Will Your Business Die Without Social Media?
Not once have we spoken about the benefits for your business of being on social media. It is probably the easiest and cheapest way to promote your website and your products and services. But is it really essential and how much will your business suffer If social media is not a part of your marketing strategy?
To put it in the most simple possible way – No, your business will not necessarily die if you are not on social media. But to stop here means to overlook the tons of obstacles your company will face if you do not make social media a part of your marketing strategy.
Your potential customers are probably there
Almost everybody is nowadays on social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest. That means that your potential customers are also there. According a 2014 Pew Research Center statistics 71% of adults overall are on Facebook and between 28% and 23% are on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. Having all that in mind you should now realize that social media is a great way to get more exposure, increase the traffic of your site and, ultimately, generate more leads.
As regards Google+, the search engine’s own social network, has a lot fewer active users than its main competitors – between 4 and 6 million according to this analysis by blogger Kevin Anderson. In the same time data from Statista shows that Facebook has 1,44 billion monthly active users as of Q1 2015. For the same quarter Twitter has had 236 million active users on its microblogging platform.
Few things you need to consider, however: Different social media have different audiences. Before jumping over to all of them, you need to do some research and find out which one is the best for your business. Last year Wishpond wrote a comprehensive guide for the purpose that is still pretty much accurate.
Building trust
Building a community on social media means also that you build more trust around your brand. Small businesses that engage with potential customers on social media tend to look more trustworthy. That means that by including social media in your marketing efforts you not only raise your brand awareness, but you also look more authoritative and people are definitely more willing to buy something from such companies. Just take a look at the Fortune 500 companies. They are all on social media.
Building loyalty
By being on social media you not only build trust, but also develop loyal fans. Those are people that follow you on every network, read what you share, re-share it and recommend it to their friends. If you want your business to thrive, you definitely need those fans.
Social media marketing is cheaper
One more reason to be on social media is that promoting your business there is way cheaper than using traditional advertising. That is why marketers today head to social media even before considering any other type of advertising. You may need to pay some money for ads, but if you manage to get enough devoted fans that truly like your brand and what you share, social media marketing will become almost free.
Having all that in mind, you should now realize that even if your business won’t die without social media, you definitely need to include it in your marketing efforts. Promoting through social media is especially useful if you depend on your website for sales or exposure.
Just create a website, make it social media friendly by making it easy for your visitors to like or share your content and start creating your social media marketing strategy.
Want to create the perfect website for you? Why not start now?
