Social media is impossible to ignore in our current society: Nearly two-thirds of all Americans use social media. It’s important for your business to take advantage of these media platforms in order to stay up to date with the consumer world. Here are five ways social media can help your business:
1. Connect with consumers
By creating another outlet for your loyal customers and potential new customers to be able to interact with you, you are opening up more ways to keep customers engaged. Social media platforms like Facebook can be used to get feedback from customers and to share your company’s vision and values. Platforms like Twitter can be used to share information, address customer concerns and share content that relates to your business.
2. New potential customers
Creating more than one way for potential customers to find your website is a great tool to promote your business. This can ultimately lead to an increase in sales because of direct purchasing power from the website. For example, the platform Pinterest provides a space for users, called “Pinners”, to be able to search for inspiration and ideas through photos and blog pieces and “Pin” or save them on their profile. According to Pinterest “93% of Pinners have used Pinterest to plan for or make purchases and 52% have seen something on Pinterest and made a purchase online.” 
3. Keep up with competitors
Even if you’re not using social media yet, your competitors are. You don’t want your business to seem outdated or unable to compare to others in your industry. Especially with platforms like Instagram, which provide options like “shoppable” posts for businesses that provide direct links for users to purchase, you don’t want to miss out on this great opportunity. 
4. Increase Brand Awareness
Creating and sharing captivating content about your business and its product and/or service is a great way for customers to learn more about your brand, your values and the team behind it. It gives you an opportunity to share the personality of your business and be able to connect with your customers on a more personal level. Building these relationships is important especially if your business is solely online.
5. Boost SEO
Having a social media presence can ultimately boost your Search Engine Optimization rankings because of this increase in traffic to your website. Google’s bots take note of this increase and will rank your site higher on search engine results pages. Higher rankings means increased visibility to potential customers!
So ultimately, the question is no longer why does your business need social media but instead “Why are you NOT on social media?”
-1st Source Web Team
