9 Reasons Why Social Media is Essential for Your Business

By Andrea Cerny

Internet Marketing

As we move into an increasingly digital future, social media is one of the main ways people interact with each other. In fact, the number of worldwide social media users is expected to reach 2.95 billion by the year 2020.

If your business isn’t on social media yet, it’s only beneficial to start now so your brand is discoverable and accessible through this avenue. Not only that, but there are a host of other reasons why your business should establish a social media presence. Here are nine of the most important ones.

1. Drive more traffic to your website.

When people discover your business on social media, it’s easy for them to take the next step over to your website. You can optimize your social profiles and increase users’ ability to get to your website by including links to your website in your bios, utilize available CTA features (such as Facebook’s call to action button), and regularly post content from your website.

2. Improve your site’s SEO.

Traditional on-page SEO isn’t enough anymore. Off-page SEO efforts, including social media, also contribute to the successful ranking of your site. While having a social media presence in and of itself might not have a direct link to your ranking, sharing your content on social media brings more traffic to your site and results in more inbound links, which does contribute to your ranking.

3. Boost your brand awareness.

Simply being on social media gives you a huge opportunity to develop your brand’s reputation and increase your audience. This is especially true when you capitalize on current events and trending topics. By making your posts discoverable and with social media advertising, you’ll find new customers and new customers will find you. Posting about relevant and timely topics in the industry also allows you to establish your business as an industry expert worth following.

4. Connect with your audience.

People use Facebook and Twitter as social networks. They don’t typically view these channels as marketing tools. As a result, people are more likely to engage with you and your brand and get to know you more intimately. Social media gives you a way to humanize your business and show your personality. Not only that, but nurturing your audience on social media promotes brand loyalty. Simply put, social media provides a way of building relationships with your customers like no other marketing channel can.

5. Improve your customer service experience.

Sixty-seven percent of customers have used social media for customer service. Social media gives you another very effective way of addressing and solving customer service issues. You can engage with your customers on level they’re comfortable with and in a way that’s easy for them, resulting in a richer and more well rounded customer service experience overall.

6. Gain valuable insights about your customers.

You can use social media analytics to glean key data about your customer base. View your audience demographics in order to build better buyer personas and better target your marketing efforts. In addition, through social listening, you can keep a close eye on what your customers are saying about you and your competitors.

7. Super affordable advertising channel.

Social media offers you an incredibly cost-effective and customizable advertising outlet. In fact, one analysis showed that social media is the cheapest form of advertising available today. Some social channels, like Facebook, have excellent targeting capabilities, ensuring your ad gets delivered only to users within the parameters you set, thereby improving the return on your investment.

8. Excellent means of content distribution.

One of the key facets of the attraction stage of inbound marketing is to leverage your website content to drive traffic. Social media gives you a fantastic way to do that. When you post your content to your social media channels, users click through to your website. If they deem your content shareable, they will share your content with their networks, effectively further distributing your content for you.

9. Connect with others in your industry.

It’s important to connect with other influencers in your industry via social media. Not only does your connection build your own brand’s reputation, it also exposes them to your brand and your content. Plus if they share your content, that’s a huge opportunity for you to get some new audience members.

When done strategically, social media can result in a more powerful brand, more website traffic, and more sales leads. The longer you wait to establish your social media presence, the more you have to lose!