Why is social media important?

by 44 replies
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When it comes to dealing with your offline clients and they don't see the value in having a facebook page or twitter account, what do you say?

This is for you social media gurus out there.
#offline marketing #important #media #social
  • Hi Daniel,
    I'm no guru by a long shot, but I tend to hit them with the simple stats...they're kind of hard to argue with - assuming they know how much and how many their ads reach now - (cpl)

    (I just use this as a comparison example)

    How much do Super Bowl commercials cost?
    1.2 million for a 30 second showing - who gets to play?
    Big Businesses with big AD dollars...
    1 day / 1 game

    How many people are on Facebook?
    More than 400 million active users...and counting
    -
    - More than 35 million users update their status each day
    - More than 60 million status updates posted each day
    -
    -

    Like it or not Social Media has a HUGE interactive vantage today...and it is accessible to any size business - very cost effective per targeted lead
    Who gets to play? THEY do -

    Viewing Audience
    111 million possible /1 day - vs. - 200 million possible / each day?
    They can sit on the sidelines - or get in this game and play

    And that's just Facebook! - we didn't even touch on Twitter and the other avenues available...

    Just my 2c -
    Cheers,
    3M
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  • Tell them social media gets thing stirred up and moving for their product or service. Gets people talking about so and so, if you find the right people to post/tweet/blog/like etc
    all about friends telling friends

    T.R.
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    • One should not ignore social media because it is one way of advertising which leads to big traffic to your site
  • The hard part is trying to get them to understand that social media is a long-term investment, and you might not see a ROI for about 6 months. And that social media is more "social" than it is media, which means they need to focus on the quality of the interactions with people. Instead of just spamming people with links to websites or ad's and other bs.
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    • I would echo what others have said and add this, which I like to strategically drop into presentations and other materials I give to clients:

      (From Entrepreneur Magazine, December 2010)

      "Charlene Li, one of the world's leading thinkers on social media and co-founder of the Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm in San Mateo, Calif., predicts that companies that do not get on the social media bandwagon soon--within three to five years--will not survive. It's not an overstatement to say social media is transforming every aspect of business." (emphasis added)
  • @MoneyMagnetMagnate dang, I never heard it put that way. Thank you for that, I hope you dont mind if I starting using that.
  • Social media is one of the best way for advertising our website and collecting more traffic. So mostly all SEO makes his website promotion using social media.
  • Yeah there is a problem if your clients aren't using social media... Are they dinosaurs (literally and figuratively, lol)?

    But I wanted to reply and say that MoneyMagnetMagnate and baib21 both provided really good stats for you to spit back to your clients.

    It is free to create a Twitter/FB/LinkedIN page -- FREE! What is better than that? Get them up and running on these sites, and then you can decide if they should opt for a pay advertising model to take their sites to the next level
  • Now a days social media networking sites like Facebook,twitter are plays an important role in the online business world.It is helping you to get more clients or visitors from online and maintains reliable and good interactions between visitors and you.Social media is a great source to advertise your site successfully and it provides long term results or benefits for your site promotion and development.
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    • Social media is an easy sell if you can show a specific strategy, for their business, and show how it will all work together to achieve their business goals.

      You can't go in, guns hot, with meaningless numbers about 400 million this and that, because to the small business owner...it doesn't mean anything. Save that for the wasted effort herd promising "first page of Google" for SEO. Both are overused, and tired/weak strategies.

      You also can't go in and tell them you will get followers or set up the next award winning, graphically pleasing, useless iFrame Facebook page. Their neighbors kid can do that in about 15 min.

      More importantly, EVERYONE approaching them (50x a day) is using the old 400 million garbage about Facebook, so the first step/goal should be to separate yourself from the sheep so you at least have an opportunity to pitch whatever your solution(s) are. Otherwise be prepared to hear, "We had a guy just last week, say the exact same stuff you said...but he was cheaper." FAIL.

      Next figure out what that industries needs are. Is is lead generation? Is it branding? Is it reputation management? Is it all three? If all three, in which order of priority?

      Will they need Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc and if so how will those all play together with their customer retention and referral strategies and how will they all enhance each other without duplicating efforts?

      There is more businesses then you can pitch if you work out a system like that. It will sell itself all day long.
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  • Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. That;s why social media is important.
  • I think Jason is right.

    I have found it way harder to get customers than anticipated.

    I am currently building a case study using Google Places, photos, video, FB, Twitter for a bar/ restaurant. Once this is humming (in a few weeks) I can use that as a sales tool.

    We know the great benefits of using social media but a lot of folks still don't see the business benefit.

    Incidentally I did get a new customer today!

    Joe
  • Hey Guys,

    I stumbled upon this post and was surprised to see nobody mentioning the Panda Update. Without going into too much detail, Social Media is becoming a metric for Google's algorithm. The more people are interacting with your site, the better off your search potential will be! Social Media isn't just a fad or a hobby. It's becoming a true piece of your essential offerings as an online business. Building a platform for your customers/viewers is necessary anymore. Here's a link. I'm sure you can find other info on it.

    Google's Panda Update + Social = New Enterprise SEM Opportunities - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)
  • Social media is important because that is the platform in which advertising will enter the mobile device market. Communications devices such as smart phones, tablet PC's and vehicle computers will be mostly used for social purposes, so social media is without a doubt poised to become the single largest growing advertising platform available.
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  • Social media is very important. Facebook especially. There is so much you can do with a businesses facebook page. You are collecting tons of local leads. You can set up iframes to make users click like. Also once you build up a nice list you can use facebook ads to advertise to your prospects and turn them into buyers. If you advertise to your own facebook page its dirt cheap compared to advertising to a fan page that you do not own.
  • Social media is important because it is one of the best and quick way for advertising website and it helps us to get more clients and customers and its the cheapest way, specially face book..
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    • You are right dear, now a days most of people do in his website. its really good for better traffic. i think micro blogging is one of the important part of it.
  • The single most IMPORTANT thing in my opinion, which wasn't mentioned once is...

    Social media lets you "listen" to your customers.

    Lets not forget other benefits.

    Market research.
    Customer polls.
    Increase customer trust and stickiness.
    Increase customer support and service.

    Ads are secondary benefits and all business who currently have a customer database should be informing their customers about the company fan page before trying to generate new fans.
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    • Well, said Russ. I could not agree more. So many brands miss this. Some "big boy" brands too.

      It's not a channel to push your message. Please don't do it.
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  • social media are very important. They help build
  • If your business is offline and the most of the customers are from local market even then also you can use the facebook and twitter for promotion. The social media is growing very fast compare to other marketing resources. You can start promoting from today so in future you will become expert in the facebook usability. You get know what people want to share on their wall.

    For getting connected with people. i think the social media is best way. Your offline maybe using social networking website but they don't know your business profile page. so you need to add one line tag that the customers can join facebook or twitter page for daily update. It is one of the best strategy to keep connected with the customers. Customers feel they are in the secure place. This will also help you to build brand awareness for your business.
  • Depending on the client. I will find some of their competitors that are using Social Media very well and show them how they should be using it. I would also refer back to some of the stats mentioned above.
    For the most part, whether its Social Media, SEO or Search, I try to focus my efforts on businesses that are looking for my services rather than trying to talk somebody into it.
  • Show them that big companies like Gillette, Volkswagen, Vector Cereal, and many more have taken the plunge to increase the connection with their customers. I always communicate with local companies on Facebook through their page.
  • I think the key is to educated them on what social media is and what it isn't.

    Too often we hear people talking about how social media will drive new business. If you are using facebook ads or tying facebook into an ad campaign this could be true. But for the vast majority social media will be about interacting with current customers and the hope is that their friends see the interactions and become fans as well. It is networking and PR. Also if they are not on facebook what happens when someone wantst o bad mouth them? On facebook those people will come to their page and you can have a professional reaction to it. If they just randomly start bashing your company or do so on an auto generated facebook places page what happens?

    They need to see that their customers are on facebook and they need to be interacting their. As for a lot of the rest of social media it will depend on the business rather they need to be on twitter and others. But facebook is something that all businesses should be on. It's like a webpage. You simply should have one no matter how small you are.

    If a facebook page is used correctly it can add value to the customers and the business. But the key is interaction. The number of likes, even custom pages and like gates are meaningless if they don't have a plan to interact with their customers.
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  • There is no question about it, all enterprises which are trying to sell or at least promote their stuff on the internet need social media marketing. Everybody is now on the web especially on social media sites.
  • Just show them the numbers, especially if you're referring to their marketing and consumer reach. I've worked with many small businesses that have never even thought about going online. The key is to create some transparency within a company. That's what consumers are looking for now, is a company that they feel they already know and trust.

    Sometimes it's hard to find a way to make a business relevant to the social communities, but you need to dig further. There are current customers that would find their updates interesting and keep being reminded of this business. It's not about money mailer or val-pak anymore, it's about communicating with all customers on a personal and friendly basis... constantly.

    As Grant Cardone would say
  • I think most people are on facebook now... So they will easily see the value in it...
  • I recommend you to read Facebook, Twitter marketing: An hour a day. I read this book and i think it could be very useful also regarding how to present clinets why social media marketing is important nowadays....
  • I'm using social marketing, but it needs hard work though
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  • Most people nowadays rely on computers. Marketing reasons.
  • Now a days most of the people using face book,twitter etc..So social media is very useful..I think it strengthen the relationships with audience,clients,customers,influential people too....
  • social media is a good way of advertisement.
  • I think that social media is one of the biggest and best ways to advertise. My marketing teacher always told me that 'word of mouth' is the best marketing tool - and it is. If I tell my friend about a product there is a much higher possibility that he will try it - rather then just seeing an ad somewhere.
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    • And..what better venue is their than Facebook to do referral marketing? Its even FREE!

  • Because there are lots of people there, many of them are potential buyers?
  • Because social media is one of the best way of advertisement, specially now a days. Almost every single of a people using face book,twitter etc..So social media is very useful.
  • Social Media is a best way to advertise products or service. The list of people watching social media is growing day by day.
  • Its hard to convince people who live an off line life that Social media is one of the best and the most effective way to share information quickly to a great extent and to increase traffic if your business has a website. Usually they do have a website but are not really bothered about it. But if you play your cards right and quote some statistics in terms of $$$ you'll probably get their attention and social media presence too.
  • Hi Daniel
    You don't have to be a guru to answer this one. What you're talking about is a straightforward selling exercise ie. selling the idea that social media marketing will benefit your clients. If you read..'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie that should give you a few clues!
  • Social media is best way of advertising our website this helps you gaining more traffic...
  • Yes, and social network will probably be even more important for S.E.O.
    Is a logic hight quality for the user, so they should be important for algos to come.
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