1. stuartjdavidson.com http://stuartjdavidson.com/the-benefits-of-social-media-to-businesses/
The Benefits of Social Media to Businesses
Establishing the benefits of social media within your business is likely the first concern before thinking to undertake
the implementation and execution of a sound marketing campaign.
An important point to remember, which many businesses fail to realise, is that advancing with wider social media
benefits will increase the potential to enhance your priority objective.
Here is a list containing some of the main benefits of social media to businesses…
Branding
Whether users directly engage with your brand or not, they will still see your brand name within the networks they use.
The more impressions a consumer gets of your business, the more likely they will remember your name in the future.
Social media provides greater favourable perceptions of a brand and a better understanding of the customer’s
perceptions of the brand. Regardless of the type of business you operate, consistent brand awareness and exposure is
vital for your continued success.
Lead Generation
Social media can help act as a means of finding customers for your business, advocates for your cause or as a means
to make many other beneficial connections. Conversations are happening constantly within each social network and
monitoring these conversations and reaping the benefits is key to a sound social media strategy.
These leads can be anything from an idea for an article to an online sale. For example, just by searching through
Twitter, you get a feel for the buzz in your industry, who’s saying what and possibly interact with interested future
customers.
Lead magnets are often used to drive targeted traffic into the sales funnel. Social media acts as a catalyst to generate
traffic, but also retains momentum by nurturing visitors and moving them towards leads.

2. Image source: Marketo
Marketing and Promotion
Social media has a huge scope and enables companies to reach massive, targeted audiences and develop targeted
marketing activities to these audiences.
Social marketing allows companies to pitch products in a more human, interactive way. It increases customer loyalty
and trust and has efficient marketing costs – not having mounds of cost associated with paper, ink, and printing.
Reputation Management
Managing your online reputation is essential within social media because your brand or industry is being talked about
regardless of whether you take part in the conversation. It’s beneficial to know what your customers think about your
products, cause, services etc, and with this input in mind you can react accordingly.
Since social media is open to everyone. Anyone has the ability to say what they want about your company. Therefore,
making sure what is being said is truthful, not necessarily positive, is key to developing the trust of your audience and
influencing them in a positive manner.
Feedback from Social Media can influence your decision-making about how you deal with your clients or market your
business. It allows the ability to monitor conversations in real-time about the organisation, providing feedback which
can be assessed and reacted to immediately.
Identifying both positive and negative comments is useful – it can prove to be an early warning indicator of potential
product or service issues.
Managing reputation also creates goodwill and a good customer referral is the most powerful form of marketing there
is.
Growth
The Harvard Business Review Analytics Services conducted a survey of 2,100 organisations and discovered that 79%
are currently using social media channels. Social media enables targeted audience building, which in turn increases

3. traffic to other channels and websites.
Effective management allows greater control of your web or business content, boosts organic Google listings and
better search engine rankings. Social media pages are highly visible in search engines.
Social media enables collaborative knowledge sharing, allowing a company to showcase their talents and establish
themselves as an expert within their industry. It provides more channels of communication, which allows the business
to target, collaborate and communicate with thought leaders.
Continual developments in social networking have largely increased the effectiveness of social media marketing. This
creates stronger links to relevant audiences and increases a brands visibility and exposure. Constant activity within
social media can easily be achieved through the use of social media tools and applications.
An immediate benefit to using social media within business is the real-time ability to remain up to date on the latest
news and connect with these people to bounce ideas off them.
Image source: Socialikemedia
Customer Service and Feedback
Providing support to your customers is vital to the success of any business and social media is no exception to the rule.
When a person reaches out to you, whether their input is good or bad, it is extremely important to respond in a timely
and helpful manner. Social media provides the platform for consumers to interact on a person to person level, so that
they aren’t talking to a faceless representative over the phone or via email.
Effective customer service in social media should seek to respond whenever a user reaches out, just not to users
acting profane, misleading or hateful. Providing this level of service, which can be something as simple as thanking
someone for mentioning your brand, is completely transparent to your entire network and shows how dedicated you
are to your audience.
Educational Asset

4. In any industry, it is important to remain innovative in your field and find the best ways to continue the conversations
about what you do. Stay ahead of the curve on a modern form of media can bring many advantages to your business.
Data: Social media provides your brand with a free source of constant information from other brands, media outlets,
friends, co-workers and even your competition.
Research: Social media is a very cost-effective and efficient way to conduct market or customer research, improve
insights about target markets, and identifying new product or service opportunities.
Competitive Analysis: In any industry it’s important to keep pace with your competitors. Social media merely makes
this process easier by allowing for complete transparency of the content and conversations your competitors are
having on their various social accounts.
Tracking: Social media can help keep you on track with other non-profits, businesses, publications or whoever your
interested in keeping tabs on or on the other side of the fence looking to partner with in the future for a promotion,
campaign or some other type of partnership.
Measurement: Social media provides the ability to measure the frequency of the discussion about a particular
company or brand, creating opportunities for establishing competitive advantages and avoiding competitors becoming
more competitive.
There Are Clear Benefits of Social Media To Businesses
Which of these benefits matters most to your business?
Which of these are your social media campaigns directed at fulfilling?
I take it your answer is the same for both questions? If not, time to revise your social media strategies.
Website by TheSocialShark © 2014. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms & Conditions Sitemap
↑ Back to top