The Benefits of Social Media Marketing

Social media is no longer a new, foreign territory— nowadays, you’ll find that almost all successful brands have a strategic, up-to-date social media presence. And yet, many brand owners and marketers still question the value and advantages of social media for brands. Sure, social media networks are crowded with brands, many a lot like yours, but this is why it’s incredibly important to understand the benefits of social media marketing and how it works to benefit your bottom line. As a Guelph digital marketing agency, we know the real value in creating and maintaining a social media presence, and as you read through the paragraphs below, we hope you’ll learn the value too.

Improved Search Engine Rankings

As a brand, one of the keys to success is getting noticed. Whether it’s getting your storefront noticed on the side of the road or your website noticed online. And you might be thinking to yourself, “I already invest in search engine optimization so why do I need to do more”, but the truth is, nearly 60% of marketers who have been using social media for an extended period of time continue to see increased search engine rankings, according to Social Media Examiner. Why does this matter? Well, the majority of searchers don’t scroll past the first page of results. This means you could be missing out on business, even if you’ve worked tirelessly to reach the top of page 2. But by creating and maintaining a social media presence for your brand, you increase the chance of Google noticing your brand and heighten your chances of working your way onto the first page of results— or better yet, into the number one position on Google.

Increased Digital Presence

There are many ways to increase your digital presence and ultimately improve your search engine rankings. For the most part, it involves creating high-quality content in the form of blogs, case studies, infographics, etc. and making your website more relevant and credible. But if you don’t have time to create lengthy blogs or aesthetically-pleasing infographics, it can be quite tough to increase your digital presence. This is where social media comes in. Rather than writing a single 1000-word blog post, you can create multiple precise social media posts in an attempt to demonstrate the same credibility and relevance that a blog post would. This can not only lead to your social media page climbing up the results rankings, but it can also help grow and build your social media community— ultimately leading to a better digital presence for your brand.

Better Brand Awareness

So, you want to increase brand awareness without spending a lot of time or money? Social media is your answer. Social media is a cost-efficient marketing option that can help boost your brand’s visibility for next to nothing. Most platforms are free and what you spend is entirely up to you. You can pay $0, or  $1000 on your profile. Obviously, the more you spend, the more reach and exposure you’ll receive, but it is possible to organically grow your community by merely creating interesting content that people want to see. And unlike other marketing channels, social media offers the chance for community engagement. This allows your followers to like, comment on and share your posts and further improves your brand awareness. For every like, comment or share you receive, Facebook exposes your page/post to more people.

More Brand Loyalty

Think of brands like Apple, Nike, Samsung and other industry giants, their customers would choose their products over their competitors no matter the price or what a competitor has to offer. Why? Because they’ve taken the time to build brand loyalty. And sure, there are many ways to do this, but social media provides an opportunity to share your brand’s positioning and interact with customers. This gives your customers a sense of your personality and lets them know that you share the same beliefs as them. What social media does that many other options can’t, is make your brand feel more like someone’s “friend” rather than a business through real-time conversations and communication.

Higher Brand Authority

Social media is also an excellent tool for achieving higher brand authority. By interacting with consumers regularly in an honest manner, you create the image that you are a reliable, respectable brand run by real people. And you know what? This is what consumers want. The more your brand can be honest, knowledgeable and display thought leadership, the more people will want to follow your updates and share your expertise. In the long run, this leads to higher brand authority and equity. It can also lead to people sharing your content and knowledge with their other followers which will also lead to more exposure and many other benefits.

Heightened Conversion Rates

Social media is all about connecting people and communities. So why not put your brand in the place where you’re most likely to get connected with these people and communities? Now we’re not saying that every person and community you connect with will result in a conversion. But with the chance to reach millions of people that may not have otherwise found you, there’s a good chance that your conversion rate will be beneficial. For instance, if you were to connect with 1,000,000 people and your conversion rate was just 1%, that’s 10,000 conversions that you might not have otherwise capitalized on. Social media is starting to look more valuable now, isn’t it?

Better Customer Service

The last, but certainly not least advantage of social media is better customer service. Without a social media profile to turn to, consumers are limited to calling or emailing to receive an answer to their question. But with the addition of social media profiles, you give your consumers the option to contact you where it is most convenient for them. This gets them their answer faster, but also makes your brand feel more relevant. In some cases, it can also lead to consumers sharing your exceptional customer service to their social channels— increasing brand loyalty, awareness and more. Sounds like a good trade doesn’t it?

As you can see, social media marketing has many benefits to offer brands both big and small. And whether you choose to start with just one platform or many, we hope you now see the value that a strategic branded social media presence can have on your bottom-line.

As a digital marketing agency, we’re here to answer any questions you may have or even help you create that perfect social media presence. If you’d like to get started working with us, we encourage you to reach out to us by phone or email or by sending us a message on Facebook or Instagram.

And if you’ve decided to tackle your social media marketing strategy yourself, might we suggest checking out our past blog post, “Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Brand“, for a rundown of the major social media platforms and what they can offer your brand?