Four Reasons Why Your Company Should Be Using Social Media

Social Media has become a hugely prevalent part of modern society and for many of us is a firmly cemented part of our daily lives. Even if you're not using Facebook or Twitter yourself the chances are a great deal of your peers are.

From a business perspective, social media has broken down the barriers of communication and allows you to engage with prospects and customers in a way that has never previously been possible.

Here are my top four reasons why it is crucial for a business to embrace social media within their marketing and communication strategy.

1. It’s free

In essence it is free to use many of these social mediums. Morrison (2013) explains that time is the main cost. Truly engaging with social media can be a lengthy process and this is where many businesses encounter difficulties. Social media marketing is a medium to long term strategy and you need to be committed to it for it to effectively work as it will have to be monitored on a daily basis. Twitter for instance is entirely free and possibly the fastest way to build a list of prospects, however you need to keep them engaged and informed which takes valuable time. 

           

2. Connect with Customers

Social Media allows companies to really engage with their customers which helps to build trust and loyalty. Many companies use Twitter as a way of answering customer queries which is not only of great use to the customer, it betters the image of your brand as you are seen as easily approachable. Some great examples of companies that have successfully nailed this approach can be found in The Guardian (Coleman, 2012). Barefoot and Szabo (2010) how markets are now conversations, therefore it it crucial for your company to join in and engage in this conversatins.

3. Marketing

Social Media enables  small and medium-sized business to market products and services to a much larger audience in a targeted and more efficient way. If regular content is posted it ensures that your brand will appear in followers news feeds so that they are regularly exposed to your business.

An industry report of over 3,000 businesses, conducted by Michael Stelzner, finds that businesses who have adopted social media into their marketing plans have experienced the following benefits.

4. Managing your Reputation

Regardless of whether or not your company engages with social media, others will be talking about your brand. It is greatly beneficial to discover what your customers think about your products or services and with this in mind you can react accordingly. This is especially beneficial where a customer is dissatisfied and takes to social media to vent their thoughts. Through social media you can respond, alleviate their concerns and ultimately mitigate the damage that could be caused to your brand. A business that engages with a concerned customer and attempts to reach a compromise or solution to the issue will be favoured over a business that does not engage.

Research by Maritz Research and Evolve 24 shows that only 29% of companies respond to customer complaints on Twitter.

   

However the study found that 83% of the complainants that received a reply either liked or loved the fact that the company responded, irrespective of how, when or why the response came. This shows the importance of social media engagement. The mere fact that the company acknowledged the problem and showed it was listening improved customer sentiment in 83% of cases.

Conclusion

While there are many benefits of incorporating social media into your marketing and communication strategy, it must be noted that there are also possible detriments to this tool. Hensel and Dies (2010) explain that bias of opinions on social media sites could be detrimental to your company. Another issue is that in general people are much more likely to voice their opinions when they are negative, as an outlet to vent their frustrations. This can present an inaccurate picture of a company.

Works Cited

Barefoot, D. & Szabo, J. (2010) "Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook". San Francisco: No Starch Press Inc

Coleman, A. (2012) "How social media can benefit small businesses". The Guardian, 14th August 2012 (Online) Available at <http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2012/aug/14/small-business-benefit-social-media> 

Hensel, K. & Deis, M.H. (2010) "Using Social Media to Increase Advertising and Improve Marketing". Entrepreneurial Executive, Vol. 15. p87-97

Maritz Reserch and Evolve 24 (2011) "Twitter Study". (Online) Available at <http://www.maritzresearch.com/~/media/Files/MaritzResearch/e24/ExecutiveSummaryTwitterPoll.ashx> 

Morrison, J. (2013) "5 Reasons why every business needs to embrace social media". Deep Blue Sky (Online) Available at <http://blog.deepbluesky.com/blog/-/5-reasons-why-every-business-needs-to-embrace-social-media_69/>

Stelzner, M.A. (2011) "Social Media Marketing Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business". (Online) Available at <https://craigkunce.com/~kuncedes/cdt/cdt_samples/oehninger_barbara_sp2012.pdf>

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