Right when you think it’s generally understood that every business needs to be on the social media marketing band wagon, I spoke with someone who said “Facebook? Twitter? I don’t think we need that.  G+ what’s that?”

Some of these people will listen and learn the facts, but some are still very stubborn about  joining the online social world. It’s like de sha vu, “I don’t internet,” from 7 years ago. But yet these same people are still paying $800 a month on YP ads.

People will tell you hundreds of reasons why your brand should be on social media, but I’ll tell you THE BIG 4 REASONS why we use social media and how we use it for our clients.

 1) SEO

SEO is the primary reason why we joined and brought clients to the social media realm over two years ago.  With Google indexing your social profiles and listings made it an easy decisions.  Optimizing your LinkedIn company page so it comes up on a competitive search term is tough, although if you can pull it off, it’s a huge bonus.  The big reason social media accounts is for the people who search your brand name.  To fill the first search page with results that are only directly related with your company is great!  This minimizes the chance for another company to come up under your search.  You don’t want someone to search for you specifically and stumble across a competitor, you want to own that page.

Another reason why it helps SEO is the follow back links.  Some of the social sites give “follow” links to your website and this ultimately helps your SEO’s cause.  Even for the social media sites that use “no follow” links, you are still sharing good content that tracks back to your site. People are clicking and coming over from these links and this will ultimately help the SEO cause and increase your traffic.

Lastly social search is becoming more and more relevant. With Google’s latest Search +Your World and Bing heavily incorporating Facebook, it can not be ignored any longer. Social is fast becoming more and more a part of the search world everyday.

2) Increase Website Traffic

The second reason we put effort into ours and our clients social media campaigns is to DRIVE traffic to your website.   You can do this by creating and sharing GOOD content.

People begin to notice as you grow a social reputation, and in return you grow a following and traffic to your website.  Good content is step one, step two is understanding your following / demographic and creating shareable content.  This will grow your following, brand awareness, traffic to your website and if the content is gets viral on sites with “follow” links, your boosting your SEO.  It goes hand in hand.  You’re boosting your SEO which will obviously grow your traffic plus your gaining all that traffic linking over from your social networks.  Some Math for you:  Increasing traffic + SEO = Increased leads which = increased conversions.  Also increasing your SEO + increasing your social media presence = Increasing your brands exposure, brand awareness, and brand visibility.

With number 1 and 2 above combined it will only increase your exposure.  More chance to be found, grab traffic you wouldn’t have had and this leads to increased conversions.  Your energy must be spent correctly in attracting relative traffic and your website must look and function properly too (visit bay area web design).   Watch the bounce rate.  Your exposure will increase which will also increases your brand awareness and visibility.

3)Increase Brand Awareness & Exposure

You might not grab the lead the first time they see your Facebook post or tweet or even the first time they read your blog but maybe the second time heck maybe the fith time. Or maybe it’s 6 months later when they need your service.  Who are they going to go with?   A random business or someone they have seen before that appears to be an expert in their industry?  Most likely the latter. “I know that company from somewhere…” is a common outcome of good brand awareness. Or maybe they Google search for your service and they see you and your competitors come up, the chances they click on you are greatly improve because they have seen your brand before and perhaps not your competitors.

Then they convert.  

They are now a customer or client.  You did an awesome job so now they write 5 star reviews and become fans on Facebook and follow you on twitter. Every time they see your post they are reminded of your great job and reminded the next time they need that service or product they are going to come back to you!  Also perhaps they have a question regarding your service or your product, there is a good chance they’re going to turn social media. This brings us to community management.

4) Community Management

Everyday more and more people are expressing they’re feelings on social media.  Or turning to social media for customer service. Word of mouth is times hundreds of millions on social media.  You may not be able to control what people say but if you have a strong grasp and watch-out, you can catch and do your best to help diffuse social reactions and even regain a customer that may have not returned.

Social customer service is a big one now.  I do it all the time.  Would I rather sit on hold with customer service for 20 minutes on a phone or drop them a quick Facebook post or @mention on twitter?  If they are “ON” their “Social Game” they should get back to you in a timely fashion on line. For me it’s reciprocal. If they return to my reach out and help me, I’ll return the favor with a shout out or testimonial about their service on social networks for all to see.

Social networks are very communal.  Pat one on the back and you’ll usually get a pat back.  That being said, it can be the opposite as well.  Someone may reach out to you first, but if you ignore them or they can’t find you, they may get frustrated and bash your name on those same networks and blogs.  Depending on the persons following this can be very, very bad.

So, community management is a must. Being aware of your reputation, what people are saying to you, and just being there so you can be easily accessible for current customers and potential new customers. People love the fact that they can talk to you whenever they want and getting a response makes them feel important. We all know you must make the customer feel important. 

Look into social media marketing management for your brand. 

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