What is Social Media?
Social media is the way we connect, share, and socialize via online communities and networks. Multiple platforms, such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have been created to allow their users to share their comments, pictures, videos, and to connect with one another online. Social media is changing the world into a highly connected place, where physical distance is quickly becoming irrelevant. Platforms such as Twitter are used to instantaneously send messages around the world, allowing information to travel far faster than it ever has before. It is hard to ignore the presence of social media in today’s world. One can hardly sit down to watch a TV show without seeing a commercial that at some time asks you to “Like” a company Facebook page. There is no doubt in our mind that social media is quickly changing the way we market our products and services.
Why Your Company Needs Social Media Marketing.
One of the biggest reasons your company needs to have a social media presence is the sheer number of people that use social media platforms. Facebook alone reports that as of this September, they have 584 million daily active users on average, and as of this October, they have one billion monthly active users (http://newsroom.fb.com/Key-Facts). According to Twitter, there are one billion tweets sent every 3 days (https://business.twitter.com/en/basics/what-is-twitter/). These tweets can be about almost any topic you can think of. LinkedIn currently operates the world’s largest professional network on the internet and is used in over 200 countries and territories (http://www.linkedin.com/about-us). As you can see, these social networks are HUGE! It only seems logical that a company would want to take advantage of social media to get their name in-front of more potential customers.
Another major reason your company should utilize social media is the connection you get with your customers. By using social media, you are interacting directly with your clients and customers, which in our opinion, helps build a more personal connection with that person. Using social media increases the chances of something will go viral. Having something go viral means that person A shares your content or post, and person B sees what person A has shared. Person B then shares this post again, and this post continues to be shared in this fashion in a snowball or “viral” effect. Having a post go viral is one of the best ways to get your company name out to the masses. Social media marketing may be time consuming, but in today’s world, it is a must.
How Social Media Helps Drive SEO.
Social Media and SEO now go hand in hand. Google has been tweaking their search algorithm with updates like Penguin that have started penalizing sites that use link-building as the main focus for their SEO strategy. Google now looks at the “authority” of the domain that is linking to a website and uses a score from 0 to 100 to determine the trust worthiness of that domain. This has made it difficult for many smaller companies to get high quality links back to their site. Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter all have a domain score of 100. This means that when you take advantage of social media, not only are you marketing your brand, you are also getting high quality links back to your website, which help your overall SEO efforts.
-Paul Johnson
