7 Reasons Why Social Media Is Crucial to Your Business

1. Increase Sales Via Social Recommendation

According to a Morpace Omnibus Report, “68% of Facebook users say a recommendation from a Facebook friend would make them more likely to buy a specific product or visit a certain retailer.” If you’re not publishing content on social media, customers will have fewer opportunities to share product recommendations with friends – but they’ll be able to share your competition’s posts.

2. Understand Your Competition and Benchmark Performance

It’s almost guaranteed that your competition is already using social to drive their business – so don’t get caught behind. See what content works best with your potential audience by creating competitive benchmarks between you and your competitors.

3. Gain New Customers

50% of small business owners reported a gain of new customers through social media, most notably through Facebook and LinkedIn. For many customers, a relationship on social is a precursor to purchase.

4. Give Better Customer Service

Social media is the perfect forum for doing social customer care – and Fans show their appreciation when brands do it right. Socially Devoted brands, those that answer at least 65% of a high volume of questions from Fans and Followers, get 3.5 times the number of interactions that other brands do.

An active presence on Facebook and Twitter can make the difference between a lost sale and a new opportunity. According to New Media & Marketing, 88% of consumers would be less likely to buy from a company with unanswered questions or complaints from customers on their Facebook page.

5. Increase Your Search Ranking

Social media posts make your content more searchable. The more content you post with relevant keywords included in the description, the more likely your page will be the one people get to when they use search engines.

6. Build Brand Loyalty

You can use social media to strengthen your Fan Base any number of ways. Identify and involve Influencers on different networks, and work with them to evangelize your brand. Run contests that involve Fan participation in order to excite and engage.

7. Target Your Ads Better and Optimize Your Ad Spend

Social networks have an insane amount of user data available to marketers. Want to target high school students, ready to graduate, looking for internships? We have this data. Looking to target a niche product to early adopters? Target on Twitter. Compare your social media spend to other digital and traditional marketing advertising channels and benchmark your spend and results.