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Friday, April 8, 2011

Top 10 Reasons Small/Medium Sized Business Should Use Social Media

It seems as though whenever I speak with a small- to medium-sized business owner, the topic of using social media to grow their business always comes up. At this point you might be thinking, “Of course it comes up, you are an online marketer.” And that is definitely true. In fact, as I reflect on many of those conversations I would say many times I did bring the subject up myself, but not every time. When the subject does come up, either by them or me, business owners usually are looking for much of the same information.

They ask me questions like, “Can it really bring me customers?” or “I have limited resources, will using social media really give me a better ROI than my other marketing campaigns?”, or my favorite, “In our industry that type of marketing doesn’t work.” Okay, that last one is not a question, but my answer is still: YES! In fact, in the industries where social media “doesn’t work”, often times it works the best! But even with me shouting the word “yes”, it still doesn’t seem to be enough to convince them. That’s understandable, and so I will usually give them some practical reasons that support my answer so that they can understand why I believe it will help their business. 

So today I would like to share my Top 10 Reasons Small/Medium-Sized Businesses Should Use Social Media. Please enjoy them, and if any of my readers have additional reasons they’d like to share, please post them below.

10. Online Reputation Management: You can keep an eye on what others are saying about you and your company. You should be your company’s strongest advocate, but you can’t be if you’re not part of the conversation.

9. It’s Cheap: Most social media sites’ best features are FREE! Some of the more advanced techniques can cost a little money, but most business won’t ever need them. So what does it really cost? Time—yours or someone else’s. Every effective sales/marketing campaign will cost you time, but the others will cost you a lot more than that.

8. Niche Marketing: Most business owners cannot afford to market to thousands or millions of potential customers using the traditional marketing methods, but with social media you don’t have to. Sure, you have the potential to market to millions of people, but most companies will generate more sales from creating a very targeted niche that focuses on only those that truly have buying potential. Niche marketing not only makes the most of your content and message, but it’s also much more manageable and cost effective. For example, if you’re a realtor who specializes in new home sales in Salt Lake City, Utah, then why would you waste your marketing budget on someone looking to buy a foreclosure in Palmyra, New York?

7. Compete with the Big Boys: Often times it’s hard for small/medium-sized businesses to compete with the big boys. But social media can give you a more level playing field. With little technical knowledge, and relatively little investment, you can take larger companies head on!

6.  SEO: Improve your search engine rankings. Google now uses links from social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to calculate ranks. Also, Google loves blogs. Give it a try, search for a few different topics using Google and see how many blogs come up.

5. Go Viral: Posting your links to your website on social media sites can certainly increase your traffic. But if your content becomes viral, then you could see thousands to millions of hits.

4. Greater Credibility: Blogs are a great way to build credibility because you can showcase what you know. You get to choose the topic, the question, and the answer. Also, by participating in discussions on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other sites, people will begin to see you as an expert.

3. Get Personal: Creating a personal relationship with your customers can be difficult, especially with a large customer base. But the very purpose of social media is the ability to create personal relationships with many people over any geographical distance. 1 out of 6 marriages are between people who met online. Now that’s getting personal.

2.  Word of Mouth: How would you like hundreds or thousands of your customers referring your company to others? How would that affect your sales? Social media makes it easy to motivate customers spread the good word about your company.

1. Increase Sales: This is the number one reason, in my opinion, to use social media marketing. I believe that a marketing campaign is only as good as the sales it generates. Sometimes that can be hard to calculate, but I can tell you this: I have personally sold deals worth thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, through leads from social media. If I can sell a business consulting deal worth $100,000 to $250,000 through social media, then I believe you can sell just about anything.
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