Social Media in 2014: Why does it matter?
It’s long been known in the corporate world that social media can reap considerable rewards in terms of brand awareness and increased sales. However, it’s probably not a hyperbole to claim that it has never been more significant to your marketing campaign than now, in 2014. It would seem that search engines such as Google have now placed increased importance on social media, in particular, the website referrals that come from sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. It’s no secret that Google approves of website referrals, but it would seem that it places special value upon referrals from social media sites. Therefore, it’s vital that your company is utilising these social media sites as much as possible, in order to not only develop interest in your brand, but to help improve the rankings of your site on the search engines.Managing your social media effectively to reap maximum results
- Know where to focus your efforts. If you plan to manage your social media alone, then it may be worth focusing your efforts on just one or two particular sites. Facebook still rules by a significant margin; in figures released last year, it was confirmed that over 21% of all website referrals online came from the site. However, Pinterest is gaining ground at a rapid rate and is now up to 7% (and increasing in popularity at a speedy pace). Interestingly, Twitter still lags behind in terms of referrals, generating only 1% of all website referrals across the Internet.
- Post at the right time of day. Depending on your target market, there will be times of day that will be more effective than others, in terms of audience reach. If you want to get it right, it pays to know your customers. When are they likely to be online? Once you know that, make sure you’re posting, at least once a day, at that exact time, to obtain maximum exposure.
- Don’t just sell. Social media marketing is a rather different process to conventional marketing. The focus is less upon selling, and more upon developing a long-term relationship with your target market. Try to post on topics that will be of genuine interest to your audience; such as useful tips related to your business or news stories related to your industry. This is far more likely to generate website click-throughs when you do post about something that you’re selling.
- Make it colourful. Official research has suggested that people are far more drawn to posts with images or video content, than to those with words alone. Of course, you may not want to fill every post with images, but using a well selected photo every so often can really help to generate attention.
