While some forms of online marketing, such as search engine optimizationpay-per-click advertising and email marketing have long been the focus of businesses online, one of the greatest sources of untapped marketing potential is social media. Social media is rapidly becoming the primary avenue for online communication and socializing, and businesses would be remiss to ignore the many opportunities for marketing that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and others offer. However, taking advantage of the full range of benefits that social media can offer without professional help can be a challenge. Here we look at some of the many benefits that social media marketing offers, and how you can make them work for your business.

Stay In Touch

With versatile, clickable, buzz-worthy content, your social media channels can help you stay in touch with existing clients and reach out to new prospects like never before. People love getting recommendations about businesses from friends and acquaintances when trying to choose a new service, and social media allows you to do that on a grand scale. Social media can also help you keep your followers up to date on the latest news and any special offers that you might have to fast track conversion and boost business.

Elevate Brand Recognition

When today’s tech savvy generation hears of a business or service they’re interested in, the first step towards engaging that business is often online research. Having a high quality and informative business website as well as associated social media pages helps to paint your business as a popular and flourishing option that’s well connected to their clients, and will provide higher quality products and services.

Improve Loyalty

Better brand recognition means improved customer loyalty. If your client remembers your brand  from social media, and needs your services in the future, they will be more likely to choose the company they know over one that they don’t.

Higher Conversion Rates

Because social media marketing consists of a more human element with greater interaction between the business and the customers, social media marketing is more appealing and has a much higher conversion rate than other forms of outbound business marketing.

Inbound Traffic To Your Website

With links to your blogs, newsletters and contact information all featuring on your social media channels, these can drive more inbound traffic to your business website, helping you to reach more customers with your products and services.

Minimal Costs

Advertising on social media is relatively cheap, and running your social media channels usually costs nothing more than a few hours of time each week. However, consistency and availability on social media are important. If you can’t avoid to take time out of your work to be online, professional social media management is much more cost efficient than other forms of online marketing and can produce outstanding results for your business.

In today’s era of online social networks and digital marketing, no business can really afford to be without a social media presence. Talk to your local digital marketing professional about options for social media marketing management, so you can reach your customers where they are on social media, while focusing your time and energy on what you do best.