Being Social is Good for Business

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Michael

by Sean MacEntee

There’s no denying that almost everyone now have at least one social media account on one network or another. In fact, there are now 11 million Australians who are on Facebook. That’s 50% of the entire population of Australia!

Social networks such as Facebook allow businesses to setup their own pages easily at no cost. Being on social networks provide numerous advantages such as the platform for a two way conversation with your customers, up-selling and virality. Here’s 5 key advantages:

Customer Engagement
The social network platform allows you to talk with your customers directly. However, don’t use social media as a one way marketing tool. When customers leave a feedback on your page, whether good or bad, attend to it and thank them for the time they’ve taken to write the feedback. If you’ve received a negative feedback, it’s a great opportunity to display how much you care about your customers. Make sure that you are also encouraging customer engagement. Update your page with interesting status updates, photos and videos. Ask compelling questions and start discussions. All activity that a user makes on your page will appear on their profile page. If your content is interesting enough, this will lead to more followers.

Brand Awareness
Traditionally businesses spend a lot of money on advertising just to increase their brand awareness. Today, there’s a much more cost efficient way to increase a brand’s awareness. Through Facebook Pages, a business can build up its followers. These followers can potentially be used as the brand’s unofficial ambassadors. If your content is interesting and relevant enough, they will share it within their network of friends and colleagues potentially creating a viral effect.

Generate Leads
Potential customers will often want to talk to a person before making a purchase. There’s a growing trend of customers asking for information directly on a businesses’ social pages. Social media can allow this conversation happen publicly. Make sure you leave no answer unanswered as it may seem like the page is not being actively monitored.

Search Engine Optimisation
Having a strong social presence on multiple social networks might not directly impact your website’s rankings but it can still increase traffic to your website. By having multiple social accounts, it will make it easier for people to look for your business on search engines as search engines will index your social pages. Within your social pages, make sure you direct users to visit your website.

Industry Leadership
Customers look for businesses who have good reputation within its industry. Having a social presence with loyal followers will add the perception of leadership. Being a thought leader of the industry means that your competitors will also come to you to see how you operate. Customers will notice this and their perception of your brand will be positively influenced.