media is a vital factor in calculating and analyzing the website rankings. SEO strategies are continuously varying and therefore it is better to optimize the website and regularly update the postings. By sharing content on social media, brand signal is sent out to the search engines and it enhances the validity and integrity of the business.

2. Increase Traffic
Social media helps increase traffic for the website. It can be done by sharing content and giving viewers the reason to click through the ads. The more quality content you share, the more inbound traffic it can be generated.

3. Brand Authority
Brand authority and customer satisfaction play a major role in making business powerful. By constantly posting on social media and regularly replying to the queries, a positive image about the brand is created among the customers. Then, later, you can further make advertising done by the genuine customers to appreciate the products and services through their testimonials.

4. Customer Satisfaction
Social media plays a vital role as a communication platform. They create a voice for the company and help improve the overall brand presence. Customers appreciate the modified reply rather than computer generated answers. A personal message is perceived naturally and plays a great role in enhancing customer satisfaction.

5. Enhance Loyalty
Social media presence makes it easier for the customers to figure out your brand. This, in turn, enhances customer loyalty and help increase the customer base. It develops a bond with them and acts as a leading platform for promotional campaigns.

6. Cost-Effective
Social media marketing is the most cost-effective way of marketing. It retains greater ROI by just investing a little amount. It further increases conversion rates to a higher level.

7. Enhance Brand Awareness
Social media is an essential piece of digital marketing strategy. It increases awareness about your brand, and boost leads. You can get started immediately and start off the campaign right now.

Final Thoughts…
Social media acts as a crucial part of business marketing and get started engaging with your customers instantly. It has proven to be the wise business move for companies of small-scale, across the world. Why late? Start your marketing now and enhance your Business Branding right away.

[JackAbram]

Social media is very useful for sharing real-time information to your audience. If you are having a good following and connection within your social media channels, your business will generate a lot of social media traffic. Social media profiles such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook easily start appearing in search engines.


In addition, you can share the latest updates, events and other activities so that your audience knows all your latest updates.

[davidlee21]

Hi Harold,
Thanks for the information. I found a new information in your reply. Till now i used to think fb is a good platform for advertising i didn't know businesses are avoid fb.
i wanna ask why brands are moving away from fb?

[Harold Mansfield]

Hi Harold,
Thanks for the information. I found a new information in your reply. Till now i used to think fb is a good platform for advertising i didn't know businesses are avoid fb.
i wanna ask why brands are moving away from fb?
Mainly because they scammed us. Back when they were pushing FB pages for brands, the pages functioned differently. If you posted something everyone who followed your page would see your post. They lured us into creating pages under false pretenses so that we'd move our audience to Facebook. Which we did.

Then once pages got popular, and some people even started making money from pages, they changed the reach so that only about 8% of your followers ever saw your post. Mind you now they have information and profiles on all of your people. When companies complained they told us "OK, then have your followers double follow you by now subscribing to see your posts", which pissed people off because that was supposed to be the reason for following the page in the first place. So now after all the time and money you spent getting people to follow you, now you have to do it all over again and tell them to "double secret follow me" in order to see my posts. Which of course you couldn't get everyone to do again, so you lost reach.

Then they said, "Well OK, if you want all of your followers to see your post you can pay to boost them..." and that's when a lot of brands said "That's it. We're done."

Don't get me wrong a lot of brands still use Facebook. Mostly media companies now, but I don't see the behemoths like Coke, McDonalds, and Auto companies putting a lot of effort into it any more. They'll run an ad every now and then, but you don't see them pushing people to join them on Facebook like they used to.
You also used to be able to customize pages, which was a huge benefit. Can't do that anymore either.

The basic premise...at least in my opinion...is if you're going to spend time and money getting people to follow you online, why not do it on your own website or properties that you own instead of someone else's who can change the rules on a whim?

Facebook is also losing younger people who don't want to be on social media with their parents.
And their data security and privacy issues are starting to piss people off.|

They are picking up the slack with Instagram though. Brands love Instagram right now. Especially fashion and lifestyle brands.

These are all just my observations of course. The bottom line is that Facebook, nor any social media, works for everyone. It takes effort, creativity and a plan. Most people/companies have no plan and expect all the benefits without ever spending a dime and that's just unrealistic.

[Adam D]

It's needed becuase when people go onto your social media page they'll be able to see that you're a real business. Many times people just don't trust your business and if you put out content regularly, people will be able to trust you more. Trust is huge when it comes to online marketing. Most people online don't have much of it. Your buyer is skeptical and ambivalent a lot of the time. They want to be able to connect with you. When someone has a connection with you, they'll be more likely to buy from you than someone that they don't trust.

Most people say "put out more content" but there's more to it than just that. It needs to be relevant to your potential customers. It also needs to be helpful to them. It can't just be random things that you post content about. What you DON'T want to do is post the exact same message as your competitors. You also don't want to say something like "keep calm and buy a mattress" type of posts. Those are lame and they don't actually create trust with your prospects. Create video content around what your audience has questions about.

For instance, if you sell mattresses, create content around the subject of "How Do I Know Which Mattress Is Best?" Create video content around that subject and other things that customers may have questions on before they buy a mattress.

<removed>

[JackAbram]

Interacting with consumers on social media is an important marketing strategy for small businesses. Where Social platforms help you connect with your customers, increase brand awareness, also increase your leads and sales too.

[beetee]

Interacting with consumers on social media is an important marketing strategy for small businesses. Where Social platforms help you connect with your customers, increase brand awareness, also increase your leads and sales too.

Indeed yes - and with the time of information overload, it is about being genuine and connecting. I learned this in 2007 when no one really understood SMM and twitter was new.


I prefer linkedin and fb. I don't have a need for any more. Plus the time is limited.


Interacting is the magic bullet.


Now what about have a local meeting for your business - I mean - mattresses can have a draw (like you said above ADAM). I mean focus on WHO buys your mattresses. Narrow it down. Narrow even more. There is your buyer.

[DataDave]

I've always liked social media traffic because you can target hashtags for locations. Use the hashtags for your city and areas around you.

[Kenneth Funk]

Most of your targeted audience remains on social media (including popular platforms) therefore, promote your brand/business on social media for better exposure. But, make sure to choose a platform that is relevant to your business or goes best with your offers.

[chrismarklee]

You now need to focus on marketing on social media. People now live on social media.