In the past, new businesses relied on word of mouth to increase their presence and attract new clients. However, times have changed and people spend more time communicating through social media than through face-to-face conversations. As a result, social media has become the new word-to-mouth communication channel.
If you have a website for your eCommerce business, but have not opened a social media account for that business, your firm is non-existent. In other words, your business’s existence is only defined by the legal documents used to register it, not the market.
What is Social Media Marketing?
It is the use of social media pages or profiles to boost a brand or sell its goods and services. Social media marketing works by taking advantage of the website traffic present in various online interactive platforms.
Currently, many promoters believe that social media marketing is the best promotional tool because it enables firms to reach a wide audience at an affordable price, saves on time since it can be deployed immediately – your business only needs to post a message on their social media account, your information shared with and the message can be shared with anyone regardless of their geographical location.
The Role of Social Media
#1. Gain a Competitive Edge
Your chances of success are minimized if a competitor gets into social media marketing earlier than you. They will have a first move advantage in that they’ll engage the customer early and get to know them before you. Once they build that brand loyalty, it may be hard for you to convince the users to buy your products or services. Therefore, getting into social media first can give your business a competitive edge. It gives you first contact with the client, and they can easily confide in you since you are the first business to show genuine interest in solving their demand needs.
#2. Maintain Your Public Image
A social media account allows you to monitor and track any negative reviews about your products. Once you have confirmed that there is a negative rumor about your goods and services, you can clear the air immediately by issuing a statement on your official social media account. Your account also enables you to respond to enquiries from your customers.
#3. Strengthen your Relationship with the Customers
Social media has revolutionized marketing because it’s one of the few platforms where customers can openly share their views about their experience with a certain good or service. What’s more impressive is that most of these users share their stories out of free will, without being coerced or paid to do so by the corporation. Your organization can benefit from such posts because you get to learn what the customer really wants. If the client is talking about your product, you can respond promptly by acknowledging their comment. That way, your customers gain more faith in you.
#4. Improve Brand Image and Loyalty
Apart from responding to negative reviews and maintaining your reputation, your social media page allows you to improve your brand’s image. As the most interactive communication channel, your social media page allows you to immediately tell customers about a charity event that you may be sponsoring and encourage them to participate in it. You can also improve your firm’s image by telling customers to spread awareness about a disturbing social issue. Alternatively, you can enhance loyalty by engaging your followers in a number of important topics. They are more likely to remain loyal to your brand if you show them that you also care about their needs.
#5. Multiply Sales
Social media helps you to generate leads. Using various SEO optimization tools, you can find out the most commonly searched or used words related to your business and use them as content in your social media page or website. That way, you can easily increase the number of visitors to your site or profile and hopefully increase your sales. Having an active social media account can also increase the number of visitors to your website. Being active means that you respond to client queries and update your content on a daily basis. Sometimes the content doesn’t have to be related to the business, it can be about a funny or trendy topic. Being active shows your customers that you’re present and increases the probability of conversion to sales.
Conclusion
There are five main roles of social media in digital marketing, and they’re discussed above. The thing that stands out about the mentioned roles is that they are all unique. They are adapted to the distinctive characteristics of social media platforms. The great advantage to social media is that it is free! You don’t need to buy a social media account, you can open an account for free and start engaging with your clients immediately.
