What is social media and why is it important to my business?
Five years ago hardly any business asked this question, and they probably didn’t need to. Today every business needs to be represented in social media.
First things first, what is social media? Social media is the sum of low cost tools, technology and social interaction. The most common tools are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Social media gives businesses a voice to communicate with customers and potential customers. It personalizes their brand and helps to spread their message in a relaxed and conversational way. However; in today’s fast-paced virtual world social media must be apart of a business’ everyday life in order to keep the attention needed for networking success.
If you think that social media is only beneficial to small businesses, here are a few companies that are very involved in social media:
-BMW – Utilizing Facebook to promote their 1-Series Road Trip. They have created a Rampenfest Page for fans.
-National Geographic – Every time NatGeo posts a photo on Instagram it reaches 69.5 million people. On top of those nearly 70 million followers, their posts show up under the explorer feed and Instagram’s algorithm automatically suggest users to follow their profile based on a user’s previous browsing history.
The role for any marketing tool is to inform consumers about your product, who you are and what you offer. Social media does that. Here’s how:
- We can use social media to provide an identity to who we are and the products or services that we offer.
- We can create relationships using social media with people who might not otherwise know about our product or service or what our companies represent.
- Social media makes us “real” to consumers. If you want people to follow you don’t just talk about the latest product news, but share your personality with them.
- We can use social media to associate ourselves with our peers, that may be serving the same target market.
- We can use social media to communicate and provide the interaction that consumers look for.
The role of social media in your marketing is to use it as a communication tool that makes you accessible to those interested in your product and makes you visible to those that may not know your product. Use it as a tool that creates a personality behind your brand and creates relationships that you may otherwise never gain. This cultivates not only repeat buyers, but also customer loyalty. Social media is so diverse you can, and should, use it in whatever way best suits you and your business needs.
Give Vertx Marketing a call or send us a quick “hello” through our contact page and let us know what we can do to help your business in this fast paced world of online marketing. You won’t be sorry you did, we promise!
Aloha,
The Vertx Marketing Team
