Social Media – The 30 “Whys”

Here are 30 social media “whys” your business or organization must be active in 2016 . . .

We all know social media is important. Over the course of several weeks, I’ll be taking you through an overview of the top social amplification platforms, tools, and methods for your business. Let’s get into it with 30 reasons why your business should be active in social media! 

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Search engines, such as Google and Bing, love organizations with a strong, loyal, and engaged following.
2. Promote and Protect Your Online Image (Reputation Management): Organizations that have a reputation of connecting with their audiences can weather negative feedback and bad press when they’ve taken the pro-active approach of creating helpful, relevant, and valuable content. And using that content to form an ongoing relationship with their customers.
3. See Customer Comments in Real Time: Not only can you see customer comments on your own social media platforms, you can also subscribe (and respond!) to comments about your organization that are on the Internet (Creating a Google Alert for certain keywords can boost your responsiveness and even give you ideas for your next series of blogs or articles).
4. Solve Customer Service Issues in Real Time: Gone are the days of waiting until Monday morning before responding to your customers. Your business has the opportunity to be helpful at any time!
5. Transparency Shows the World that You Care: We trust people who we know will be transparent with us. The same goes for businesses.
6. Build Credibility in Your Industry: By providing valuable content, you can show the world (and others in your industry) that you really do know what you’re talking about!
7. Your Competitors Are on Social: The world can see how much a business cares just by looking at the comments on their Facebook page.
8. Your Competitors Aren’t on Social: Who hasn’t started a business page on Facebook? It’s not just a “set it, and forget it” thing. Rise to the top in your industry by engaging.
9. Your Competitor’s Customers Are on Social: You better believe that someone is searching for your product or service today!
10. Social Expands Your Reach: I’ve driven 90 miles to attend workshops and flown across the country to go to conferences. I learned about them on social media.
11. Social is Global: You can connect with anyone, no matter the location!
12. Social is Local: Restaurant down the street has a menu special for today? I learned it on Twitter.
13. Social Provides an Affordable Way to Advertise: You can “test drive” a Facebook ad for as little as $1!
14. Easy Amplification of Your Message with Social Sharing Abilities: Sharing buttons (like the one found at the bottom of this page) make it easy for your readers to “get the word out” to their friends, no matter what platform they’re using.
15. If Your Customer Isn’t Ready to Buy, They Know Who You Are and Where to Find You: It’s all about consistency and building trust.
16. Your Brand Becomes Personal: Show you care and engage!
17. Relationships are Built: Your business becomes less about your business and more about the people you serve.
18. You Have the Ability Like Never Before to Niche Your Audience: People tell the world what they’re interested in every day on their social profiles.
19. People View Social Networks as Social Networks, Not Marketing Engines:Brands that build relationships and don’t seem “sale-sy” are the ones who will #win. Building is a daily effort.
20. Social Provides a Level Playing Field: All anyone needs is an email address to start a Twitter or Instagram account. Everyone gets a vote.
21. Facebook is Still Growing: “Like” it or not…Facebook continues to grow and it’s users continue to provide valuable information on how you can best connect with them.
22. Video is Powerful and YouTube Will Make You a “How To” Authority: YouTube is the second largest search engine. People search YouTube when they want to know how to do a task. (I put a new bumper on my car – for goodness sake!)
23. You Can Live Stream From Your Phone: With Periscope, Meerkat, and now Facebook Mentions, you can do a live, remote broadcast from your smartphone.
24. Social Drives Traffic to Your Website and Email Signup: When you have valuable information, people will come to your website and sign-up for your e-newsletter.
25. You can Tweet Videos: Connect on a personal level by responding to tweets by using video!
26. Mainstream Media Has Picked Up on Twitter (and, Have You Been to a Sporting Event Lately): It’s all about getting the most recent updates in the most convenient way. That’s what Twitter is all about. Here’s your opportunity to be relevant.
27. Podcasting is No Longer Dominated by Big Media: All you need is a microphone, and some free editing software. Boom–You’re a podcaster!
28. Social Platforms Give You the Ability to Choose The Best Media for Your Audience: There are so many different ways to connect. That’s what I hope to help you with on this website.
29. Mobile Technology Allows You to Text Appointment Reminders: Hey, it’s still social. I’ve changed my oil and made an eye appointment because of text alerts.
30. Blogs Make Us All Published Authors: You have the opportunity each day to build authority and be a published author.

You don’t have time to just be a consumer of information, you need to create (after all, isn’t that why you started a business?)! There’s no excuse–you have a message and the tools to build your online presence. 

What social media initiatives are you planning for 2016?