The importance of social networking

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To some entrepreneurs, social networking, as part of a social media marketing campaign, is a powerful fad that should not be taken lightly, although they expect it to be in the spotlight only temporarily. However, those that consider social networking a passing marketing interest with no profit to them whatsoever, statistics will prove them wrong.

According to social media studies, the vast majority of marketers (92%) reported that social media marketing was one of the most important aspects of a business, in 2014, which resulted in increased traffic to their websites. Furthermore, social media marketing can help increase sales, providing you understand exactly what social media tools you need to use to achieve the desired results.

Here are some of the ways social networking can help improve your business:

1. Increase Brand Loyalty & Recognition

It has been evidenced that brands that engage on social networking connect with their audience better and enjoy increased loyalty from their clients. Experts say that an open social media plan, strategically executed, can morph consumers into being brand loyal.

That aside, social networking allows you to increase your visibility and syndicate your content. Social media channels can become your brand’s voice and speak out loud for your brand, on your behalf. This makes it significantly easier for new prospects to become familiar with your service/product, while making your brand even more recognisable for existing customers.

Now, interacting with your customers on a regular basis, automatically increases your brand’s authority. Everyone turns to social media to present the unique features of a service or product and, undoubtedly, the more people talk about you on social media, the more authoritative your brand seems to new audience members (who will follow you for updates even blindfolded). Finally, you can also interact with major influencers on social networks and skyrocket your visible reach, too.

2. Higher Conversion Rates

Interacting with your prospects and existing customers in social media channels makes your brand more humanised, which is considered critical. Also, studies have shown that social media has tremendously higher lead-to-close rates (100%), compared to outbound marketing. Having more social media followers improves credibility and trust to your brand. Considering that this represents social proof, building your audience with social networking can improve conversion rates on the traffic you receive.

3. Better SEO’s

SEO requirements keep changing. Stuff like updating your blog, making sure you have optimised meta-descriptions and title-tags are no longer enough to capture relevant traffic from search engines. Search engine rankings are also dependent on the social media presence of a brand, given that strong ones always use social media. Therefore, having a noticeable social media presence can convince Google and other search engines that your organisation is trustworthy and credible, boosting your search engine ranking.

4. Increased Inbound Traffic

Your inbound traffic is rather limited without social networking. It comprises of those that already know your brand and those searching for the keywords you are ranking for at the time being. With social networking, you actually add a new path that leads to your website, opening the road for new visitors to land on your site. If you share high-quality content with them on social media, you increase your chances for more inbound traffic. Of course, more traffic means more leads, which, in turns, can mean more conversions and sales.

Other benefits of social networking include:

Reduced marketing costs –  According to studies majority of marketers say that one hour per day (6 hours in total) was more than enough to increase traffic and generate leads. A piece of advice here: Start small so you won’t have to worry about budget, even if you are going for paid advertising through Twitter and Facebook.

Better customer experiences – People love to share their experiences on social media channels. It is the next best thing to making a phone call. Interacting with your customers on social media allows you to address all issues right on spot and take action to make things right or thank a customer that has complimented you. This shows your customers that you do care for them, and rest assured: they will return the favour for sure.

Social networking is almost mandatory nowadays. Claim your lion’s share from a huge pie and start building relationships with prospects and existing customers to help your business flourish and grow.