No matter where you turn, social media is making an impact on small business marketing. While social media is not the “be all end all” of marketing, it does have some significant advantages over more traditional marketing. This is especially true for smaller businesses with less financial resources.
Here are six reasons you need to consider social media marketing for your business.
Cost – Social media is more an investment in time than in money. Most small and new businesses do not have a war chest filled with money to compete in mass-market advertising campaigns. Compared to traditional advertising, social media is often much less expensive.
Targeting – While some interruption marketing can be targeted as explained in Effective Interruption Marketing Strategies, social media and especially Facebook ads can be highly targeted based on the user’s self-identified information about themselves as well as through the context of their posting.
Analytics – Social media analytics capture demographic and psychographic information about the audience that traditional marketing efforts can’t. With social media marketing efforts, businesses can measure campaigns in real time so they can make better business decisions.
Testing – Social media marketing is way more flexible in comparison to traditional advertising since businesses can do split testing, also known as A/B testing, on the fly. As a result of their analytics, businesses can instantly change their message rather than endure long wait times, which may be months for print ads in magazines.
Real-Time – The bi-directional nature of social media gives businesses the ability to provide exceptional customer service by quickly addressing any prospective or existing customers’ concerns or complaints in real-time.
Reach – Social media leverages your business network to help spread its message to new consumers, which increases its reach at no additional cost. Moreover, network shares have a greater impact because they are seen as word of mouth recommendations rather than as advertising.
How are you using social media marketing for your small business?
