Times are changing, and social media is taking over. There are more than two billion active social media users worldwide (Constantinides, 2014), and businesses need to understand the new market realities that this brings. The relationship between businesses and their customers is no longer one way, now it’s a sophisticated two way street in which customers don’t just need to be convinced by the business, they can be utilised as part of a marketing strategy to convince others.
It is imperative businesses use social media as a competitive advantage, and don’t bury their heads in the sand hoping this will pass. Social media needs to be embraced today and here’s why:
Brand building – Using Facebook enables you to improve brand awareness and build your brand an identity. When customers and prospects can engage with your brand on social media, it gives your brand a human voice that they can relate to (Robshaw-Bryan, 2013). In addition, when your business activities are being posted on the newsfeed of customers, you stay at the forefront of their mind. Let’s take this example below of Vodafone UK on my newsfeed earlier today, this post is brand centric, they have given their social blog an identity through promoting it’s 3rd Birthday, the post links you to their blog and they’ve given a hashtag to encourage engagement on twitter. The prize draw is a great addition for enticing people to engage further with the content. As a result of this post I certainly feel more acquainted with the Vodafone brand, and this brand visibility is valuable.
Source: Compiled by author (2015)
Customer Loyalty – A whopping 72% of marketers say social media helps them develop loyal fans (Stelzner, 2014). Utilising social media to increase visibility and facilitate open communication increases consumer trust in the brand. Providing an open channel for customers to contact you, can demonstrate that you care for your customers. Social Media also enhances the customised approach to business, offering customers the opportunity to personalise. A good example of this is Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. Consumers could go online to personalise a virtual bottle and post it on social media. Consumers can then share pictures of their personalized Cokes with the hashtag #shareacoke (Tadena, 2014) According to Constantinides (2014), this personalisation significantly increases customer loyalty.
Source: Tadena (2014)
Attract more customers – 53% of all businesses acquired a new customer through the use of social media in 2013 (Bennett, 2014). Social media doesn’t just nurture existing customers, it also give you the opportunity to gain new ones. As one customer shares a post, your business is exposed to their network. Sony Electronics ran a campaign on Pinterest and found a 200% increase in new followers. When you share your content publicly, others will share it too, and soon you have access to a vast network of prospects.
Source: Compiled by author (2015)
Lower marketing costs – Social media has low financial barriers when compared with other marketing platforms. 45% of the firms reported reduced marketing expenses since implementing social media into their strategy (Constantinides, 2014). It should be acknowledged that, as implied by the name, social media is interactive and therefore can be time intensive. Customers expect prompt responses and there needs to be a dedicated social media marketing plan to enable you to truly meet business objectives. Unfortunately, a few posts here and there does very little, having said this the returns are excellent when the efforts are put in. According to DeMers (2014), 84% found increased traffic from six hours of social media effort each week. If you still require more proof that social media is worth your time, download BarnRaisers Group’s 166 Case Studies Prove Marketing ROI.
Accessible feedback – Social media has changed customer behavioural trends. Customers are now actively seeking to get involved in the process of product development, through to providing scarily honest reviews (Constantinides, 2014). This is openness can be seen as a burden. Imagine, customers angrily ranting about their bad experiences for the world (including prospects) to see. Alternatively, we can imagine it differently, this is a fantastic opportunity for business’s to seek instantaneous opinions from the people they are trying to sell to, and what’s better is these customers want to share. Below, we can see an excellent example from of the University of Brighton Sport proactively using Facebook to encourage their followers to give their opinions. For more on this, I’ve written a blog about utilising social media as a feedback mechanism.
Source: Compiled by author (2015)
Increased website traffic – 61% of companies found an increase in customer traffic from the use of social media (Constantinides, 2014). Without social media, your inbound traffic will predominantly be from people already familiar with your business. Increasing the number of social media platforms increases the number of customer journeys which lead them straight to your website. It can also increase traffic by improving your SEO ranking, as social media demonstrates your business to be more popular, Google will regard you higher.
So there you have it, a tool for gaining an insight into your customers, enabling you to provide them with a better experience. It enhances trust, encouraging customer loyalty and, as a result, gives your business a competitive advantage. It engages existing and prospect customers, driving them to your website. And this is all done cost-efficiently, bringing your business excellent returns. Your competitors are almost definitely engaging in social media, the longer you wait, the more you have to lose.
References:
Bennett, S. (2014) ‘10 Reasons Why Social Media is Good for Business’ Social Times, 3rd September 2014 [Online] <http://bit.ly/1Afmz5I> [accessed 25th April 2015]
Constantinides, E. (2014) Foundations of Social Media Marketing. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 148, No. 1, pp40–57
DeMers , J. (2014) ‘The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing’, Forbes, 11th August 2014 [Online] <http://onforb.es/1sO73KY> [accessed 25th April 2015]
Stelzner, M.A. (2014) 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. California: Social Media Examiner
Tadena, N. (2014) ‘Coke’s Personalized Marketing Campaign Gains Online Buzz’ Wall Street Journal, July 15th 2014 [Online] <http://on.wsj.com/1r3OKQY> [accessed 25th April 2015]
Robshaw-Bryan, S. (2013) ‘8 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Be Using Social Media’ Social Media Today, 13th February 2014 [Online] <http://bit.ly/1HpAk67> [accessed 25th April 2015]
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