Social Media Marketing: What Are Its Benefits?

It is a truism of commerce that wherever people go, businesses soon follow. A recent example of this principle can be seen in the emergence of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ as websites with lucrative business potential. For a business to maximize its online marketing opportunities, being a member of these sites is necessary. However, opening an account and creating a page is just the beginning.

To use social media pages to increase sales, businesses must optimize them, using strategies similar to the ones used to optimize business websites. For most businesses, achieving the right strategies requires consulting with a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) company that specializes in optimization.

The Business Benefits of Social Media

As recently as five years ago, social networking sites did not seem like fertile ground for burgeoning businesses. They did not, and still do not, offer payment gateways, and their emphasis was not, and still is not, on commerce. The more members the sites attained, and the more consumers received information from the Internet, the clearer it became that social media sites offered a lucrative inbound marketing opportunity.

As demonstrated by the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, that opportunity is as lucrative as ever. Based on the report, which includes responses from over 1,800 marketers in the Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) arenas, social media websites offer the following business benefits, among others:

• Business exposure- Eighty-five percent of the marketers said the websites generated exposure for their business. The benefits below touch on the results of the exposure.


• Increased traffic- Sixty-three percent of marketers said their business website experienced increased traffic, an increase in subscribers, or a larger opt-in list because of the websites.


• New business partnerships- Fifty-six percent of marketers said the websites helped them form new business partnerships.


• Improved search rankings- Fifty-four percent of marketers said the websites helped increased the Search Engine Results Position (SERP) of their business website.


• Qualified lead generation- Fifty-two percent of marketers said the websites helped them generate qualified business leads.


• Improved sales- Forty-eight percent of marketers said the websites helped them sell products or services, or close business deals.

For most businesses, maximizing these benefits requires optimization strategies that increase the SERP of media pages in the search engines of their respective websites. As more consumers use social media to search for businesses, the importance of achieving a high SERP in the search engines of social websites will increase.

Conclusion

To say that social media marketing is the new frontier of Internet marketing is accurate. It currently offers one of the best inbound marketing opportunities on the web or elsewhere. If your business is not receiving the benefits above from its social pages, consult with an SEM company that specializes in media optimization. It may be the best decision you could make for your online business and your business in general.

In researching social media marketing, I studied the value of social media websites for inbound marketing.