This blog will discuss how social media can give businesses a competitive edge

There is no formal definition of social media, but it is often described in terms of Web 2.0 technologies, the stage of internet development in which users have become active producers and creators of content, and not just passive information seekers (Lorenzo-Romero et al., 2011).

It is no longer a question of whether a company should be utilising social media to communicate with audiences, but rather how and with what platforms. Social media is becoming such an integral part of business operations that its use is now commonplace for product launches, developing consumer loyalty and sharing news (Walaski, 2013).

Businesses using social media can create an online personality which individuals can connect and identify with on an emotional as well as a rational level (Lorenzo-Romero et al, 2011). Social media makes it easy to build brand awareness and establish your brands identity. You can effectively establish your brands personality and give your business a human voice that people can relate to. Businesses can reach this by building creative social media campaigns and strategies which involve customers somehow such as in new product design, and through the ways that organisation representatives interact with users and convey a positive image in the ongoing social media dialogue about their brand (Schroeder, 2014).

Businesses using social media can better understand their customer as social media provides the opportunity to connect with customers using richer media with a greater reach. Using social media, organizations can forge relationships with existing as well as new customers and form communities that interactively collaborate to identify problems and develop solutions for them.

Being active on social media will help you increase the amount of traffic that your website receives. Successful social media activities will always improve the amount of traffic referrals your website receives, playing an essential initial role in your sales funnel. Social media as an SEO ranking signal is increasing in importance. Being talked about and mentioned on social media is a positive signal that shows you are popular and have content worth sharing and talking about. This in turn drives Google to regard your website as being more authoritative, which is one of the many signals that helps your website rank better in orgainc SEO (Social Media Today, 2014).

Social media can also be used for promotion as blog 4 and 5 have shown with digital coupon companies encouraging people to buy the offer and share it with friends.

Another key reason why businesses are so drawn in by social media is that the majority of these sites are free. Marketing costs are minimal when compared to traditional marketing methods.

The above data displays the recent trend and increase in spending on marketing using social media.

References

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eposa, Adam. 2013. “TARGET RESULTS.” Hotel Management (21582122) 228, no. 4: 34. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed May 1, 2015).

Lorenzo-Romero, C., Alarcon-del-Amo, M. and Gomez-Borja, M. (2011), “Do you have social profile users and non-users of social networking sites in the web 2.0,” Review of Business Information Systems – Special edition 2011, Vol. 15 No. 5, available at: http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/ RBIS/article/view/6017/6095 (accessed 4 Apr 2015).

15. Schroeder, H. 2014, “Social media in business strategy: the learning and development implications”, Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 12-15.

Subramani, M. and Rajagopalan, B. (2003). Knowledge-sharing and influence in online social networks via viral marketing. Commun. ACM, 46(12), p.300.

Tsimonis, G. & Dimitriadis, S. 2014, “Brand strategies in social media”, Marketing intelligence & planning, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 328-344.

Walaski, P. (2013). Social media. Professional Safety, 58(4), 40-49. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1331594111?accountid=9727