Social media has been around since 1997, when the Six Degrees platform allowed users to upload a photo and befriend other users. But it didn’t really take off until the mid 2000s, when major platforms like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and LinkedIn were launched.

 

Now, the top six social media platforms boast over one billion of active users each. The majority of these users are private individuals who want to connect with friends. But many are business accounts – profiles created by businesses to interact with their customers and attract new ones.

 

In the current state of doing business – both for B2B and B2C companies – social media is an essential component of effective marketing strategies. Thus, the true meaning of the question in the title is not whether you should use social media or not for business, but how to harness its power.

 

Here are the most effective ways in which you can use the social media in your marketing efforts:

 

1. Brand Awareness

Branding efforts thrive on the social media. This is the cyber space where you can reach millions of people. This is where a good photo or an insightful video can go viral within hours and reach tens of thousands of likes, comments and shares.

 

Just look at how major brands promote their mission and values on the social media. They post a lot of original and branded content. They encourage their followers to share photos and videos in which they show how they use their products. They organize contests with prizes. They take followers behind the scene, in their offices, manufacturing facilities and show how their products are made.

 

Thus, the social media is the right place to build a strong and easily recognizable brand image.

 

2. Connecting with Customers

People’s attention span gets shorter and shorter these days. If a company does not stay in constant contact with its customers, sharing latest news, promotional discounts and successful client stories, it will lose its customers’ loyalty. They will go to a competitor who is more active and attentive with them.

 

Plus, through direct communication with the customers, companies can build a more realistic buyer persona, discover what their clients want, what they are unhappy about and come up with new product ideas.

 

3. Finding New Customers

The social media is a great online place to display ads. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter ads have a good conversion rate and a flexible bidding system. Plus, the ad creator and analytics platforms developed by these social media networks allow businesses to get valuable data about how users interact with their ads, who are their most loyal followers and how many sales originated in a social media ad campaign.

 

4. Better SEO Ranking

For some time now, Google is indexing social media content, especially from Facebook and YouTube. Thus, by creating a smart posting schedule and using relevant keywords in your social media posts, companies can appear at the top of Google searches, even above their own website.

 

5. Market Insights

Social media is not just a place of looking for customers, but also for keeping an eye on your competitors. By following their pages, businesses can learn valuable marketing strategies and market trends that will help you stay on top of their game.  Find the best SEO roofing experts and get started today.