The presence on social media for any brand is quintessential today. It offers credibility, recognition and recall, keeps the customer updated on the latest launches and announcements and is an easy way for them to raise concerns, besides offering other experiential benefits. Social media makes a brand accessible, personalised and within easy reach of the customer lifting the veils of inhibitions and other barriers. We have listed down 5 top impacts that social media has on businesses and brands thereof.
- Increases Visibility: Mobilising social media marketing efforts have reported benefiting marketers in getting 91% more exposure for their brand, in comparison to traditional mediums. Studies observe that if a brand invests a minimum of 6 hours every week on social media engagement, it not only increases exposure for the brand but also presents them with an opportunity to convince existing consumer to mark them as “see first”. This enables them to reach out to the prospective consumer as well.
- Increases Online Traffic: If making your brand’s presence felt in online space wasn’t challenging enough, given the competitiveness, creating an indispensible need or niche for your product or service most definitely is. However, getting good traffic on your website just like footfall in a physical store is quite achievable, albeit with a solid amount of engagement on social media platforms, through running interactive contests that are well-planned, well-scheduled and well-rewarded. And, if you do it for over a year consistently with a well-formulated call to action, it is bound to reap exponential returns.
- Fosters Loyal Fan Following: Earning the loyalty of end consumer has become much easier on social media platforms as group based interactions and targeting of audience based on age, ethnicity, professional standing, interest or behaviour is now possible. This is specifically true for B2C channels as consumers are more likely to engage for personal needs on social media than for commercial purpose. However, that landscape is witnessing a paradigm shift as well with the advent of platforms like Linkedin and the new developments brought in by Facebook. Now segmenting need-based individual messages is possible in B2B channels as well.
- Provides Marketplace Insight: To be able to deliver, one must understand not just the client mind, their taste, dreams and aspiration with regard to their brand but also the prevailing market sentiment. This is where Social Media with its analytics and research based reports come into play. Marketers, having placed their trust in such insights offered by various digital platforms affirm that it helps them shape strategies. The consumer behaviour and interest can be understood in a candid space and also customer engagement can be initiated for unbiased first-hand information.
- Helps in Lead Generation: Social Media is a great platform to not only make your brand visible through paid or organic content but get some real leads for business conversions. Through smart social networking, the probability of getting enquiries with the potential of actual sales conversion is very high. The connections and communities bring like-minded people together on both the demand and the supply side, making the virtual world one big party. However, like any real life association, trust must be earned through quality engagement and to be popular in the crowd one must create a deep desire in the market for what they have on offer.