Why Social Media Has To Be Part Of Your Business Strategy

I’m going to tell the story through the eyes of a new website owner. You may be further along the progression, but there are still some things here that the veteran might find interesting.

You’ve constructed that killer website. It’s gorgeous. You call your friends, a colleague or two, your mom, and gush with excitement as they ooh and ah. You’ve researched and revised and poured every last drop of sizzle into your first blog post. It’s chocked full of your most treasured ideas, things it’s taken you years to discover.

Next you pull out your camera phone and snap some nifty photos, or comb the Internet for the perfect picture that speaks to your message in clever, unexpected ways. Life is good.

Now what?

You find someone to share it with. If you’d had an email subscriber list, you could have sent out an email with a greeting and a link to your new post.

But what do you do if you’re brand new, and don’t have any subscribers yet?

Easy.

You capitalize on the amazing reach of Social Media.

It’s not going to be a party unless you send out invitations. Social media is by definition social. It involves groups of people—allies—colleagues—networks. None of this is rocket science, but its funny how we humans can get hung up on this little piece of the puzzle.

It’s not like you have to be an EXPERT when you begin. Little by little you start to connect. That is the essence of social media. When properly worked, your message WILL get in front of the right people.

Social Media Builds Transparency

Social media is an outstanding place to share articles, one-liners and most importantly, the journey.

Social media allows you to engage in meaningful conversations with business owners, who share your interests and struggles. It’s one thing to see someone’s smiling mug beaming off of the page; it’s another to hear what they’re thinking. Social media turns you from a likeness into someone real.

What is transparency? The word derives from a slightly more complicated form in Latin, transparentia, and means “shining through.”

When we allow who we are, what we are doing, and how we feel about it to shine through, we dispel doubt.

It’s a great opportunity to give, and we’re never the worse for giving.

Social Media Connects You With Customers

Popularity on social media is only half the battle. How do you convert those “Likes” into paying customers? Kathleen Davis

Okay. Here we go! This information comes from Entrepreneur Magazine. Depending on the type of business you have, you’ll want to allocate certain percentages of time on the most appropriate social media for your business.

Consumer based

75% of Business-to-Consumer or B2C Marketers have gotten customers from Facebook. The number of marketers that call Facebook critical has grown 83% in two years. 34% have generated leads from Twitter, 20% have closed deals. LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook or Twitter.

Business based

77% of Business-to-Business or B2B Marketers have gotten a customer through LinkedIn—60% for company blogs, 43% for Facebook, and 40% for Twitter. 47% of B2B marketers are using LinkedIn. 90% are using Facebook.

Social Media Versus Other Avenues of Lead Generation

Marketers are saying that of those things making the biggest impact on lead generating goals, 21% of lead generation comes through social media. Social media produces double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail or pay-per-click or PPC. Social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than the average lead conversion rates.

According to Mark Scott, Social Media Shakeup, in his article, Ensure Social Media Is the Backbone of Your Link Building

The reason you need to get involved with Google + is that it’s becoming a big player in SEO, which has been shown with Google recently introducing “Author Rank”. Google is now connecting ranking factors to individual authors, and not just the website where the content is. So if you haven’t got a Google+ profile, you need one — and remember to enable the author rank feature.

My Biggest Take Away From These Findings

Get busy on LinkedIn. It is under valued as a lead generator. Get going on Google+. It can elevate your author ranking. Keep going on Facebook, much good can come from here, especially for B2C. Finally, Twitter is a goldmine. Conversions do come up from Twitter but it is also a great way to watch what the thought leaders are doing in your niche. It’s fast, clear, and diverse at a glance.

Social Media Grows Traffic / Readership

Social media is the perfect tool for outreach and networking. It’s not just about tweeting links. You have to use sites like Twitter and Google+ to actually reach out and engage with people.

What are your goals for social media? I’ll venture a guess and say it’s engagement. Well, guess what? So is everyone else. Simply by taking the initiative and engaging with someone else, you’ll put the spotlight on yourself.

Concluding Thoughts on Social Media

There is a little bit of being in the right place at the right time, to social media. It’s a numbers game. The more you get in and dig, the more it’s likely that you’ll hit treasure. But when we’ve incorporated social media best practices into our daily routine, when we do HIT, we’ll be able to convert those opportunities into customers much more smoothly.