Many marketers and businesses regarded the sudden influx of social media as something of a passing fad, something which was destined to have a powerful yet ultimately fleeting influence on the world of marketing and sales. The facts and figures regarding social media and its influence paint an altogether different picture, a recent report by Hubspot highlighted this very theory when it found that 92% of marketers agreed that social media is important for their business, up from 86% in 2013, the report also found that 80% of marketers indicated that their social media efforts increased traffic to their respective sites. The power and potential is there for all to see, but the overriding feeling is that some marketers are still struggling with how to implement social media campaigns within their strategies, for this reason, today we will look at the power of social media in regards to your business and how to consolidate your brand through a social media campaign.
Building your brand
Your brand and the recognition it holds with the consumer represents you in a crowded online domain, it is your voice in a busy, bustling marketplace which enables you to be heard above all the others, for this reason any chance you have to increase the volume of this voice and the visibility of your brand in general should be simultaneously pursued and embraced. We have covered Tips for Marketing your Brand on Social Media in these blogs before. What we will look at today is how to actually build your brand recognition, which in turn will lead to brand loyalty resulting in higher conversion and increased conversion rates which is something all businesses crave.
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It is important to allow your brand to be available across networks, we all know the usual suspects such as Facebook and Twitter, but social media doesn’t end there, there is a multitude of options when it comes to choosing which platforms you wish to promote your brand through. Google +, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, RSS feeds, the list is substantial and growing all the time. At this point it is worth noting that it is equally important not to spread yourself too thin, if you have neither the time nor the means you should choose the platforms which are most beneficial to your brand and concentrate on those. The only thing worse than no social presence is one that is rarely updated, it will reflect badly on your brand and should be avoided at all costs.
If time is an issue, the option to create your own digital marketing hub is a method you can employ.
Marketing methods have evolved alongside the digital revolution itself. Everything is enhanced, everything is mobile. Brands now have the ability to reach the consumer on a scale which has never been witnessed before. Advancements in digital communication have enabled brands to reach out to the consumer directly like never before; none more so than through the use of real-time social media integration.
Have a look at what we mean with these 4 digital marketing hubs we think perform this task particularly well. Also check out the video below which is the first in a series of videos explaining using social hubs to help build your brand.
At last check, Facebook had over 1.28 billion users, LinkedIn 300 million users and Twitter more than 500 million users with over 232 million being active monthly users. These figures are simply staggering and only further enhance the point that the world has indeed gone online and embraced social media in a major way.
Social media gives you another voice, use it
Prior to the introduction of social media, one of the only ways a company could be found by the consumer besides advertising was word of mouth, social media has changed this in a meaningful and very real way. Social media gives you a voice and a platform to communicate and engage with the consumer like we have never known before. It is a means of making your content work for you on a broad level across all platforms. Interaction with the consumer through social media will not only build your brand and increase brand recognition but it will increase inbound traffic, decrease your marketing costs, improve your search engine rankings and perhaps most importantly lead to a richer consumer experience in relation to your brand. This will not only improve customer relations, but will provide invaluable consumer insights which can be used to further improve the consumer’s overall impression of your brand and their future experiences using your product or service.
For those of you who haven’t already dipped their toes into the vast pool that is social media there really is no time to waste, the benefits and the numbers are there in black and white for all to see, the time is now.
By Charlie Gallagher