Why You Need a Social Media Presence | Digital Harvest Marketing

Every business needs a social media presence,

and most can benefit from actively trying to market and generate leads on the

The fact of the matter is that social media

has become _the_

preferred form of

media in our day and age. [67% of people say they get their news from social media\\

first](http://fortune.com/2017/09/08/facebook-twitter-snap-news/ "Link: http://fortune.com/2017/09/08/facebook-twitter-snap-news/")

, for instance. News breaking most often comes from

shares or second-hand sources on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In

effect, content publishers have to have social media at the front of their mind

if they hope for their outlet to get exposure for breaking a story as opposed

to a competitor.

For businesses, this same principle holds

true. If you aren’t active on social media, others may talk about your business

and seize control of the narrative. Or, even worse, your business is all but

invisible until someone else shares content or news talking about you.

In addition to providing visibility, having a

proactive social media marketing strategy can help boost your sales performance

and help you achieve your marketing goals. You can earn new customer leads,

increase brand awareness, and even offer customer support through social

channels.

To cover the full scope of why your business

needs to be on social media, consider the following five benefits described

below and how they are an essential part of any digital marketing strategy.

Create a Highly Visible “Hub” for Your Business’s News and Announcements

Let’s be honest. Very few people are going to

religiously check your business website’s “News” or “Blog” page for

announcements and press releases. If most people don’t visit news sites to get

news, they certainly aren’t actively going to business’s websites to see the

latest developments.

This assertion isn’t meant to discourage you

from tending to your website at all, but rather to make you realize just how

much more visibility being on social media adds for your business. Sharing news

and announcements on social is dead simple, and your followers may even help

share those materials for you once you release them into the wild.

In this way, your social media profiles serve

as your business’s online “hub” away from its main website. Your profile photo,

the content you share, and the announcements you make all have the effect of

turning your social accounts into an official mouthpiece for your brand. From

here, you can help shape your public image and control the flow of information

you release into the world.

Increase Your Visibility on Search Engines

The jury is still out as to whether social

media engagement and content shares can raise the search engine ranking for a

business’s website pages. Hootsuite, for instance, found a small correlation

but

concluded that a deeper study with more data points was needed.

Even if social media can’t help raise your web

page rankings, it can help you occupy a more obvious spot in the rankings

altogether. Why? Because social media platforms have great domain authority,

which allows them to rank highly any time a search is made.

So, if someone searches for your business name

or a related topic online, your social media page and posts talking about your

business are highly likely to appear near the top of search results. Twitter is

especially good at earning top ranks, since Google features recent tweets

Having a social media profile and actively

discussing your areas of business can therefore give you additional

opportunities at ranking near the top of search engine results.

Publish Your Content and Earn Traffic for Your Marketing Campaigns

While people are more likely to check your

social media pages than your homepage for business news, you _can_

encourage more traffic to your

website by posting on social media.

With the right images and messaging, you can

easily pull in huge amounts of traffic just from one post. The aim is to get

people’s attention and to make full use of your available resources. In other

words, you are going to craft great content previews for content like shared

blog posts.

For campaign-related traffic, you can describe

your offer in attractive terms to earn attention and traffic. A retail business

can describe a sale for their website store, for instance. Or, you can

encourage people to sign up for entry in a contest by posting a link to the

relevant landing page.

Social media posting is particularly useful

for boosting the ROI of your content marketing campaigns. Without social

sharing, many businesses would get little traffic to their blogs. By posting on

social, the business can boost traffic and potentially up their correlated

domain authority, which explains the positive effect Hootsuite saw between

social engagement and SEO rank.

Raise Brand Awareness and Earn New Customer Leads

Social media creates opportunities for

countless people to discover your business and what it does. Google searches

for business names spike if that business can generate social buzz, for

example.

You also have the opportunity to earn

exposures through people who follow and engage with your brand on social media.

For instance, someone who “likes” or comments on your post on Facebook can have

those interactions appear on their friend’s newsfeeds.

Social media advertising is also another

potential source of significant new impressions and customer leads. Platforms

like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn have powerful audience

customization tools that allow you to get in front of your most valuable buyer

personas with just a minimal budget.

A landscaping company could target business

owners in their area, for instance, by selecting job titles as an audience

filter. Or, they could target a wealthy neighborhood with large estate-style

land plots that can offer lucrative contracts.

Software companies can similarly offer free

demos or pitch their product’s benefits to relevant audiences. Social media

provides the visibility, and once you have someone on your landing page or on

your email list, you have opportunities to convert.

Interact With Your Audiences and Provide Customer Support

Brands can do an excellent job of building

relationships with their audiences when they can create content that encourages

engagement.

The UPS Store, for example, came out with a powerful social media post

that

piggybacked off the popularity of a recent Nintendo product release. To date,

the post has gotten 3,200 shares, over 200 comments, and 10,000 “likes.”

Interactions like these don’t just multiply

brand impressions. They also change the way people might perceive a brand.

Someone who loves the playful tone of the post can then translate these

positive associations to the business posting it. Or, the brand can help forge

strong associations between itself and the values it cares about most.

People who interact with the brand can

therefore end up being more loyal customers, while repeating the desired

positive brand associations to their friends and followers. According to one

survey, [48%\\

of people say they are more likely to make repeat purchases](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/data/q2-2017/ "Link: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/data/q2-2017/")

from a brand that engages with them, and 90% of millennials consider it “cool”

when a brand responds to their questions.

But what about people who have nasty things to

say about your business on social media, or people who have a complaint? That

is actually a great opportunity!

After voicing a complaint about a company on

social media, [71% of people who have a positive experience and have\\

their issue resolved say they are likely to recommend that company](https://www.getambassador.com/blog/social-customer-service-infographic "Link: https://www.getambassador.com/blog/social-customer-service-infographic")