By David Ronald
People sometimes ask me about the benefits of social media marketing.
In
some instances a small business owner may already have spent time on
social media in the hope that new prospects will appear in droves. After
a few weeks, however, they scaled back on their social media
activities, or abandoned them altogether, after becoming frustrated by
an apparent lack of results.
I’ve highlighted the impact of social media marketing on SEO rankings in prior blog posts (for example http://bit.ly/1lW3GC7 and http://bit.ly/1lW3AKI).
In this post I’m going to describe other benefits of being active on
social media. The key thing to note, however, is that it takes time to
build momentum with social media and the benefits aren’t always as
obvious as you may like—successful social media marketing requires
consistency and patience.
Nonetheless, if you’re
feeling a little bit skeptical about the benefits of social media
marketing, here are some reasons why it may be working better than you
realize.
1. Brand recognition—one
of the most powerful ways to use social media is as a brand-building
tool. With social media, you get to decide how you want to position your
company and what you want people to know about what you do. With
consistent effort and great content, you can build a reputation for your
brand around your company’s values, benefits, and advantages.
2. Repeat exposure—there
is an old marketing adage that says it takes six to eight exposures to a
product before a customer decides to buy. A clear benefit of social
media is repeat exposure with your network. You have the opportunity to
remind them over and over again about what you have to offer, which can
shorten your sales cycles dramatically.
3. Authority—for
coaches, consultants, authors, speakers, and other service-based
businesses, social media can be very powerful in helping you establish
authority in your field, making you the go-to resource for your target
audience to seek out for help. Share great content, answer questions,
and serve your audience, and you will inevitably build loyal fans.
4. Influence—as
your following increases, your influence grows. Having a substantial
social media audience creates a snowball effect that can attract new
customers, media interviews, joint venture partnerships, and all kinds
of other opportunities. It’s a bit like when you see a crowd hovered
around something. You can’t help but want to see what all the fuss is
about, so a large audience will only attract more interest.
5. Community—there
is nothing like social media when it comes to cultivating a community.
When your followers become part of your community, you gain instant
access to them. That means you can find out what challenges they are
facing and what they like and don’t like about your offerings. You can
engage in ongoing dialog that can be more valuable than any kind of paid
market research.
6. Ahead of the curve—whether
you realize it or not, your prospects and clients are checking to see
if you are engaging in social media. I always find it a bit odd when I’m
investigating a potential service provider online and I can’t locate a
social media presence or worse, I find Facebook pages that haven’t been
updated in months, empty Twitter feeds, and a clear lack of interest in
engaging. Social media isn’t a fad and it’s not going away. Even if it’s
not your top priority, if you stay current with activity, your
prospects will notice.
7. Mindshare with lurkers—although
there will be days when you wonder if anyone is paying attention to
your social media networks, you can be confident that more people are
paying attention that you realize. Give it time and you’ll start to
understand what’s happening behind the anonymity of the internet. You
even hear from people who say, “I’ve been following you on Twitter for
ages. I love your posts!”
8. Competitive advantage—the
reality is that most of your competitors aren’t likely doing a very
good job with social media (most companies aren’t), which gives you the
chance to stand out. Also consider the flip side. If you avoid social
media, you leave a big opening that allows your competitors to capture
your audience.
9. Website traffic—social media
can be a leading traffic generator and when you share blog posts, videos
and other content from your website, you give your audience a reason to
click through and visit your site. Once there, you have the opportunity
to inspire those visitors to take action by inviting them to sign up
for your mailing list, make a purchase, or call to schedule a free
consultation. Install traffic monitoring service, such as Google
Analytics, and if you are
committed to your social media efforts, you will clearly see that social
media brings traffic. Also, make sure that your visitors receive a
clear call to action when they visit your site so that you can convert
that extra traffic into business opportunities.
While
many businesses large and small are trying to justify the cost and time
investment for managing social media marketing, an important benefit
often gets overlooked: Big Wins. For example, if a major media outlet
finds you on Twitter and interviews you for a national article, then
that is also a big win, one that you can’t measure based on
directly-generated revenues.
Although big wins don’t
happen often, when they do, they make it all worthwhile. It’s easy to
forget results like these six months down the road you’re trying to
assess whether your social media efforts are paying off. But that one
contract you landed could cover your social media marketing costs for
years. And that major media interview could lead to subsequent
interviews and a line item on your resume that impresses a corporate
sponsor three years from now. Never forget to factor in big wins in
social media.
Thanks for reading.
Let us know if you found this information useful.
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