Posted by Nisha Amin on Feb 23, 2017 9:30:00 AM

The Impacts of Social Media on Your Business

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There is no doubt about it that technology has significantly evolved throughout the last few years. We have been introduced to smartphones, tablets, and social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

When social media first started becoming popular, it seemed to just be a “fad” among the younger crowd, and people definitely were not considering using social media for business. Since then, social media has exploded and has become part of our daily lives.

For companies large and small, social media is starting to affect the way that they are doing business and are changing the way that we communicate. It is vital that companies stay up to date with the latest trends and learn to incorporate them within the workforce so that they can maintain their presence.

Here are 5 ways that social media is changing business:

Increased exposure

Social media creates brand awareness and visibility. All it takes is the click of a button, and you can have your content out to your entire following base. Social media sites have a worldwide presence, allowing you to reach audiences in areas all around the world. The more engaging your content is the more people will want to follow your company. Social media channels can generate high volumes of traffic to your company, boosting the number of viewers who see your content. Having a social media presence makes it easy for customers to find your company and connect with you, establishing customer retention and brand loyalty.

Gain valuable customer insights

Statistics show that social media is one of the top reasons that people go online. According to Small Business Trends, there are 1.79 billion monthly active Facebook users, 500 million monthly active Instagram users, 317 million monthly active Twitter users, and 106 million monthly active LinkedIn users. Behind these staggering numbers are the customers behind them. These users, or customers, provide a lot of information regarding what they like, what they want to see more of, and how they feel about your brand. If you do gain a large customer base, you can dig a little deeper and find out the demographics of the population following and responding to your company. Paying attention to this customer data can help you make wiser business decisions.

Cost effective marketing

Social media has become one of the cheapest ways for companies to market themselves. For most of these social media sites, you don’t have to pay a thing to sign up, create an account, and promote your business. Employee advocacy is another way to inexpensively reach targeted audiences. Having your employees post company updates and brand messages on their own accounts is a powerful way to tap into thousands of new followers. If you do have the money to spend, these channels offer affordable advertising platforms that have advanced features for you to effectively target consumers.

Real-time customer service

Gone are the days where companies have to invest a lot of time and money into building a strong customer service department. Social media is enabling companies to provide free, real-time customer service, allowing faster response times. Responding in a timely manner to your customers shows them just how much you care about them and allows other customers to see the quality of your customer service. Many companies have learned the hard way that when they don’t address an issue immediately, unanswered complaints can go viral, causing damage to their company’s brand.

Gain key information about competitors
Using social media outlets to do research will allow you to gain information on what your competitors are doing and how well they are doing. This information is clearly important as it will keep you one step ahead of them and you will be able to improve your business based on areas that they are missing out on. Social listening, also known as social media monitoring, enables you to get insights on your competitors through different monitoring tools, such as Hootsuite.

There are many advantages to using social media, and if used correctly, it can help many businesses thrive.  It can help you provide better customer service, allow you to gain insights on your competitors, and increases brand visibility.

Companies that can also engage their employees to contribute to social media efforts may find even more success with various mediums.  Before allowing them to post however, it important to have a social media policy in place and ensure training for all employees with access.

Download our free Tips for Social Media Training here and bring employees on board with your social media efforts going foward.

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Topics: social media training

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