What is Social Media? Social Media is a platform where people can interact with each other, creating, sharing, or exchanging information in virtual communities. Social Media is all about communication and building relationships with the audience. Different types of Social Media are usually dedicated to different ideas of socialising, like blogging, social networking, etc.
Where many people use Social Media to stay in touch with old friends, relatives, a lot of people also use it as a tool of Digital Marketing. Many businesses use it to promote their products or services. And now that Social Media has become more accessible because of mobile phones, it is proving to be a great way of advertising.
Social Media is a brilliant way to tell people about your business. If you are interested in how your business can benefit from Social Media, read the entire article. We will tell you about why use Social Media for business, and how to use Social Media Marketing for business.
To start with, you should always know where your audience is. The initial question to ask yourself about Social Media is where does your audience spend time on Social Media. What are the Social Media outlets that they surf?
Another important question to ask yourself is where is your audience the most active? Just because a Social Media site has big numbers, it does not mean big activity. For them to be of any use to you, a social media user should be regularly active on a social media site.
This is the last but the most important question you need to ask yourself before investing in a Social Media Marketing strategy; what social media sites are right for my business?
Now, there are several Social Media sites where you can promote your business, but not all will be beneficial for your business. Social Media Marketing for business is a great tool, only when used in the correct way. Let me quickly tell you about various social media sites and which ones generate revenue for your business.
Before anything else, get on the three largest social media sites:
- YouTube
Below are the stats for how popular these sites are:
(Source: WordStream)
Major Social Media Platform
Facebook has a total of 2.45 billion monthly active users, which makes it the world's largest social media platform. Half of all Facebook's users are active every day on Facebook, and they spend around an hour on Facebook. These users are doing more than just watching videos, or changing profile pictures. They are associated with dozens of pages, groups, etc.; this is the most important place where your presence is much indeed.
Twitter, just like Facebook, is one of the most used social media platforms in the entire world. It nearly has 321 million monthly active users. From these 321 million users, at least 100 million users are active each day on Twitter, spending at least half an hour on the social media site. Twitter is an astonishingly powerful search engine. Most businesses use Twitter as their customer service platform.
For your ad to remain on the first page, you need to avoid making these trivial mistakes while placing the ad:
YouTube
YouTube, falling right behind Twitter, is a very powerful search engine. YouTube's monthly active users are nearly 270 million, and over 1200 Indian channels have crossed the mark of 1 million subscribers. This platform is reaching more adults than a cable network.
Now, let's talk about other social media sites that could be beneficial for your business.
LinkedIn also has a great user base, it has 250 million monthly active users, but only 3 million users share content on a daily basis, making it just 1 percent of the monthly active users. Where Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are highly recommended for B2C (Business to Consumer) marketing, LinkedIn is highly recommended for B2B (Business to Business) marketing. If you try to reach out to consumers on LinkedIn promoting your business, research shows it would not be as effective as reaching out to other businesses. Neglecting LinkedIn will be a grave mistake, especially if you are in B2B.
Initially, Pinterest was not being paid much heed; people called it a site for women. But now, women only make up to half of its users, which is more or less the same as other social media sites. The site is growing rapidly, Pinterest now has 416 million monthly active users.
Lately, Instagram is proving itself to be one of the best social media sites for social media marketing for businesses. It is a great way to promote products via Instagram influencers. Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users. Instagram's algorithm supports the accounts that are constantly engaging with others on the platform.
How Social Media can Beneficial for your Business
Let me now tell you a little about how Social Media Marketing for business can be beneficial:
Increase Brand Awareness
As we all know everyone loves to browse through social networking sites, now with almost the entire world using social media, it becomes the number one way to reach your potential customers. More than half Instagram users say they come across new products while surfing through Instagram.
Set Brand as Trend Setter
It does not matter what industry is your business in, social media has the power to help you set your brand as a trendsetter. This is also a great way to get your customers to trust your brand.
Improve Website Traffic
When you use social media for marketing, you can link it to your website. This will help increase the traffic on your website excessively.
Boost up Your Sales
Like I said above, it does not matter what industry your business is in, social media marketing will be beneficial nevertheless. Likewise, it does not matter what you sell, social media can help you sell it.
Generate Leads and Gain Customers
While promoting your product on social media sites, you can interact with your audience to know their preference better, this way your audience will know you care about their end of the deal as well.
These are some of the reasons why use of social media for business is never a bad idea. If you found this article helpful and want to start promoting your business on social media, don't waste any more time and start right away.
