“Social media is here. It is not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.” -Lori Ruff
There has never been any doubt that the rise of social media has helped startup businesses take off from the ground. After all, with the possession of at least one social media page being a ubiquitous concept, the pages within social media platforms are practically cesspools for prospective customers and clients. In fact, it is considered rather unorthodox for one not to possess at least one social media page and for this reason, businesses should know how to appropriately leverage social media’s prowess and influence in their favor.
Moreover, apart from being the largest and most recognized avenue for advertising, social media marketing promises to increase your business’s brand recognition, sales and traffic with little to virtually no cost at all. While all these might sound incredible, it is actually very possible as social media can generate immense exposure for any company—but that is just one of its myriad of beneficial facets. Today, it would even be considered absurd for a company not to have some sort of social media marketing strategy as it forms an integral part of modern marketing strategy. It is indeed a key element for success in marketing and partnering up with the right digital marketing agency in the Philippines can truly help you. In any case, here are the ways social media marketing can be advantageous to your business or company:
- Increased Brand Awareness
Quite a lot of people log in to their social every single day with some of them even being perpetually connected to it. In this regard, social media has become one of the most cost-efficient digital marketing avenues where you can syndicate content and make your business more visible. By incorporating an appropriate social media strategy, you can then leverage your brand’s visibility and consequently, its recognition. Moreover, you can engage with a broader set of consumers and clients as well.
- More Inbound traffic
Marketing your business online is the safest and surest way to get inbound traffic. This in conjunction with social media marketing would be sure to bring you an influx of customers. Failing to do so would constrain you to your usual customers. In essence, if you operated without a social media marketing strategy, reaching anyone beyond your usual loyal customer circle would be a challenge. Remember, every social media profile added to your marketing mix would be a gateway to your website. In this regard, you should think of every piece of content you post as an avenue to acquire a new customer. After all, social media platforms are melting pots for a very diverse set of audiences who each have different needs and various ways of thinking. Exploit that knowledge in such a way that it would favor you and your business.
- Improved Search Engine Rankings
While social media might get you site traffic, know that it requires a bit more than just posting in order to see a significant success. If you want a steady audience traction as well as an increased traffic, doubling up your efforts as well as complementing your social media marketing strategy with search engine optimization will get you very far. In fact, SEO is vital to achieving higher page rankings and obtaining the traffic you do want to your business website. After all, almost everyone relies on search engines (whether that may be Google or not) to look for information. If you wish to revolutionize your traffic, endeavor to achieve higher page rankings and you will obtain traffic to your business website. After all, people who are looking for information are hardly likely to ever look past the first page of Google’s search results.
- Higher Conversion Rates
Increased visibility means gaining more opportunities for conversion. Any and every blog post, video, image, comment or video would tend to funnel viewers into your business website which would effectively increase traffic. With social media marketing, your business would have a positive impression on people because of its humanization factor. After all, engaging with customers is the best way to interact with them at almost at a personal level. By sharing content, commenting and even posting statuses on social media, you are effectively personifying your brand. The people who would then see it would be more receptive to doing business with you (whom they see as real human people) rather than companies (who they see as nothing but entities).
Future of Social Media in 2018-2019
1. According To Natalie Athanasiadis, Head of Digital at Digital Visibility Group Melbourne
Chatbots are going to be one of the biggest things in social media marketing in 2018. They have evolved from inferior robotic responses to now being able to provide personalised and instant meaningful interactions with a brand’s audience. Facebook has reported that over 100,000 chatbots are currently using the messenger platform and this number is set to grow. This form of automation means you can spend the extra time working to further expand your business, while still producing a positive overall experience for potential customers.
2. Ryan Swift, CEO of MyosMedia
In 2018 you can expect to see a large movement towards building communities. In fact, Facebook has just launched a bunch of new features for group admins and tailored their algorithms to increase the visibility of post within a group. Facebook will also look to add their 360 photo and video options to Instagram at some stage in 2018, as well as, increase focus on Instagram’s business options as they try to capitalize on last year’s growth and increased audience interest.
3. Danielle Isbell, Marketing Consultant at Odd Dog Media – @odddogmedia
I predict that 2018 will be an even bigger year for paid social. With organic reach at what feels like an all-time low for business pages on Facebook, 2018 will be even more about pay-to-play. Facebook is also removing dark posts, so all posts will be shown on the businesses page, paid campaigns included. This will provide some really interesting competitor analysis for marketers, who will now be able to see all campaigns being run in their niche. I’m really excited to see how this will change the playing field.