Why Your Business Must Have a Social Media Presence

I know, everyone says you must be thoroughly represented on major social media sites & no doubt, you’re thinking that we have an axe to grind here at Socially Buzzing. Of course we firmly believe in what we do and we agree with all the experts & pundits that this marketing tool can’t be overlooked. But, what are the real, factual, hard-nosed business reasons to make this plunge into the social media fray? In this article I will concentrate on the most compelling and practical of reasons that your business must have a social media presence.

Where Are Your Customers? Social Media, Right?

One out of seven people on this earth are connected to Facebook and more than 50% of them visit their FB page every day. Think about nearly a billion people all connected to a single media source. It kind of makes the Super Bowl audience, estimated at 100 million, seem small in comparison. According to “Digital Marketing Ramblings” the monthly users for the most popular sites are as follows:

Facebook:1.06 billion monthly active users, 680 million mobile users, over 42 million pages, 9 million apps **

Twitter:520 million total users, more than 200 million active users

Foursquare:30 million users, 1 million businesses, 10.4 million monthly users

Google+:350 million active users

LinkedIn:200 million users

Reddit:44 million users,400 million unique visitors; 37 Billion Page Views

Tumblr:156 million users

Yelp:78 million users; 30 million reviews

Youtube:** 850 million users, 4 billion views per day

Are you convinced yet? People use social media every day. It is ingrained in their way of life. They use it to tell stories, share thoughts, let friends know where they are, and to share articles, music, restaurants, and other products and services they enjoy. People want to stay connected to the world around them, and that includes your business. Not only are your current customers using social media, but people that are looking to buy your product or service are using social media as well. It Drives Traffic

Do you have a website and wonder if anyone ever really visits it? How do you get people to go to your website and find out more about the products and services your company sells? It starts by going to where customers are, and giving them a reason to go where you want them to go. Maybe you’re having a sale or a contest for a give-a-way on your website. Let your social media audience know, and they can’t help but go and check it out.

Let’s say you own a restaurant and you want to increase your lunch crowd. You offer a great lunch special every day, but no one really knows about it. What if you had used Foursquare for business to chronicle the creation of and post your lunch special every day, an hour or so before lunch?

You could even incentivize customers to check in on Facebook or Foursquare to be able to receive the special. That way all the customers’ friends know he or she is eating lunch at your restaurant and they should try it out too.

There is No Better Way to Hear about a Product than from a Friend

What do most people do when they eat at a really good restaurant? Tell their friends about it on Facebook and Twitter. What do most people do when they go to a store and receive great customer service? Tell their friends about it on Facebook and Twitter.

The list could go on and on, but the point is people share on social sites about their experience with businesses. There is no one that can convince someone they need something better than their friends.

We here at SB like to say: “Relax, we’ve got this!”

By: Gary Mullins