Facebook. Twitter. YouTube. LinkedIn. While they provide a lot of entertainment and social activity, they are quickly becoming one of the most powerful forms of marketing in our society. Those who do not embrace these social marketplaces are missing a major portion of the population in their community. The root of its power lies in the timeless power of “word of mouth” marketing.Unfortunately, just setting up a Facebook account is not a guarantee that is will produce benefits for your business. There is a strategy to leveraging this social media to your advantage.
The key to effectively using social media is understanding how it works. Social media gathers people online around a common interest or activity. As the users of the site get involved, they create a profile of their likes and interests. Users of similar interests tend to find each other, which presents a wonderful opportunity to market in a targeted way. These like-minded users share their opinions and regularly make recommendations as they interact in this social circle. Research clearly demonstrates that consumers seek out recommendations when they are looking to make a purchase. We also know from experience and research that consumers trust the recommendations of other consumers more than any other form of marketing. As consumers provide recommendations through social networking sites, users feel as if they are receiving helpful information from a trusted friend.
The proper use of this understanding can produce several benefits at a very low cost:
- Build Customer Loyalty – By building a social network for your business, you can create tremendous loyalty by creating a sense of community and family among your customers.
- Build web traffic to your online marketing – As you post information and offers, this will be shared around the social website. This sharing is often done by posting links back to your website. The result is an increase in traffic to your website and social sites.
- Build Brand Awareness – Even consumers who don’t click on your shared links will still be reminded that you are there. That repeated exposure will pay off at some point. In the meantime, the information will not be resented since it came from a trusted source.
- Build Improved Search Engine Optimization – Search engines weigh the value of each link that is posted as they determine the organic rankings of each website. Links shared in social media carry great weight because they are voluntarily shared as consumers rate your information valuable enough to link to it. The more people share these links among their social website, the higher in the rankings you will move. These links are more effective than paid links and they are notably cheaper.
- Build Highly Targeted Communication – By learning to connect with social site users based on their detailed profiles, a company can become very specific in their message to targeted groups of people. Targeted messages always result in an increase in qualified prospects. Of course, more qualified prospects will translate into increased revenue.
Call R.A.H. Marketing Group and let us put these principles into practice for your business. Let us harness the power of the hottest new trend in online marketing for you!