Social media is one of the most exciting marketing inventions to come out of this century (so far). Imagine, if you will, marketing where the customers essentially do the work for you and you’ll see why social media is so powerful. Businesses, both small and large, can take advantage of this type of marketing without having to spend an inordinate amount of money out of their budget.

To say that social media is the slingshot that David will use to kill Goliath means that even the greatest of underdogs – the smallest of businesses – are now able to compete with the big guys. Whereas the biggest brand names can spend millions on marketing and advertising, the little guys – the start-ups and the sole proprietorships – don’t have that type of a budget. With social media as a marketing tool, everyone can compete a little more fairly, as it is the customers who determine who gets the likes and shares.

 

Why is social media so important to business marketing?

 

Social media has billions (yes you read that correctly) of users. Facebook is definitely the most-used among the bunch, but other platforms have into the millions of users including YouTube, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. Users aren’t just passively viewing these platforms either – they are actively using them – regularly and for many hours per day. Most people check their social media daily and it has been found that social media influences their decisions on what they do, what they spend their money on and their opinions. More than half of people who use social media admit that they are more likely to buy the brands they follow on social media.

A recent study found that 92% of marketers believed social media was important to their business and has generated more exposure for their business. With an investment of as little of six hours per week, 2/3rds of marketers found an increase in lead generation and a full 95% of marketers saw an increased exposure to their business. It didn’t matter whether this was for a small business or a giant conglomerate – both types of businesses found social media marketing to be beneficial to their business.

 

What can social media do for your business?

 

There are a number of ways that social media can improve your business, whether you’ve just launched your company or you’ve been around for many years. You can compete in the market when you use social media correctly and effectively. Social media can:

• Increase brand recognition
• Improve brand loyalty
• Give you more opportunities to convert
• Increase conversion rates
• Increase brand authority
• Increase inbound traffic
• Decrease marketing costs
• Improve search engine rankings
• Make for a richer customer experience
• Improve your customer insights

As a small business, these features of social media marketing allow you to get in there with the bigger competitors. If you’ve got a great product or service, there is no reason why you can’t accumulate the likes, follows and shares that it takes to get brand recognized and have consumers spend money on your products.

 

What are we doing wrong?

 

Another recent marketing report stated that while 97% of marketers utilize social media for their marketing purposes, 85% of them weren’t sure exactly what social media tools were best to use. While we have figured out that social media is super important for your business, many haven’t figured out exactly how to use it to their best benefit. There is a huge potential when using social media as a marketing tool but many aren’t realizing that potential because they have no idea what they are doing.

Hiring a professional company who specializes in social media marketing is your best bet, especially if you are just getting started or if you haven’t seen the returns you would have hoped to see once you ventured into the social media world. Whether social media marketing is your main form of getting your name recognized or it is just a small part of your overall marketing efforts, the only way to slay Goliath is to use it and use it correctly.