Is Social Media All Hype?

You see social icons on every website you visit. You see the terms “SEO” and “Social Media” every time you explore online marketing. FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, the list is endless, and companies across the world are spending time and money paying agencies or hiring full time staff to develop content on their social profiles. But why?

We won’t focus on SEO this month (we’ll come back to this next month). Instead, we want to specifically discuss the impact of social media, and how companies (both large and small) are using it to reach potential customers.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. People spend an enormous amount of time on social networking – over an hour a day on Facebook alone. When looking at just 25-35 year olds, that number doubles to over 2 hours a day.

The visibility opportunity here is immense, and companies have the power to broadcast their posts directly on virtually anybody’s newsfeed, even if the person has never “liked” that company on FB. Companies can also refine where their posts are shown and target very specific attributes, just some include gender, age, location, hobbies, movies they’ve seen, even books they’ve read. Imagine being the owner of a real estate company, and creating an ad that specifically targets Orange County residents between the ages of 25-45, has a job, and is married with children – much more impactful than an expensive TV ad or a door hanger that goes to everyone!

Beyond posting about products and services, social media offers businesses the ability to establish trust. Many share great stories of how they’re impacting the community, or talking about how an employee went above and beyond to help a customer… it sounds cheesy, but people love seeing “feel good” stories.

Example: The Honda Random Acts of Helpfulness campaign.

So why doesn’t every company do social? It can be time, money, lack of knowledge… the list goes on and on. The truth is, most companies actually outsource their social. Agencies like ours spend all day researching competitors, creating content and scheduling posts to go out at very intentional times (typically in parallel with company events, seasonal sales, etc). Many companies also fear giving angry customers a place to vent, and this is a fair point. The good news is you can have restrictions in place on Twitter and Facebook to show only posts that come directly from your company. We don’t support this practice, it’s not really “social” when the conversation only goes one way! Also, if people can’t find your Facebook page, they’ll find your Yelp page, regardless if you’ve made one or not (it’s there, trust us).

When businesses offer a platform for customers to share and communicate with you, they are also establishing trust with everyone else that stumbles across your profile. People appreciate that a company listens and has nothing to hide. Simply put, it shows you care. 90% of potential customers who receive a quick response through social media are more likely to buy their products. Not only that, they are also more likely to share their experience with their friends. Your company might have the best sales team in the world. But when your customers are doing the selling for you, you’ve got an army of ambassadors endorsing you!

If you haven’t started building your social presence yet, now’s the time! Share a great story, brag about how awesome your products and services are, and give people more ways to communicate with you and share their experiences with others. Use graphics, interesting facts and stats, keep an eye on your competitors, and share videos. If this seems like a lot of work, it’s because it is. But we do this for a living, so if you need help, give us a call! We don’t believe in scripts or templates, and make it a point to customize every social campaign based on our client needs.