7 Reasons Your Small Business Should Use Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing. It’s the buzz phrase of the moment right now in marketing circles. Everyone from local mom and pop businesses to massive corporations are getting social, trying to capture the many benefits it can entail.

If you’re uncertain if social media marketing is right for your small business, consider these reasons you need to jump on the bandwagon now.

1.    It makes you relevant—There’s nothing worse than an out of touch company stuck in the past. Building an active social media presence shows your target audience that you’re relevant and that you’re on the cutting edge. As a consumer, I’d have a lot more confidence buying from a company who is easy to get in touch with and has a strong online presence than from a company whose online presence consists of a static website that looks like it was designed in 1998.

2.    Social media increases your exposure—Here’s a fun exercise: Ask any small business owner what their biggest challenge is. The majority of them will answer: getting exposure. See, if your target audience doesn’t even know you exist, it’s going to be pretty hard to grow your business. Through blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media outlets, you can put your small business front and center for your target audience.

3.    You can learn more about your target audience—One benefit of social media that many people overlook is the insight you can gain into your target audience. Just interacting with them on Twitter can help you better understand how they think, what their likes and dislikes are, how they talk, where they hang out, and so much more. This can help you refine your marketing campaign to better connect with your target audience.

4.    Use social media to monitor your brand’s reputation—The great thing about the Internet and social media is that everyone has a voice. Consumers now get to sound off about products they like and products they think suck. Through social media, you can monitor what others are saying about your company, and respond more quickly to diffuse damaging situations. Just make sure you don’t get overly defensive and unprofessional when someone says something you don’t like.

5.    Establish yourself as an authority through social media—From Q&A websites to your company blog, social media provides an excellent medium for establishing yourself as an expert. By providing quality, accurate information, people will respect you and look to you for answers. In turn, this will give credibility to your company.

6.    It’s free—Anyone can start a blog, sign up for a Twitter account, post videos on YouTube, answer questions on Yahoo! Answers, etc. for free. Social media is a no-cost way to promote your brand.

7.    You can achieve higher search engine rankings—Social media and SEO go hand in hand. First, social media is a powerful tool for link building. And as you earn more inbound links to your website, Google will put more trust in your website, leading to higher search engine rankings. Furthermore, social media profiles tend to rank highly for your brand. This helps you control the search results people see when they search for your company.

Does your small business use social media marketing?