If you own a business and are not involved with social media marketing, you are missing out on many opportunities. Sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are where the world is hanging out ? that includes your customers! One basic marketing principle that will never change is that you need to be seen where your market is. If they’re on the social sites and you’re not, then they’re not seeing your message, are they?
There are several benefits to doing social media marketing. These benefits include branding, building credibility and supporting existing customers, while reaching new prospects. Let’s discuss those three major benefits in more depth as they are so crucial to your business.
Social media marketing can do wonders for your branding, especially if you’re a new company. Branding means getting people to recognize the name of your company, having a good idea of what it is you offer and knowing something about you. The multitudes of social media sites out there are perfect for getting the word out. Not only can you interact through text with the other people on the site, but you can post photos and videos, too. A picture really is worth a thousand words, right?
Credibility is another benefit for a business doing social media marketing. Part of that credibility comes automatically as you build your brand and name recognition. There are many people who will assume you are credible just because they have heard of you. Another part of that credibility is built on the basis of how you use the social media. If you’re active and interacting directly with customers and prospects, and offering them helpful information, you will gain credibility. Another way to gain credibility with social media is called “borrowed credibility”. This comes from having followers or friends that have a lot of credibility ? a bit of that just naturally rubs off on you.
When it comes to customer support, social media enables you to counter any negative feedback or publicity right away. With the ease of spreading anything online, one complaint can spread like wildfire. If you’re on top of it, however, you can easily respond right away and rectify the situation. You can also tell your side of the story, if the complaint is unfounded. Another thing that is easily done with social media marketing is to be able to poll or survey your customers and/or prospects. Find out exactly what your current customers thing or ask prospects exactly what they need.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the massive benefits of social media marketing. In short, yes, you should be doing social media marketing! You can bet your competitors probably are.
