WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY

Social media today is a highly competitive environment. More so than yesterday, social media channels have made it much easier to place paid advertising content. The decrease in the barrier to entry means that you have to deal with fiercely intense competitors. As such, using every resource available to you is an absolute must. Digital and social marketing should be integrated into your overall marketing tactics to help you stay competitive. A successfully strategized marketing strategy, however, is how you stay ahead of the curb. How?

Organic SEO and Social Media

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of ensuring your business’s website is seen at the top of the page for important search queries. With a well-thought-out SEO strategy, you connect with customers.

It’s important to note the difference between organic SEO and PPC (pay-per-click). Organic SEO is the process of strategizing your SEO tactics to get to the top of a search result without paying for an ad. When a user enters a web-search query, Google will return pages of results. It’s important to note that users typically don’t click on the second page. If they can’t find what they’re looking for on the first page, they’re enter something else on Google.

But how does social media impact organic search engine ranking? Google has been denying any direct relationship between organic SEO and social media; however, a study conducted by Hootsuite has found that there are indirect correlations between organic SEO and social media in that social engagement has an impact in SEO relevancy. If people are frequently interacting with your content, there is clearly good and relevant content by a business. Clearly, digital and social is relevant to your organic SEO strategy.

Exposure | Awareness

Why wouldn’t you want your brand on the platforms where people are most actively engaged. If nearly everyone has social media, then you’re missing out on a great opportunity to put your best foot forward and move people to your content. Not only that, social media today is a great opportunity for your brand to build relationships between your brand and your target market. Simply being exposed to your brand more often moves your target market to see your brand as more favorable.

Couple this with post-purchasing communications. Selling to a new customer is 5 times more expensive than selling to a current one. After making a purchase and using their new purchase, customers want to know was it worth it? Exposure to your brand before and after the point-of-purchase reassures the consumer that they made the right choice. As such, digital and social serves as confirmation purchasing decisions. This, in turn, builds brand loyalists and brand advocates — both of which converts to higher sales.

Two-Way Communication

Even the best of companies will occasionally roll out a defective product once in a while. Or, sometimes a product and a potential customer aren’t meant to be. If you delivered the most delicious ham sandwich to a vegetarian, it just won’t go well for you.

And with social media today, people will make their dissent known. Rather than pretending these posts get lost in the void, owning up to your mistake on digital and social channels allows your brand to be seen honestly. And yes, it might not look great to have negative posts on your business social media page.

But fear not!

This is not the end of the world — this is the best opportunity to speak with customers, right some wrongs, and convert attackers to brand advocates. People want to be heard and when your brand actively speaks with them and makes things right, customers take note. Turn a threat into an opportunity.

Of course, it’s not just battling the occasional complaint. Simply responding to customers who are excited they just bought your product reinforces their excitement. But this is also a great way to see who your audience is. Understand their preferred tone, voice, and style and see if it’s worthwhile for your brand. Social media today is a large and (mostly) free platform full of feedback that only betters your brand.

Roughly Put, ROI

All of the above reasons are good on their own; however, at the end of the day, you need to consider the return on investments. Boosted posts on social media have the potential of reaching large audiences at a fraction of the price, with some brands earning $0.12 per click, substantially smaller than the pay-per-click price of an ad on Google.

Not only that, linking content from social media to your website has the potential of leading to new sales while building brand equity. The key is high-quality content. Not high-quantity content. If you send posts meant to attract and engage, you’ll be able to earn high ROI on social media.