Year: 2020

Concept of Risk

A person making an investment expects to get some returns from the investment in the future. However, as future is uncertain, the future expected returns too are uncertain. It is the uncertainty associated with the returns from an investment that introduces a risk into a project. The expected return is the uncertain future return that a firm expects to get from its project. The realized return, on the contrary, is the certain return that a firm has actually earned.

The realized return from the project may not correspond to the expected return. This possibility of variation of the actual return from the expected return is termed as risk. Risk is the variability in the expected return from a project. In other words, it is the degree of deviation from expected return. Risk is associated with the possibility that realized returns will be less than the returns that were expected. So, when realizations correspond to expectations exactly, there would be no risk.

Elements of Risk

Various components cause the variability in expected returns, which are known as elements of risk. There are broadly two groups of elements classified as systematic risk and unsystematic risk.

(i) Systematic Risk

Business organizations are part of society that is dynamic. Various changes occur in a society like economic, political and social systems that have influence on the performance of companies and thereby on their expected returns. These changes affect all organizations to varying degrees. Hence the impact of these changes is system-wide and the portion of total variability in returns caused by such across the board factors is referred to as systematic risk. These risks are further subdivided into interest rate risk, market risk, and purchasing power risk.

(ii) Unsystematic Risk

The returns of a company may vary due to certain factors that affect only that company. Examples of such factors are raw material scarcity, labour strike, management ineffi­ciency, etc. When the variability in returns occurs due to such firm-specific factors it is known as unsystematic risk. This risk is unique or peculiar to a specific organization and affects it in addition to the systematic risk. These risks are subdivided into business risk and financial risk.

Measurement of Risk

Quantification of risk is known as measurement of risk.

Two approaches are followed in measurement of risk:

(i) Mean-variance approach, and

(ii) Correlation or regression approach.

Concept of Return

Return can be defined as the actual income from a project as well as appreciation in the value of capital. Thus there are two components in return the basic component or the periodic cash flows from the investment, either in the form of interest or dividends; and the change in the price of the asset, com­monly called as the capital gain or loss.

The term yield is often used in connection to return, which refers to the income component in relation to some price for the asset. The total return of an asset for the holding period relates to all the cash flows received by an investor during any designated time period to the amount of money invested in the asset.

It is measured as:

Total Return = Cash payments received + Price change in assets over the period /Purchase price of the asset.

In connection with return we use two terms realized return and expected or predicted return. Realized return is the return that was earned by the firm, so it is historic. Expected or predicted return is the return the firm anticipates to earn from an asset over some future period.

Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing along with other concepts and techniques to achieve specific behavioural goals for a social good. For example, this may include asking people not to smoke in public areas, asking them to use seat belts or prompting to make them follow speed limits.

Social marketing is marketing designed to create social change, not to directly benefit a brand. Using traditional marketing techniques, it raises awareness of a given problem or cause, and aims to convince an audience to change their behaviors.

So, instead of selling a product, social marketing “sells” a behavior or lifestyle that benefits society, in order to create the desired change. This benefit to the public good is always the primary focus. And instead of showing how a product is better than competing products, social marketing “competes” against undesirable thoughts, behaviors, or actions.

Social marketing is commonly used for causes like

Health and safety, including:

• Anti-smoking
• Anti-drug
• Promoting exercise and healthy eating
• Safe driving
• Railroad station safety

Environmental causes, including:

• Anti-deforestation
• Anti-littering
• Endangered species awareness

Social activism, including:

• Illuminating struggles that people of color, people with disabilities, etc. face, then inspiring people to fight against mechanisms that create inequality
• Anti-bullying
• Fighting gender stereotypes

Who initiates these social marketing campaigns? Nonprofit organizations and charities run the majority of social marketing campaigns. Government organizations, highway safety coalitions, and emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) run them as well. But social marketing is not out of the question if you’re a commercial business. Commercial brands will sometimes run social marketing campaigns for causes they are passionate about.

The primary aim of social marketing is ‘social good’, whereas in commercial marketing the aim is primarily ‘financial’. This does not mean that commercial marketers cannot contribute to achievement of social good.

Applications of Social Marketing

1. Health promotion campaigns in India, especially in Kerala and AIDS awareness programmes are largely using social marketing, and social workers are largely working for it. Most of the social workers are professionally trained for this particular task.
2. Anti-tobacco campaigns
3. Anti-drug campaigns
4. Anti-pollution campaigns
5. Road safety campaigns
6. Anti-dowry campaigns
7. Protection of girl child campaign
8. Campaign against the use of plastic bags
9. Green marketing campaign

Social marketing applies a customer-oriented approach, and uses the concepts and tools used by com­mercial marketers in pursuit of social goals such as anti-smoking campaigns or fund raising for NGOs.

Advantages of Social Marketing

Social marketing a new marketing tool can be a great asset if used properly. The beneficial effects of social marketing for a business can be tremendous, but one must remember that it must be used in the most efficient possible way.

Social marketing allows businesses and web sites to gain popularity over the Internet by using different types of social media available, such as blogs, video and photo sharing sites, social networking sites and social bookmarking web sites.

There are six distinct advantages of social marketing that make it a vital tool to any marketing campaign:

1. Promotes consumption of socially desirable products.
2. Promotes health consciousness in people and helps them adopt a healthier lifestyle.
3. It helps in green marketing initiatives.
4. It helps to eradicate social evils that affect the society and quality of life.
5. Social marketing is one of the cheapest ways of marketing.
6. One of the best advantages of social marketing is that anyone can take advantage of it, even from their own home.

What is NOT social marketing?

Often, people get confused about what social marketing is and isn’t. So, before we keep going, let’s break down 3 types of marketing that do NOT count as social marketing.

1. Social Media Marketing

Many people think social marketing is the same thing as social media marketing: marketing on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Well, that’s not true. Sometimes, social media will be used to spread, and generate buzz around, social marketing campaigns. However, most marketing on social media is oriented towards promoting a product or service. Those viral tweets by Wendy’s, and that influencer’s promotion of Fashion Nova on Instagram, are definitely not social marketing!

2. Self-Serving Donations

If a company publicizes a donation they make to a charity or cause, that isn’t social marketing, because their aim is partially to boost their own reputation.

3. Marketing “green” or “charity tie-in” products

If a company is marketing its own line of eco-friendly water bottles, hybrid cars, reusable lunch containers, or other “green” products, this doesn’t count as social marketing. The marketing of products with a charitable donation tie-in (such as TOMS) doesn’t count either. In both of these examples, the primary focus is on selling a product. Meanwhile, with social marketing, the focus is solely on changing behaviors for the public good.

Here’s an example:

• An ad with alarming stats on the number of disposable water bottles thrown out per year, which promotes Hydro Flask reusable bottles as environmentally friendly, and that is made by Hydro Flask to sell its own bottles, is not social marketing.
• Meanwhile, a general campaign to promote reusable water bottles, made by an environmental organization, that does not promote a specific brand of reusable bottle, is social marketing.

Social media networks are mode of social interaction. It is a platform of sharing and discussing information among human beings. Social media can include text, audio, video, images, podcasts and other multimedia communication elements. Social media sites are nothing but a group of special and user friendly websites.

Social marketing is a very broad term. Social marketing is a technique of building a business using various social media networks. For instance, videos and blogs that gives exposure to your company.

When someone talks about social media marketing people often think that they may be talking about Facebook and Twitter. But social media networks also offer effective marketing tools that can bring more traffic to your website and improve your online popularity. Social media marketing has many characteristics. To attain a good marketing strategy, you need to have a look at the following SMM characteristics.

1. Participation

Social marketing encourages contributions and feedback from everyone. Social marketing includes delivery of ideas at the time of online conversation. It tries to bridge the gap between companies and audience. With all the new channels of social media, people are enjoying this process of participation.

2. Openness

Social marketing success requires honesty, transparency and authenticity. You should maintain a trust worthy relationship with your customers in your SMM (social marketing) strategy. One fake or negative comment can destroy your online reputation.

3. Build relationships

Social marketing is a two-way communication channel. It requires participation from both companies and customers. As a business owner, it is very important to make good connections with your target audience. Online conversation through various social media tools happen in real time with real people. You get a chance to interact with your target audience and you can answer to their queries. Answering to their queries is a good way to build relationship with customers.

4. Reliability

To make your profile reliable, you need to consistently show your online presence. Effective social media marketer visits their targeted sites regularly. They also get involved with new users and promote their products. They talk to their target audience on a regular basis.

5. Build communities

Social marketing sites allow you to build communities quickly, this helps you communicate more effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favorite TV show. These communities help you to know about your target audience. You can also support other communities which you think are good for your business.

6. Customer service

It is very essential to take care of your customers. Social media networks are all about helping each others. It’s about providing value to your customers, not just promotion.

7. Avoid spamming

Don’t give importance only to promoting your links. Also share insightful content about your company. Do not send the same message to your community again and again, it works as a spam and it may irritate your customers.

Social marketing is the most powerful platform for small businesses. An effective social media marketing campaign grows your business and brings more traffic to your website. Social media marketing is the best marketing strategy allows you to promote your company at the same time build relationships.

Social Marketing is quickly becoming one of the most important aspects of digital marketing, which provides incredible benefits that help reach millions of customers worldwide. And if you are not applying this profitable source, you are missing out an incredible marketing opportunity, as it makes it easy to spread the word about your product and mission.

1. Improved brand awareness

Social Marketing is one of the most stress-free and profitable digital marketing platforms that can be used to increase your business visibility. To get started, create social media profiles for your business and start networking with others. By applying a social media strategy, it will help you significantly increase your brand recognition. By spending only a few hours per week, over 91% marketers claimed that their social marketing efforts greatly increased their brand visibility and heightened user experience. Undoubtedly, having a social media page for your brand will benefit your business and with a regular use, it can also produce a wide audience for your business in no time.

2. Cost-effective

For an advertising strategy, social marketing is possibly the most cost-effective way. Creating an account and signing up is free for almost all social networking platforms. But if you decide to use paid advertising on social media, always start small to see what you should expect. Being cost-effective is important as it helps you attain a greater return on investment and hold a bigger budget for other marketing and business payments. Just by investing a little money and time, you can significantly increase your conversion rates and ultimately get a return on investment on the money that you primarily invested.

3. Engage with your customers

Social Marketing is a good way for engaging and interacting customers. The more you communicate with the audience, the more chances you have of conversion. Set up a two-way communication with your target audience so that their wishes are known and their interest is catered with ease. Moreover, communication and engagement with customers is one the ways to win their attention and convey them your brand message. Thus, your brand will reach more audience in real terms and gets itself established without any hassle.

4. Improved brand loyalty

When you have a social Marketing presence, you make it easier for your customers to find you and connect with you. By connecting with your customers through social media, you are more probable to upsurge customer retention and customer loyalty. Since developing a loyal customer base is one of the main goals of almost any business. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty typically go hand in hand. It is essential to often engage with your customers and start developing a bond with them. Social media is not just limited to introducing your product, it is also a leading platform for promotional campaigns. A customer sees these platforms as service channels where they can directly communicate with the business.

5. Healthier customer satisfaction

Social Marketing plays a vital role in networking and communication platform. With the help of these platforms, creating a voice for your company is important in improving the overall brand image. Customers appreciate the fact that when they post comments on your page, they receive a modified reply rather than a computerized message. A brand that values its customers, takes the time to compose a personal message, which is perceived naturally in a positive light.

6. Marketplace awareness

One of the best ways to find the needs and wants of your customers instead of directly communicating with them is Marketplace awareness. It is also considered as the most valuable advantage of social media. By observing the activities on your profile, you can see customers’ interest and opinions that you might not know otherwise if you didn’t have a social media presence. As a complementary research tool, social media can help you get information and a better understanding of your industry. Once you get a large following, you can then use additional tools to examine other demographics of your consumers.

7. More brand authority

For making your business more powerful, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction both play a major role, but it all comes down to communication. When customers see your company posting on social media, especially replying to their queries and posting original content, it helps them build a positive image in their minds. Regularly interacting with your customers proves that you and your business care about them. Once you get a few satisfied customers, who are vocal about their positive purchase experience, you can let the advertising be done for you by genuine customers who appreciated your product or service.

8. Increased traffic

One of the other benefits of Social Media is that it also helps increase your website traffic. By sharing your content on social media, you are giving users a reason to click-through to your website. On your social account, the more quality content you share, the more inbound traffic you will generate while making conversion opportunities.

9. Enhanced SEO rankings

Social Marketing presence is becoming a vital factor in calculating rankings. These days, to secure a successful ranking, SEO requirements are continuously varying. Therefore, it is no longer enough to simply optimize your website and regularly update your blog. Businesses sharing their content on social media are sending out a brand signal to search engine that speaks to your brand validity, integrity, and constancy.

There is no denying that Social media marketing has many advantages for startups and established brands. By regular updating the right social media marketing strategy, it will lead to increased traffic, better SEO, improved brand loyalty, healthier customer satisfaction and much more. Your competition is already increasing on social media day by day, so don’t let your competitors take your probable customers. The earlier you start, the faster you see the growth in your business.

Social marketing has the primary goal of achieving “social good”. Traditional commercial marketing aims are primarily financial, though they can have positive social effects as well. In the context of public health, social marketing would promote general health, raise awareness and induce changes in behaviour. Social marketing has been a large industry for some time now and was originally done with newspapers and billboards, but similar to commercial marketing has adapted to the modern world. The most common use of social marketing in today’s society is through social media. However, to see social marketing as only the use of standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals is an oversimplified view.

Evolution of Social Marketing

Many scholars ascribe the beginning of the field of social marketing to an article published by G.D. Wiebe in the Winter 1951-1952 edition of Public Opinion Quarterly. In it, Wiebe posed a rhetorical question: “Why can’t you sell brotherhood and rational thinking like you can sell soap?” He then went on to discuss what he saw as the challenges of attempting to sell a social good as if it were a commodity, thus identifying social marketing (though he did not label it as such) as a discipline unique from c mmodity marketing. Yet, Wilkie & Moore (2003) note that the marketing discipline has been involved with questions about the intersection of marketing and society since its earliest days as a discipline.

A decade later, organizations such as the KfW Entwicklungsbank in Germany, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands, UK Department for International Development, US Agency for International Development, World Health Organization and the World Bank began sponsoring social marketing interventions to improve family planning and achieve other social goals in Africa, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.

The next milestone in the evolution of social marketing was the publication of “Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change” in the Journal of Marketing by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman. Kotler and Zaltman coined the term ‘social marketing’ and defined it as “the design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research.” They conclude that “social marketing appears to represent a bridging mechanism which links the behavior scientist’s knowledge of human behavior with the socially useful implementation of what that knowledge allows.”

Craig Lefebvre and June Flora introduced social marketing to the public health community in 1988, where it has been most widely used and explored. They noted that there was a need for “large scale, broad-based, behavior change focused programs” to improve public health (the community wide prevention of cardiovascular diseases in their respective projects) and outlined eight essential components of social marketing that still hold today:

• A consumer orientation to realize organizational (social) goals
• An emphasis on the voluntary exchanges of goods and services between providers and consumers
• Research in audience analysis and segmentation strategies
• The use of formative research in product and message design and the pretesting of these materials
• An analysis of distribution (or communication) channels
• Use of the marketing mix—using and blending product, price, place and promotion characteristics in intervention planning and implementation
• A process tracking system with both integrative and control functions
• A management process that involves problem analysis, planning, implementation and feedback functions.

Speaking of what they termed “social change campaigns”, Kotler and Ned Roberto introduced the subject by writing, “A social change campaign is an organized effort conducted by one group (the change agent) which attempts to persuade others (the target adopters) to accept, modify, or abandon certain ideas, attitudes, practices or behavior.” Their 1989 text was updated in 2002 by Philip Kotler, Ned Roberto and Nancy Lee. In 2005, University of Stirling was the first university to open a dedicated research institute to Social Marketing, while in 2007, Middlesex University became the first university to offer a specialized postgraduate programme in Health & Social Marketing.

In recent years there has been an important development to distinguish between “strategic social marketing” and “operational social marketing”.

Much of the literature and case examples focus on operational social marketing, using it to achieve specific behavioral goals in relation to different audiences and topics. However, there has been increasing efforts to ensure social marketing goes “upstream” and is used much more strategically to inform policy formulation and strategy development. Here the focus is less on specific audience and topic work but uses strong customer understanding and insight to inform and guide effective policy and strategy development. Social marketing in most cases stands in contrast to business marketing and serves for society wellbeing. The techniques of this marketing are used for change of attitudes and behaviours of different audiences in public life.

Social marketing is also being explored as a method for social innovation, a framework to increase the adoption of evidence-based practices among professionals and organizations, and as a core skill for public sector managers and social entrepreneurs. It is being viewed as an approach to design more effective, efficient, equitable and sustainable approaches to enhance social well-being that extends beyond individual behavior change to include creating positive shifts in social networks and social norms, businesses, markets and public policy.

Many examples exist of social marketing research, with over 120 papers compiled in a six volume set.). For example, research now shows ways to reduce the intentions of people to binge drink or engage in dangerous driving. Martin, Lee, Weeks and Kaya (2013) suggests that understanding consumer personality and how people view others is important. People were shown ads talking of the harmful effects of binge drinking. People who valued close friends as a sense of who they are were less likely to want to binge drink after seeing an ad featuring them and a close friend. People who were loners or who did not see close friends important to their sense of who they were reacted better to ads featuring an individual. A similar pattern was shown for ads showing a person driving at dangerous speeds. This suggests ads showing potential harm to citizens from binge drinking or dangerous driving are less effective than ads highlighting a person’s close friends.

Social marketing is an essential part of every digital marketing strategy. No wonder, as nearly half of the planet’s population is active on social media (over 3 billion users). As social media marketers, we are lucky to reach even a fraction of the userbase with any of the posts we share. Furthermore, the industry is changing and maturing while your daily work can still feel chaotic even if you’re doing everything right. Social media strategies need to keep up with the evolution of how social media changes.

It may seem to you, like all the big companies and brands, haven’t figured out everything on social media and that you’re falling behind.  What are you doing wrong? We hope this list of the most common social media marketing challenges will help you find out.

1. Creating a Modern Social Marketing Strategy

Are you planning to “attack?” Yes, then you need to have a strategy. Otherwise, you won’t reach your objectives, even if you know what you want to accomplish. A social media marketing strategy is a roadmap that will bring you to your accomplishments in the shortest time. Before you start planning your social marketing campaign, you need to determine three key things:

• Why are you on social? What are you trying to accomplish? Are you there for the sake of it? Then you should know that you’re burning your resources and time.
• How are you going to succeed? Are you planning to Partner up with influencers? How will you set up a paid advertising budget? You also need to choose the right social media channels, let alone create original visuals and write compelling content.
• How will you measure it? Use data to drive your decision-making. Determine the goals and key metrics, and break the process down into the months, weeks, and days. Focus on daily activities but always revisit the big picture.

2. Cutting through the Noise

There are thousands of brands competing for user attention on social marketing. All of them are talking at the same time, and that generates so much noise. The noise makes it more difficult to stand out, whether you’re using paid or organic placement means to put your content forward. To make your content stand out, try using the video format to your advantage. Its popularity has been on a constant rise in the last few years. You can go with live streams, Stories, 360-degree videos, and GIFS. With video, you’ll make sure that you’re putting out attractive, exciting, and fresh content for your users.

3. Authentic Connections

Today, users can see right through a robotic voice and a corporate brand that’s trying to push their sales up. They want to connect with a humanized voice. Therefore, one of the challenges brands are facing today is connecting with their target audience on a personal and individual level.

One of the ways to do it is by using a social media inbox. You can segment your audience, and:

• Send them personalized messages.
• Maintain conversations.
• Improve the customer experience.
• Add context to each conversation.
• Generate qualified leads

A social inbox allows you to manage all your conversations in one place and respond to every single message and comment on your social media. Also, you can decide to create and build your group on LinkedIn or Facebook, and engage with users in your community.

4. Expanding Your Reach

Creating and publishing content is not enough to get people to follow you. Without promotion, the chances that it will collect dust on your website blog are much higher. Promoting your content, partnering up with influences and other brands, and generating attention is an entirely different challenge. You need to get it to the audience, but more importantly, to the right one. Be proactive and get people to share your content. Visit your industry influencers and follow their followers. Email your coworkers, partners, and followers. Direct message influencers on social media, too. Share your content to relevant LinkedIn and Facebook groups, and republish it on other websites and blogs that accept guest blogs.

5. Maintaining Originality

Social marketing management is a process that requires you to dedicate yourself to it. It consumes your time, and as your business grows, it slowly becomes a full-time job. That’s why one of the most difficult social marketing challenges you’ll face is staying original and creative. Luckily, there are some great tools and hacks that are at your disposal.

Show the behind-the-scenes of your company. People like to have a name and a face to build a trustful relationship with a brand. They want to know who’s the real person behind everything. Give them a look. For example, publish photos or videos of your staff in their working environment.

Original imagery. Posts with images receive a lot more engagement than the ones containing plain text. Visuals directly draw more attention, indeed. They “tell” a lot more and create deeper connections, and are more memorable. You can also consider visualizing your content and translating it into a well-designed infographic.

6. Creating High-Quality Visuals

Now, the visual challenge is a story for itself. Quality visuals are the second most crucial success factor. It takes time and skills to create them. On the other hand, with visuals, the chances that they will get shared on social media are much higher. So, you can decide to create original images or use high-quality stock materials.

For stock photos, go to a website that offers excellent stock photography. For original photos, have your team ready with a camera. To optimize your images for social media, you can use tools like Canva or Pablo. Make sure that each image is sized for a specific social network. Even more, you should avoid stock photos that are overused, and design everything with your consistent brand logos, colors, and palettes.

7. Getting People to Share

If a social marketing manager finds a tactic that works and keeps using it over and over, they can get into a creative rut. However, the results start declining after a while, and you need to switch your tactics. Your content, even though valuable and relevant, could use a creative boost.

Social media is all about relationships. People share to bring entertaining, informative, and valuable content to their peers. Firstly, you can consider using different formats. Secondly, you can create more exciting content by using emotional appeal and telling great stories.

As a vibrant social media management tool with diverse features, eClincher can help you optimize your social media efforts. Do you need a social media inbox? To track, analyze, and optimize? Did you know you can effectively engage your audience from a single dashboard and leverage tools like automated-posting?  We have designed eClincher as a social media productivity platform with you in mind and with accelerated end-user engagement as the outcome.

The massive industry known as eCommerce in fact spans many different sub-industries from apparel to electronics and everything in between. Just about anything you can think of is currently being sold on one eCommerce site or another.

Despite the tremendous amount of diversity that exists in the world of eCommerce, one thing can be said with near certainty of every single eCommerce store out there no matter how unique the product is that the store sells, there is probably another store out there selling the same thing (or something very similar) to the same target market!

If that is the case, then you have to be asking yourself, how can I set myself apart from my competitors?

Don’t get too upset though, because I have the solution for you, and it is called a “Unique Value Proposition.” Your value proposition is essentially an answer to the following questions – what value does your service or product provide that is unique to your business, and how does your service or product benefit your customers.

A good unique value proposition can be used to make any homepage, product page, or ad better and more likely to convert. In this post we will go over the steps to creating and writing a unique value proposition, as well as a few examples of value propositions.

Step 1: What is Unique about Your Brand or Product?

In this step you have to focus on the first part of the phrase “unique value proposition” namely, unique. What is it that sets your product or brand apart? If you really believe in what you’re selling (which is probably a good idea if you’re running a business) then it shouldn’t be too hard for you to think of this.

Start by asking yourself questions like: What was it that made me want to start my business in the first place? How do I produce my products?

There are many different aspects of your business that can set you aside from other businesses. It could be you use better raw materials, you use a new production method, or even that you have a unique story related to your business and company culture.

Step 2: What is the Value of Your Uniqueness?

Now that you’ve thought about what sets you apart from other businesses you have to think about how that uniqueness actually benefits your customers – what is the “value”?

For example, you could be the only sweater producer in the world using alpaca wool rather than sheep wool, but if you can’t tell me why that is a good thing I definitely won’t care.

Step 3: Make Sure Your Proposition is Clear and Conveys Your Message

You can be the most unique merchant in the world, with the best value to offer, but if your customers can’t understand your unique value in two seconds then that will all mean nothing. So the final step of the process is making sure your proposition itself is written very clearly, and conveys the message of your value.

The importance of social media in business is growing at warp speed. With more and more people joining social media sites and using them regularly/efficiently, the social media industry is bound to become bigger in the coming years. It’s booming like never before.

No, the social media wave isn’t ending anytime soon. And your business should take advantage of it if you want it to survive.

With such amazing growth, every business today needs to leverage proper social media channels in the best possible way. Not because it’s the “in thing”, and not because it sounds simple, but because their target audience is hanging around the popular social networks. And they’re engaging with their favorite brands and connecting with them on different levels.

By giving your business brand the social media touch, you not only generate more business but also connect with your customers better and serve them on a higher level. It actually makes your digital marketing easier.

According an infographic published by Ambassador, 71% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand to others if they have a positive experience with it on social media.

1. Leverage Social Advertising

Social media advertising may be the new kid on the block, but it’s growing faster than imagined. Take Facebook Ads for example. Even though the social network launched ads in 2005, it managed to reach 9.16B in ad revenue in the first quarter in 2017. This just goes on to show that social advertising is here to stay for a long, long time.

As more and more businesses successfully experiment with digital advertising, they’re realizing that taking the social media advertising route makes total sense. Here’s why:

• Lower ad costs: When compared to traditional advertising methods such as print media, TV and radio advertising, social ads are not only dependable, but also cheaper. What’s more, you’re allowed to engage on various social media channels for free before scaling with paid ads. You’re free to grow on your own, at your own pace.
• Targeted reach: Traditional advertising doesn’t give you the luxury to reach out to your target audience the way social media ads do. It simply doesn’t work that way. When you’re doing offline advertising, you’re taking the blind, shotgun approach where your returns are dismal even if you’re making big investments. Using social media ads you reach out to targeted prospects, increase your conversions and ultimately get a higher return on investment.
• Real-time performance analysis: Knowing if your ad is working or not is integral in order to improve it. When you’re doing any type offline advertising, you’re unable to analyze the performance of your ad campaign. Which cripples massively cripples your efforts. Social media ads on the other hand allow you to constantly keep track of how well (or how bad) your ad is performing. You’re able to change your ad on the fly and instantaneously see the results.

Last but not the least, it’s important for businesses of all types to understand that social media ads are only getting bigger and smarter. Social media advertising is where the future is headed. It’s the new wave. The question is, are you a part of it?

2. Boost Brand Awareness

Social media proves to be a powerful tool when it comes to growing your brand awareness. There are businesses who dismiss it as a way to build a brand, but by doing that, they’re leaving an open ground for competitors. On the other hand, many reputable chief marketing officers agree that social media has a definite impact on brand awareness.

Increasing your brand awareness via social media isn’t rocket science. Here are a few tips on how you can do so.

• Find Your Audience: Before you start focusing on a particular social platform, find out whether your target audience is on it. You can do this by searching for relevant conversations about your product or industry. For example, a B2B company may find their audience on LinkedIn rather than Facebook. Don’t just assume or follow other brands.
• Use Visuals: Once you know where your target audience is, it’s time to grab their attention by using eye-catching visuals with your content. Images and videos play a big role in helping you grow your brand awareness on social media channels. Because they not only increase engagement but also boost social shares.
• Create Conversations: Social media is all about building conversations. If you use these social platforms for one-way communication, you’ll only grab so much attention. Instead, talk and listen. Get involved. Showcase your personality by conversing, tagging and mentioning others.
• Measure Your Efforts: Don’t just aim in the dark. Use the tracking tools provided by the platforms (eg: Facebook Page Insights) along with other external tools such as URL shorteners, Google Analytics, etc. to measure your social media activity. Use the insights you gain to understand what’s working so that you can optimize your efforts and build a stronger brand with social media.
• Build Authority: If you want a higher engagement rate along with better brand awareness, then work on building your authority by sharing real value. Along with borrowed content, your content you post should also have something original, as it adds to your credibility.

Remember, every single step that you take to increase brand awareness with social media will impact the overall growth of your business in the long run.

3. Increase Inbound Traffic

Inbound marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate targeted traffic to your website. It’s the kind of traffic that actually converts because it’s super relevant. However, if you leave you ignore the importance of social media in business, you will be limited to your inner circle of customers or the people that are already familiar with your market or brand.

By putting in more effort in social media promotion, you create a whole new channel to draw in laser targeted inbound traffic and get more inbound links.

4. Improve Search Engine Optimization

Every seasoned social media marketer knows that there is some connection between social media and search engine optimization. While Google has clearly stated that it does take “social signals” into consideration when ranking a page, there’s more to it.

Here’s how understanding the importance of social media in business and working on it can help improve your SEO.

Higher Chances to be Found via Web Search According to Matt Cutts, the former spam head of Google, social shares have no impact on your website’s ranking. But, it’s a fact that social media properties do dominate the front of the search engine result pages for brand names. Which means, social media profiles indeed have the power to rank in the top 10 results. Social media profiles are a great way to connect to your prospects and customers. They work as a doorway to your business website because they show your human side. They not only inform the searcher about your business, but also help them become a part of your conversations.

By optimizing your social profiles and by keeping them fresh with the right content, you create a stronger presence on the web. You get more exposure. And you have multiple channels to draw people towards your business.

Ability to Reach More People Via Social Media Search People are no longer dependent on Google search when they need to connect to something or someone. Today, search is not limited to the mighty web search engines. It has moved beyond, which is why social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are the new search engines.

There is massive amounts of content being created and shared on the social web. This content can easily be discovered by users with the help of keyword search, hashtags, etc. When people search for the type of content you’re publishing on your social media page, you may win new fans that want to follow, connect and do business with you. It’s just not about the content, but also about the content producer, which is you. When people see great content being created and shared, they’re curious about who’s behind it. This may lead them to look you up on LinkedIn and learn more about your business. Being a business it’s important that you take the necessary steps to stand out from other competing social media profiles and avoid have duplicate accounts.

The social media world is evolving and is so is the SEO arena. And there are high chances that social signals may start having affect on your rankings. So why not be prepared by building your social media presence with valuable content?

5. Increase Conversion Rates

Another importance of social media in business is the fact that it is great for capturing targeted leads for your business, but it doesn’t stop there. Getting quality leads is only one part of the equation. The other part is converting those into sales.

6. Satisfy Your Customers

Losing a customer is hard, and gaining a new one is harder. But retaining an existing customer is 10 times easier. Which is why customer satisfaction should be your topmost priority.

By using social media to connect with your customers, you have the opportunity monitor what they want, the problems they’re facing and how you could serve them.

In order to truly satisfy your customers and make their life easier, you need to offer them customer service that is more personalized and effective. And social media helps you do just that.

Customers these days know that social media is a lot more approachable and friendly than a call center executive, thousands of miles away, who has a hard time resolving your problem. In other words, customers want superior service without the hassle.

Increasing customer satisfaction with social media includes:

• Monitoring conversations to see if your customers are talking about your brand and in what context.
• Broadcasting important messages, announcements and offers to customers via a social media platform such as Twitter.
• Offering prompt customer service to customers who are facing genuine problems or need some help with the product or service.
• Holding regular question & answer sessions with customers to understand their concerns, get real feedback and see how things can be improved.
• Connect and build a relationship with power users or customer advocates so that they can help serve other customers.

Regardless of what social media platform you’re using to help your customers, it’s important to speak their language, give them personalized service and respond to them without much delay.

7. Enhance Brand Loyalty

A lot of businesses are stuck on their follower count, which is nothing but a vanity number. It doesn’t serve a real purpose if the followers aren’t loyal to your brand. There’s a difference between a random follower and loyal one, because the latter adds real value.

If you want to get the most out of your social media marketing efforts, it’s crucial that you focus on increasing brand loyalty. Having a loyal following means better engagement and better conversations.

Ask any loyal social media follower about their trusted brand, and they will speak positive about it without the need to push. Which leads to natural word of mouth marketing.

Successful marketing depends partly on the ability of a company to manage its marketing programs within its social environment. Social environmental forces are those forces that involve attitudes and shared beliefs of the population. Marketing managers are increasingly finding their tasks hard due to the fact that consumer values, lifestyles and beliefs are changing much more rapidly than they used to. For example, gender roles have been reversed, as indicated by the rising number of men who shop for groceries.

Population Demographics

Demographics involve the study of population factors such as the percentage of the population who are of a given occupation, gender or race. This is besides general factors such as population density, size of population and location. Demographic changes can have adverse effects on marketing efforts of companies: the declining birth rate in most Western countries, the U.S. included, has an obvious effect on sales of baby products. Changes in age, ethnic and gender composition can also influence the demand for certain products within a given area.

Time Consciousness

Many people are now working longer hours than before — almost 50 hours a week compared to just over 40 hours several decades ago. This has resulted in limited available free time for shopping and leisure activities. Time-short people seek to gain or maximize their free time. From a marketing standpoint, this means that many people, especially two-income households, with more income but less time are more willing to pay for convenience. Thus, you should market products that help consumers save time or make full use of it. One example is the yogurt drink, Nouriche, which allows consumers to multitask by driving and eating at the same time.

Shifting Gender Roles

For reasons such as the rising number of two-income families, male-female roles related to families, jobs, recreation and buying behavior have changed significantly. For example, a growing number of “house husbands” are staying at home and taking primary responsibility for child care and homemaking while their wives work full time. Employed women are also seeking a better balance between work and family. This makes them opt for time-saving products such as prepared and frozen foods and more efficient appliances and cleaning products.

Environmental Consciousness

Consumers are increasingly becoming conscious of environmental conservation. Savvy marketers have responded to these rising levels of consumers’ environmental consciousness with products that highlight this fact. One notable example is the development of hydrogen and electric-powered vehicles by motor companies such as Tesla and Honda. Such vehicles release non-toxic waste to the environment such as water.