Benefits of Social Media
I’m going to share
the top benefits of social media marketing.
Knowing these incredible benefits
will make you, your employer
or your client increase their social media budget
and help grow your business faster.
Let’s get straight into it.
Social media offers so many benefits that traditional media formats
like television, radio and outdoor simply can’t offer.
If your organisation is able to fully leverage it,
it will deliver increased brand awareness, drive loads of qualified web traffic
and conversions, increase sales leads
and help convert those leads into paying customers.
Let’s look at each benefit in detail.
1. Huge, global reach
Today there are 3.1 billion active social media users globally.
These are crazy numbers when you realise that social media
only emerged about 15 years ago.
Today 1 in 3 people around the globe are active on social media,
and all you need to reach them is an internet-connected device.
Of the 3.1 billion users, about 2.6 billion are on Facebook,
2.1 billion are on YouTube, 1 billion are on Instagram
and 700 million on LinkedIn.
Virtually every business can now find their customers
active on social media.
2. Pinpoint your target market
Social media channels hold a huge amount of data on their users
that they provide to advertisers to help them make targeted ads.
This includes basic information
like gender, location, and age, but also a massive array of
demographic, interest and behavioural data.
Want to target 18-24-year-old males
who are single and live in Canada that love dogs but dislike cats?
No problem it’s only a few clicks away.
In addition to basic targeting,
you can also target those who have interacted with your organisation before.
Called a ‘custom audience’, these can be lists of people
who have visited your website, people from your existing email list,
people who have watched a video of yours,
people who like your Facebook page, and much more.
Finally, you can create ‘lookalike audiences,
which are much larger audiences that have similar characteristics
to a smaller custom audience.
For example, you may have a list of 1,000 people
who have purchased your product,
and ask Facebook to find a larger audience of 100,000 people
who share similar demographics.
Ultimately this means that you’re only targeting people
most likely to be interested in your content,
removing misspent marketing dollars and maximising your returns.
3. Data measurement and optimisation
On social media, you can measure literally everything.
many people watched your video,
how many people liked or reacted to the video,
many people commented, shared the video,
clicked on your link, and so on.
Using a tracking pixel, the social media channels
can even record the actions that people take as they travel around the internet.
For example, if you click on an ad on social media,
and then make a sales enquiry on a website,
this data will be pulled back into the social media channel.
This allows marketers to track conversions and optimise
their spending to increase the return on investment.
The algorithms of the social media channels
also, optimise your ad spend to help you achieve your objectives
at the lowest possible price.
They have a vested interest in helping you
because the more money you make,
the more you’ll spend advertising on their platform.
4. Grow organically Benefits of Social Media
You certainly don’t need to have a big paid ad budget
to be successful on social media.
In fact, there are many social media marketers who are generating
loads of traffic and making tons of money
without spending a cent on paid ads.
Your organic (or free) reach is the proportion of people
who see your social media posts for free.
It varies between social media channels.
Facebook is down to 2-3%, Instagram is at about 7%
and LinkedIn is still at 10-12%.
If the initial people who see your social media post engage with it,
by liking, commenting or sharing it,
the algorithms will reward that content with more reach,
meaning it will be shown to a greater proportion of your followers
and potentially become trending content,
going viral and generating massive free reach.
Yes, the organic game has got a lot harder and more competitive
as millions of social media marketers vie for the attention of users,
but there’s still definitely a huge opportunity
out there for you to harness.
5. Engage your audience
Traditional media like television, print, radio and outdoor
are ‘broadcast’ formats, meaning there’s a handful of media publishers
sharing a message that the audience can’t respond to.
Yes, these formats have evolved to make their media more interactive,
however, it’s pale in comparison to social media.
With modern smartphones, everyone is a media publisher.
Billions of people can take a photo
and publish it on social media in seconds…
Then there are billions of other people who can respond.
This unique attribute of social media
humanises a brand by giving it a unique voice,
helping create meaningful connections with their audience,
ultimately increasing trust.
6. Increase brand awareness
Search engine marketing, which is predominantly done through Google,
is great because people who search for something have high purchase intent,
meaning they’re in the mood to buy.
If I search ‘black Adidas joggers’
there’s a chance that I want to buy a pair.
However, a search is only useful to the extent
that people are aware of the brand.
If they’re not, they won’t search for it.
Enter social media, which offers a huge variety of formats,
in particular video, that can be used to make prospects
aware of your brand for the first time
and then nurture them to become paying customers.
7. Drive website traffic
Social media is now one of the world’s largest drivers of traffic on the internet.
This traffic can be from the organic links,
such as the single URL on your Instagram profile
or a link you include on a YouTube video
or a link from a paid social media ad.
Once on your website or landing page,
marketers can invite social media users to take the next step
of the buyer journey by offering lead magnets
– essentially a high-value piece of content that compels users
to exchange their personal information,
most importantly their email address.
8. Establish industry authority Benefits of Social Media
The sheer speed and ease with which someone can create content
means that you’re able to position yourself or your brand
as an authority in your industry.
Interior designer?
Write a blog article about the Top 10 Ways to Design Your Office,
or create a video on How To Style Your House for Summer,
or maybe create a Pinterest inspiration board.
Creating content like this and sharing it on social media
will demonstrate your expertise and credibility to potential buyers.
9. Lift conversion rates
Social media users will typically follow a brand for a while
before deciding to buy from them.
They become aware of the brand and with regular content
develop trust that the products or services are high quality
and worth the investment
Called ‘warming up, this process leads to an increase
in conversion rates on your website once someone decides
to take the next step towards buying.
With retargeting on social media,
you can also ensure that you’re only serving ads
to people that are genuinely interested
and not wasting money on those who aren’t.
Check out a friend’s Instagram feed who is the opposite sex to you
to see just how different the targeted ads are to your feed!
10. Improved customer service Benefits of Social Media
Nowadays customers don’t want to sit on the phone
speaking to an organisation about a customer service issue they have.
Instead, they turn to social media for help
to instantly speak to someone.
Whether it’s tweeting your electricity company
or speaking to your favourite clothing brand on Messenger,
social media is a fantastic platform for customer service.
11. Boost search engine rankings
The major search engines like Google now factor the amount of engagement
that a web page, such as a blog article, receives on social media.
Combined with correct keyword optimisation,
this means that social media can deliver your website
more free traffic when people search for the relevant keyword
related to that piece of content.
And last, but not least
12. Collect reviews and customer insights Benefits of Social Media
Social media is a great place for customers
to provide a review of your product quality,
your price, your customer service, or anything else they like.
These reviews can then be shared with other social media users
to increase brand loyalty and credibility.
The business pages of the various social media channels
also offer a wealth of demographic data
on people who visit or follow the page.
For example, Facebook’s Page Insights show a breakdown
of your followers’ age, location and gender,
helping to understand who’s most interested in your brand
and what products you can deliver to best meet their needs.
So there you have it. Use these 12 irresistible benefits of social media
to convince yourself, your boss or your clients
to increase their budget on social media
and rapidly grow their traffic, leads and sales.
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