Five Reasons Your Business Should Be Using Social Media

Social Media is now a massive part of business and customer service. Love it or hate it, your customers expect you to be active on social media platforms such as Twitter, Google+ and Facebook, if your not they will quickly forget about you. With the popularity of social media today, real-time conversations are happening every day that define your market and brand — whether you choose to join or not. If you still aren’t convinced and your business hasn’t started using social media, here are 5 compelling reasons to start today.

1: Customer Service

Customers now expect businesses to be active on social networks such as Twitter, Google+ and Facebook, and will try and find you if they have complaints, questions or comments about your service or product. Social media platforms allow your business to have personal conversations with your customers instead of automated email messages and support ticket numbers.

2: Reputation Management

Managing your business’s reputation online is a critical part of any marketing strategy and social media provides you with a fast and efficient way to do this. When dealt with swiftly and sensitively comments and complaints can be addressed, this instant feedback demonstrates high levels of customer service and can effectively diffuse negativity and resolve any issues that your customer may have. You also get insight about what your customers think about your brand, new product and service ideas and any problems they may be having. Using social media to help your customers in a professional and personal manner can make you the go-to experts in your industry which can only be a good thing right?

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Social media when used in conjunction with quality content creation is a highly effective way to attract new customers to your business and also helps you to become an authority in your industry. Have you noticed those small share buttons you see on lot’s of websites these days? They are great to share content you find interesting with your friends on Twitter, Facebook etc, they are very good for businesses wanting to improve their SEO. Having your content shared and linked back from other places other than your own website lets search engines such as Google know you are a trustworthy and engaging website, which will help push you up the rankings when customers search for your keywords online.

4. Brand Awareness

Having a blog on your website and using your social media accounts to share and promote your great content can drive website traffic and position you as the expert you are in your industry. Keep your blog content relevant to your industry, any questions you get asked daily write a post on your blog and share via social media.

5. Repeat Purchases

People spend on average 6.9 hours on social media sites per month. It’s a big opportunity for brands to reach out and keep your business’s name in your customers minds. Creating interesting blog posts can result in your customers sharing it with their friends, and your content popping up in more and more people’s streams. This means you can actively influence purchasing decisions and helps you to foster customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.

Using social media for business today is as important as learning how to use email for business 17 years ago. What are you waiting for, get started now.