In these days of digital media, social media has become a central pillar of our lives. From Facebook to Twitter, it has taken just a decade for social media to form such a pivotal point of our lives to the point where many of us can’t imagine going a day without logging on. Marketing campaigns can greatly benefit from a social media presence. Many businesses are beginning to adopt social media, seeing the benefits that it can bring and using it to their advantage. If you haven’t yet adopted social media, then it is time to consider joining the legions of people thronging to sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
In the UK, over 30 million people use Facebook, over 15 million use Twitter and roughly 10 million users are currently on LinkedIn. Of course, this means that the potential market that can be tapped into via social media is enormous. 58% of businesses currently use social media and the number continues to grow as more and more businesses open up. For young, start-up businesses especially, social media can help them make an impact and advertise themselves without needing to spend money on designing and hosting a website. Social media can be used for everything from providing customers with a means of getting discount codes and coupons, to providing an entirely new platform on which to advertise new goods or services.
Social media can really be a significant platform in boosting sales and income. There are numerous examples of this. Perhaps the most recent and prominent example is that of Cardiff resident Ben Phillips who can make up to £2000 for a single second of video, solely for promoting a brand using videos on Vine, another emergent social media platform. Businesses can also see drastically increased sales and interest in their products simply by adapting to the usage of social media. Brands such as Dove and Old Spice have benefited from viral marketing, with their advertising campaigns being spread across social media and seeing vastly increased exposure as a result.
Social media can also be useful for gathering information regarding the visibility and general popularity of a brand. Followers on Twitter or Likes on Facebook are just two ways in which a company can measure its popularity. A business can also guess its popularity through posts liked or tweets which are re-tweeted. A business has the potential to tap into a huge market, but it requires marketing something that will actually be appreciated by potential customers. Used efficiently, social media can track trends in the world and can adapt their business as such.
We are very much living in an age of openly accessible information, and this benefits both businesses and customers. Social media is not a fad, but rather a central part of our lives that will remain so for many years to come. If a business chooses to tap into the market, then the potential for exposure and gains is enormous.