In today's market, businesses cannot dismiss social media as a way to get good exposure to potential customers, as well as being able to enhance their company brand. In fact, social media has become a well-known and popular way for businesses to extend their reach in a very cost-effective and efficient manner. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of registered users, with these numbers expanding immeasurably on a daily basis. In fact, if it were a country, Facebook would now be the largest country on Earth* - with an estimated 1.39 billion people logging into Facebook from month-to-month, that makes it bigger than the entire population of China that has 1.36 billion people. Therefore it would be a huge mistake for any business, small or large, to ignore the economic value that these websites could be to them.
Social media for business has many advantages and the prime one is that it allows you to reach out to a large set of online audience base who are telling you what their interests they have. There are entire groups of people who are telling the world that they have an interest in photography. They even tell you what level they are at when it comes to this space. Does your business cater to amateur photographers who are just starting to learn how to take better photographs? Search Facebook and you'll find groups of people who fit that category perfectly! Do you sell small dog outfits for breeds like Shih Tzus or Chihuahuas? Guess what! There are so many groups for these breeds of dogs full of doting owners who want to spoil their four-legged friends. And it is so easy for you to get involved in these communities and reach out to the group members.
In the past advertising online was so expensive. Search engine pay-per-click advertising tended to have the monopoly for these types of opportunities, but the problem was that it was so expensive, and you were often paying Google or Yahoo a few dollars for every click that people carried out on your ads, even if the click was made by mistake, or by a competitor who was trying to run up your advertising bill. The other problem was that you very limited when it came to controlling who saw your ad and would therefore, have the opportunity to click on it. In fact, the only control you had was to say which keywords should be searched before your ad would be seen.
With Facebook ads, online advertising has become way more affordable, and you have so much more control over who sees your ads. You can limit visibility by age, sex, religion, stated interests, location and even by purchasing history. And best of all, your ad costs will be measured in cents and not dollars.
The other benefit with social media is that potential buyers will often be influenced by the reviews and comments of previous customers of a business that they read online. If your customer satisfaction stinks, then perhaps this is not such good news. But for the more reliable and conscientious suppliers who take customer satisfaction seriously then this can be used to their advantage.
So what are you waiting for? If you haven't already it's time for you to take the social media's bull by the horns and to show it who's the master. If you don't know where to start, there are so many social media experts out there who are waiting to show you how they can help you and your business. Or, if you're more of a do-it-yourselfer, then there are numerous books and videos on YouTube or Vimeo that can help you get started. Make the decision to start building your own online marketing strategy today, and it is only a matter of time before your business will be enjoying the benefits of brand and product recognition on the major social media sites.
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/facebook-biggest-country_n_6565428.html
Earl Gardner is the founder and owner of Alchemy Digital Media, a website development and online marketing company in Fort Myers, FL. Earl has worked directly with many small to medium-sized businesses to help them develop and implement their own online marketing strategies and shown them how to measure success and re-organize their online marketing plans to help them get a better return on their marketing investments while maximizing their financial and personnel resources.
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