On the surface, social media can be quite deceiving. It can appear to be a simple tool for those with too much time on their hands to chat with friends, post pictures of their weekend and create exciting events. However, the more informed know otherwise – these social media platforms are a truly amazing and powerful marketing, public relations and SEO tool for businesses to utilise.
In the marketing industry, there is a common school of thought that relates to the best way to market a product to the client. In the past, there was a heavy focus on simply shoving a product or message down the consumer’s throat. While this idea was in part successful, it was heavily flawed by its ability to only have a one way conversation. The concepts in marketing have since evolved, and through many twists and turns have finally ended up in the concept that the majority of marketers use today.
Using an effective CRM system is the industry standard today to approach marketing due to its ability to allow engagement with clients in an open dialogue, or a two way conversation. Customers no longer are simply referred to as customers, or broadly referred to as an age group or gender or anything else. They are no longer simply sold a product only to hear nothing else from the company. This seems crazy now, as we know understand that it is much harder to gain a new customer than to retain an old one. Customers are INDIVIDUALS, and should be treated as such.
Once this theory is understood, the purpose of using Social Media as a business tool now becomes clearer. Social Media services like Facebook, Twitter and Linked In now provide the platform to interact with their consumers as INDIVIDUALS. Not only that, but companies are now provided with the opportunity to increase their touchpoints by creating an ongoing relationship with their consumers, increase advertising, increase public relations, build their brand, increase their reach… the list goes on.
It’s not just Marketers that understand this theory – Google does as well. Over the past few years, there has been a strong change in Google’s algorithms that places a heavy influence on Social Signals. This means that INDIVIDUALS now get a say on what ranks higher in Google, a vast change from the times where marketers and directories ruled the rankings.
Those who wish to stay at the top of Google are now faced with a tough choice – to adapt their SEO to include social media, or to fall behind the pack.