Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and tools like blogs are helping small business owners succeed in their businesses. While the idea of social media marketing may sound scary to some, having a basic plan will help. Social media marketing is basically about building a community around your business. The goal of social media marketing is to offer good content that will make people come back for more.
There are two reasons to use social media marketing –
- To establish yourself as an expert in a field related to your business, thus driving traffic to your website and generating sales
- To increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rank by bringing more traffic to your site and using keywords that will get you noticed and push your site up in a Search Engine Results Page.
A recent study “How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses” by Michael A. Stelzner focused on social media marketing and found the following results.
- Out of the 1898 participants surveyed, almost half of them were consultants or one-person business owners.
- 85% indicated that their social media efforts generated three benefits – good exposure for their businesses, improving site traffic, and building new partnerships.
- More than 50% of the marketers indicated a rise in their search engine rankings due to social media marketing.
- More than 50% of the marketers also found that social media generated qualified leads.
This shows that as search engine rankings improve, the business’s exposure will increase, leading to a reduction in overall marketing costs. In other words, your business needs social media marketing to succeed.
Article to reference – How Social Media Has Changed Small Businesses
