No one needs to tell you that social media websites have exploded in popularity. But like some business owners, you may be holding out on jumping onto the social media marketing bandwagon. As an Internet marketing firm that offers social media marketing services, Crest Media is here to tell you: This is not the best plan. If you fail to take advantage of social media marketing at this stage in the game, you will be missing out on all kinds of advantages – advantages your competition may already enjoy.

What Is Social Media

At its core, Social Media essentially is defined as sharing and recommendation based information exchange through user-managed channels and websites. Social Media's principle difference from search based information sharing in that its dependent on a recommendation or a "vote" from random users and not algorithmic criteria or expert opinion. It is the process of everyday random people sharing & recommending digital information (in the form of website links, image and video files, or self-created content) they believe to be valuable and reputable for themselves, their friends, family and colleagues. As for how social media can affect one's business, one could think of it as the logical extension of a customer's opinion always being right and then using that opinion in a semi-public forum to influence those around them.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

It’s true: If your competitors are already using Facebook, Twitter, and article submission sites (such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.) to market their businesses, they are enjoying things you will miss out on by not participating. Those benefits include:

Increased exposure: By plugging your business into social media, you can expose it to marketing you may not otherwise have access to. Social media marketing brings a virtual “world” of consumers closer to you; and while you may have doubts that this will result in increased profits, the proof is in the pudding. Data points to higher conversion rates (the process of a website user/social media “friend” becoming a business’ paying customer) when social media marketing is used to generate leads. The bottom line is that social media produces a greater return on investment (ROI) than nearly any other marketing tool – because it’s virtually free!

Brand shaping: Sure, your website is a useful tool for shaping your brand; but with so much competition out there, it’s hardly enough. In today’s crowded market, you need social media marketing to help you reach out to your audience and show them more, more, more of your brand – on a consistent, routine basis. This could mean sharing nuggets of industry info, or it could mean filling them in on aspects of your business that can benefit them as customers: promotions, sales, and other new developments. Developing brand awareness in this fashion also works to supplement such internet marketing efforts as reputation management (think of user-generated testimonial sites like Yelp!, Hotfrog or Brownbook) and even local optimization (location-sharing & check-in based websites like Foursquare or Facebook's Places feature).

Putting personality into your status updates is an easy, fun way to mold your brand image; so are photos, engaging blogs or interesting article links...with social media, you can be as creative as you like. Strictly business? No problem. Social media allows you to stay on message, too. It’s your brand, and you can stay in control of it when you use social media marketing.

Long-Standing Customer Relations: In the digital age, transparency is the name of the game for businesses. A firm’s willingness to engage not only new, but previous customers on social channels like Facebook and YouTube conveys willingness to address and correct past business mistakes (and tout their successes too). This form of customer engagement is a lot more accessible and a lot less overlooked than the common "How did we do?" customer survey forms and emails with data that's never really seen by the general public.

Credibility: Like it or not, social media marketing is pretty much required of companies who want to lend themselves credibility with today’s tech-savvy consumers. And even if your audience is not a particularly youthful demographic, it’s important to embrace – not resist – this powerful marketing tool. Why? Because studies show that Facebook is often more popular with the 30 and over crowd, and with Twitter growing by untold amounts every day, it’s a must for any social media marketing campaign. Plus, it goes far beyond those two sites. For some industries, there are dozens of sites you can submit content to as part of your social media campaign. When you trust Crest Media to do this for you, we can create content aimed at reaching your audience and submit it to these sites for you. It’s all part of what we do to help your brand stay visible and gain credibility with your audience.

Effective Social Media Campaigns

Then, there’s blogging. Think your audience doesn’t want to hear what you have to say? They just might. Plus, maintaining a company blog makes your site even more visible to prospects and customers, especially when your most successful keyword phrases are routinely implemented. Crest Media employs skilled ghostbloggers who can perform this task to enhance your social media efforts and your internet marketing campaign as a whole.

As previously implied, the best social media marketing campaigns involve Facebook and Twitter. Crest Media can set goals for fan and follow acquisitions on these sites and provoking interaction with this audience. This is achieved by asking questions in status updates, creating polls for them to participate in, and notifying them of special offers.

Trust Crest Media For Your Social Media Management

We can do it all. From setting up accounts and maintaining them, to creating content and posting it, Crest Media can perform your social media marketing duties routinely and diligently. When we see what’s working, we go with it; when we notice something isn’t effective, we adjust the plan until we find what works for you. We realize that no two social media campaigns should be exactly alike. After all, that’s what social media is all about – making yourself stand out.

To speak with a social media marketing specialist, contact Crest Media today.