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Social Media connects everyone around the world, whether it be in local communities or in other countries. It’s integral in mostly everyone’s day to day lives and influences us more than most realize. It’s free and designed to be engaging with user friendly interfaces catering to all audiences. So, how does this effect the business industry and how can it help your company?

Communication

Firstly, and most importantly it offers a platform to build a rapport on a one to one basis where you can interact with each of your customers on a more personal level while keeping the professionalism of your business. Most users are highly reactive on social media, they're going to get notifications on their phone or e-mail and will be able to respond quickly. It opens up other options rather than just phone calls & e-mails. These options can as well be more efficient and effective.

Global & Local Marketing

You can reach both a wider level of people but as well target your audience locally if you wish, advertising usually costs a fair amount on different platforms and is usually a question if it will be worth it.  In total there are around 3.2 billion users around the globe, which equates to around 42% of the total population which both benefits large businesses around the globe as well as small time businesses who like to keep local. Especially in urban cities & towns everyone is connected & you shouldn't have any problems with outreach, however, if your business is set up in a remote area it might be slightly more difficult.

Customer Feedback

Customers who are treated well and have had excellent experiences are likely to leave a good review and share your business in the future to their friends and co-workers most likely through social media or just word of mouth.. One share on Facebook or Twitter reaches their whole friends list or followers which could be hundreds or thousands of accounts, this in-turn will help grow your brand and establish yourself. When people see good reviews from customers, they’re more likely to see the authenticity of your business and investigate further maybe looking at your website or looking for contact information.

Cost Effective Advertising

Social media usually offers advertising that is cost effective compared to more conventional advertising methods. They usually offer a diverse price range that appeals to everyone, changing how algorithms and filters display your page. You can use unofficial advertising by sharing posts etc on social media or you can use third parties or just pay Facebook, Twitter or Instagram directly to do the advertising for you, each has their own benefits but for different costs. When users are scrolling through their feeds or looking at the latest posts they're more likely to see your advertisement digitally compared to driving past a banner or billboard on their way to work.

Reputation Management

You’re able to manage your reputation, you can respond to negative reviews and criticisms and promote the good reviews on your page. Always make sure that you’re responding to negative reviews and trying to resolve the issues before they influence others decisions and opinions on your business. If someone sees lots of negative reviews that haven't been responded to or there's no resolution there's a high chance they're going to look somewhere else.

Customer Demographics

You can quickly learn about the demographic of your customers and what they’re usually up to, use the data given to you by analytics to help market your business and tailor your marketing strategies towards your audience and become more acquainted with them. All social medias should provide analytics such as Facebook, Twitter, Google & LinkedIn. These analytics & demographics usually come in the form of graphics & visual representations to give data accurately and you can see potential patterns on who's viewing your website, when are they viewing your website & where are they viewing your website from, there's far more data than just this but it varies for each platform.

SEO Ranking

Having social media pages can help google rank your business, social media profiles that link to your businesses are a great way to find information, contact details and reviews while not having to look directly at your website, often times people might not directly search through google, they might use Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn to find you. It also creates more inbound links to your original website/product garnering you more exposure and potential customers.

You can learn more about SEO from Google here : https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en

Networking & Partnerships

Social Media can also be used for networking & partnerships. Links, recommendations, shout-outs, referrals and joint branding are all options that you could use to promote another business or someone else could do to promote your business. If a customers from your partnered business recommends or commends your business they're going to be more interested or attentive towards you and your brand.