Why is Social Media Important For Business

Almost every business has a Facebook page, and has no idea what to do with it.

Posting and sharing frequently can be a daunting task, especially when you can’t directly measure the effect it has on your sales. This raises a common and fair question: “Why is social media important for business?”

When social media hit the scene, marketers leapt on the opportunity to more effectively connect with their audience. However, they have always struggled to show tangible ROI for all their tweeting and liking efforts.

Without direct ROI, it can be tricky to see exactly why social media is important for business; but it certainly is important. 

A direct increase in leads and customers is the goal of most marketing efforts. This can be accomplished and measured using social media marketing.

But as with all marketing and advertising, intangible, harder-to-measure benefits can come from social media marketing that can be just as important.

Intangible Social Media Benefits 

Real-time Communication

Of course, a major intangible social media benefit is the interactions you can have with customers in real-time. Having an ongoing conversation with your following constantly keeps your message in their mind.

It also helps companies increase brand awareness and spread information quickly and widely to an extended network of peers. 

Social Credibility

Social media gives brands social credibility. If an article you write or page you create has hundreds of shares or likes, it is social proof slotmachineitaliane.net your content is something people enjoy.

Each social share is a vote. And each vote builds the case that your content is worth viewing. This helps your content rank higher in search results and builds credibility, giving others a great reason to engage with your brand.

Tangible Social Media Benefits 

Links

Posting content that links back to your website is a great way to drive visitors to your business site. Once you post something on a social media channel, it hangs around until you delete it.

A link to your content on your business website posted a year ago will most likely still be relevant for some of your audience today. This evergreen content will compound on itself over time, generating steady increase in website traffic as you post more information.

Analytics

By using free tools like Google Anayltics, you can directly measure how much traffic you generate to your website through social media. This will show you which social channels your customers hang out on, which is where you should focus your content efforts.

Using more advanced analytic tools like Hubspot can show you exactly which posts are generating traffic and how much of that traffic directly converts into leads and customers on your site.

This is called closed loop analytics, and it allows you to attach a dollar value to every tweet and post your business creates. Measuring these numbers will show you exactly how much revenue you generate from your time spent engaging with your audience through social media.

Stats

Still not sure if social media is important for your business? Let the numbers speak for themselves. 

• LinkedIn: 65% of B2B companies have acquired at least one customer through LinkedIn. Not leads. Not traffic. Customers.
• Facebook: 80% of consumers connect with brands on Facebook and 51% of Facebook fans are more likely to buy from the brands the fan likes.
• Twitter: 34% of companies generate quality leads through Twitter.

Make Social Media Work For Your Company

Social media can be a powerful business-generating tool, or a total waste of time. If performed correctly, social media marketing can measurably increase leads and sales.

It can also establish your brand as a credible resource for interesting and useful information. This creates social proof your media is worth engaging. 

In order to gain the full benefits of social media, you need to contribute and participate. To do that correctly and effectively, you need to know some social media best practices for businesses.

These best practices are broken into two types: one-time setup tasks and publishing content. To start realizing the full benefits of social media, check out this social media marketing for business checklist.