Social media has become more and more important as a means of marketing, as people flock to an ever-increasing selection of social media sites and online communities. Although it can be complicated to set up and maintain, having a social media marketing presence can produce big benefits for businesses and there are no signs that this trend is going to dissipate in 2013. Even businesses that are unable to invest the time and effort needed to maintain a social media marketing presence can still get in on the action by hiring the services of a social media agency such as Ignite Visibility.
Here are 20 reasons that social media marketing will not only remain important in 2013, but also take on increasing importance for businesses of all sizes and sectors:
The Future Looks Bright for Social Media Marketing in 2013
1) Becoming More Accessible
A business that is accessible to customers is perceived to be friendlier and more reliable. By engaging with their customers and potential customers on social media sites, a business can help build a reputation for being accessible.
2) Becoming More Responsive
Maintaining a social media presence for marketing helps with monitoring trends and gauging their impact on your business. Being able to react in real time to societal trends is an excellent means for both avoiding disasters and capitalizing on emergent opportunities.
3) Build Brand
Building up a brand requires constant and consistent communication of the desired associations with customers. Maintaining a strong social media presence can help by building both brand recognition and customer goodwill in a brand.
As social media marketing evolves in 2013, so do the icons we use to promote our social media profiles. Here is a very cool set made by WebTreats.mysitemyway.com
4) Build Customer Communities
People tend to be more invested in communities of like-minded individuals. Maintaining a social media presence or having one maintained for your business by a social media agency can help form the nucleus of such communities.
5) Build Excitement
Building up excitement and customer anticipation for the introduction of new products is important. An effective social media presence can help promote all aspects of this process by providing teasers over time and drumming up excitement prior to release.
6) Build Links
Good links are one of the most important factors in search engine rankings. Having a social media company maintain your social media presence can help build links to your site in order to raise its profile.
7) Build Reputation
Having a positive social community can play a role in your online reputation management. With the right strategies in place, you can eliminate negative reviews such as this.
A positive reputation is an indispensable asset that cannot be purchased but instead must be built up. By engaging with customers, answering their questions, and addressing their concerns, you can position your business as a leader in your sector.
8) Conducting Research
Businesses that fail to conduct research about their marketing policies are also businesses that choose to remain blind and fail to adapt. Social media marketing can both provide another valuable source of information and help build the trust needed to persuade customers to provide businesses with their opinion.
9) Cumulative Effect
Much of social media marketing is dependent on interested individuals spreading the information to others in their social groups. As a result, successful marketing conducted using social media has a cumulative effect beyond the initial impact.
10) Decreased Cost
Compared to other marketing methods, social media marketing is both cheap and cost-effective. Even if you choose to hire a social media company to handle the responsibilities, it is still cheaper than traditional marketing methods.
11) Disseminating Information
Social media sites provide another means for businesses to spread information about their products and operations, which can be particularly important if those businesses find it hard to use traditional means of dissemination.
12) Drive Traffic
A social media presence maintained by a social media company can help redirect potential customers to your site for further information. You can see this traffic in Google Analytics new social media reports.
Here is a great video by Matt Cutts at Google which talks about how Google social search works. A great way that social media can drive traffic!
13) Enhanced Reach
The Internet has global reach and social media sites have done much to bring together people of all nations to the same places. As a result, a good social marketing presence can reach more people than local offline efforts.
14) Enhanced Influence
Good social marketing that has built up trust and reputation over time can also exert more influence than most marketing methods, which have a shallow effect that can only add up with repetition.
15) Finding Customers
Social media provides a means for individuals to find products in which they might be interested, including products that are being put out by your business.
16) Finding Distributors
Similarly, social media sites can also provide a means to make contact with other businesses that might be interested in distributing your products through their operations, which can both spread your influence and boost your sales.
Social Media will Play a Huge Role in the News in 2013. Here we see a Very Active CNN Twitter Page that People Around the World Depend on for News.
17) Finding Partners
Once again, being able to get into contact with businesses over social media also means being able to find businesses to team up with you on joint ventures, which can help you capitalize on otherwise unavailable opportunities.
18) Finding Personnel
Human resources are precious and hard to build up, but a good social media marketing presence can help attract candidates to your business.
19) Monitoring Reputation
Having a social media presence lets you keep in touch with the societal opinion of your business on the ground, letting you keep an eye on your reputation and move quickly to combat issues before they can become problems.
20) Monitoring the Competition
Similarly, being able to monitor social media sites also lets you keep an eye on the actions and strategies of your competitors. Doing so can help you be prepared to both counter-act and imitate your competitors.
Even if you do not have the time to maintain a social media presence, hiring a social media agency such as Ignite Visibility will let you reap the numerous benefits of social media marketing throughout the coming year.
References:
http://blissfullydomestic.com/life-bliss/geek-life-bliss/20-reasons-small-businesses-should-use-social-media/7414/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-promising-social-media-stats-for-small-businesses/
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