Social Media: The Big Seven

In a world where the importance of an online presence is increasing, it is important to understand why and how social media have such a large impact on businesses. Just-Food discusses a recent study performed by eConsultancy which found that Twitter and other microblogging websites were the main focus for almost 70% of the companies that were surveyed; however, most companies also utilize a more straightforward method such as creating and maintaining an online profile. The same survey also measured the companies’ attitudes towards the return on investment from social media activities, with the most common result being an increase in direct traffic to the corporate websites.

Facebook and Twitter are perhaps the most popular social media websites among businesses. Over 60% of Fortune Global 100 companies had at least one Facebook page, and 77% had a Twitter account. Twitter is the most common social media website used to provide company news and updates, customer service, and to offer deals to companies. The ability to reach out to your customers, or followers, on a more personal level has the ability to bring more success to any business. The success will come once social media is being used correctly, and to its full potential.

Through social media websites, companies have the opportunity to learn more about their target audiences, which allows them to tailor their marketing strategies in a way that will make sense to their audience. Online advertising is slowly, but surely, overtaking television advertising. The ability to advertise online, even through social media, can increase a profit at any business. We are an online driven society; if we see a product that we want or need advertised online, we can go buy it online at that moment.

Now that we have seen the different numbers for companies using Facebook and Twitter, we need to understand that it is not a competition between the two social media websites. It is important for both sites to be utilized and understood.

Golden Technologies gives five reasons that we should use both Twitter and Facebook. The first reason being that there are different audiences on Facebook and Twitter; the same people do not use both websites. Younger people are on Facebook more frequently, while older people are more prominent on Twitter. When creating a social media plan, you need to define your target audience and whatever it may be, there will be a social media website to correspond.

The second reason given by Golden Technologies is that each website has different uses – Twitter is an excellent place to post links to great articles, give announcements and short updates, while Facebook lets you post photos, create events, and get into more detail. Third, you have the option to link the two accounts together to minimize the time spent online. Next, search engines like social media. “All things in online marketing eventually come back to search engine optimization.” Google and Bing watch what is going on with Twitter and Facebook, and both websites allow for tweets and pages to be indexed, which allows for more keywords to draw users into your business. Lastly, it is the next generation of marketing. Social media is free and easy to use. Even if you are still unsure about Facebook and Twitter, you might as well give it a try.

It is incredible how second-nature social media websites have become for younger people. It is important for everybody to understand how big of an impact Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and blogs can have on a reputation for an individual, but especially for a business as well. As long as we are aware of our online reputations, great opportunities will arise.

To read the articles: Just-Food and Golden Technologies