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Nowadays it is impossible to avoid social media; it is all around us. What began as a way to connect with family and friends has now turned into an essential marketing tool for all types of businesses. But surprisingly, there are still businesses that do not take advantage of this powerful yet inexpensive form of advertising. In fact, nearly 50% of small businesses aren’t using social media as part of their marketing strategies. With more than 3 billion people using social media, I don’t see how your business could not be marketing on social media. Here are a few ways your business can benefit from social media.

3 Social Media Advantages for Business

1. Improved Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is listed as number one for good reason. It’s one of the top social media benefits available to businesses. Increasing brand awareness should be part of any business’ marketing goals.

Why? It’s simple. Consumers want to buy brands they know and trust. Social media is an easy way to get your brand in front of people quickly. Plus, it allows you to target a key demographic that is most likely to utilize your product, while also providing an opportunity to show a more fun or softer side to your brand.

Social media is also a great way to become more connected with your consumers by engaging with them and generating conversations about your brand. For example, if you see a commercial for a wine brand you are interested in, but you want to know if the wine is vegan friendly, you can’t ask the television… but you can easily message the brand on social media.

2. Cost Effectiveness

• Social media marketing is possibly the most cost-effective form of advertising. It is free to create profiles on the different social media platforms. Although there is no cost to post content on your page, I do recommend having a budget for paid promotions.
• These promotions can help increase your followers and get your brand in front of your targeted audience at a relatively low cost when compared to other marketing tactics like television and print. By spending just a few hours a day - and a small amount of money - you can generate a great ROI.

3. Increased Customer Insight

Gaining customer insight is one of the key social media advantages for business. Social media allows your customers to express their opinions about your brand or product, whether good or bad. This is a great way to evaluate your target audience’s needs, interests and dislikes, and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. The social media platforms also include insights that allow you to analyze the demographics of your consumers, as well as providing you with the ability to measure conversions.

Whether you’re a small, family-owned business or a large corporation, you should be taking advantage of social media. With just a little bit of time and money, you can achieve great results from implementing a social media marketing strategy.

However, there’s one important thing to note. You should make sure your social media is being managed by a professional who is on top of the latest social media trends and strategies. Just because someone has personal social media accounts does not make him or her qualified to properly execute social media for your business. If it doesn’t make sense to have an internal social media manager, then consider outsourcing the job to a reputable marketing firm – like THAT Agency.