Social media has become a critical component of modern brands’ digital marketing strategy no matter how you slice it. The capabilities social media marketing can provide and the huge audiences it aggregates serve as powerful assets for marketers of all brand types and company sizes.

There was a time when social media was more akin to a distraction than a viable marketing channel for businesses, but high adoption rates have changed that. According to Pew Research, 69% of all U.S. adults now use at least one social media platform, up from 5% back in 2005. Looking just at those 18 to 49, 83% of them have a social media account.

Facebook has the largest portion of users, with 68% of the U.S. population on the platform and 88% of its 18-29 demographic. The platform also claims 1.32 billion daily active users worldwide.

With such a huge available audience base and an increasingly powerful brand management toolset, marketers can obtain the following benefits by having even a minimal brand presence on social media platforms.

Build Brand Awareness and Loyal Audiences

Audiences looking for information on a brand would typically rather research it through social media compared to the brand’s owned website. According to Hootsuite, 41% of Americans want brands they engage with to have a strong social media presence so they can find the information they seek.

Additionally, brands able to get consumers to follow them have stickier customers overall; a recent study shows that over half of Americans who follow branded social media pages end up being more loyal to these brands.

By having a social media presence, your brand makes it easy to come up in search in-app during mobile browsing. Your brand can also appear as organic or sponsored content, helping new people discover it incidentally or keep you at top-of-mind.

Having a social media presence can also enhance your visibility on search engines, making a branded social page vital for SEO goals.

Create Highly Targeted Campaigns

One of the most critical capabilities of social media marketing comes from the platforms’ ability to target audiences through their own user data. Facebook ads, for instance, can target users based on their interests as indicated by the groups and pages they follow. LinkedIn advertising can target B2B leads by industry vertical, company role and even their affiliation with specific companies.

These targeted paid social campaigns not only serve brands looking for scaled reach, they can also inform demographic data. By A/B testing audience segments, for instance, a brand can discover higher-value segments or customers most likely to convert. In this way, social media data fuels other marketing efforts — both on and offline.

According to statistics from Hootsuite, nearly three-quarters of all companies using social media to generate new sales report a lift in sales within 12 months.

Meet Your Customers Where They Are at for Better Experiences

Being on social media can enhance your customer service and customer experience on a 1:1 basis. 28% of Americans would rather engage with a brand representative on social media compared to in-store. Over two-thirds of customers say they have gone to social media to resolve an issue or post a complaint.

Brands able to engage with audiences looking for a personalized customer experienced or 1:1 support foster greater affinity while preventing potential PR damage from upset active social media users.

With social monitoring, you can also identify customers talking about your brand online — saying both good and bad things — in order to manage your online reputation better while capturing more accurate voice of customer (VoC) data.

Become a Social Media Marketing Maven by Partnering With Our Team

If you are interested in building a social media presence, running paid social media marketing campaigns, fulfilling customer service needs via social media, or tying social media into your overall multi-channel marketing strategy, then you can get the leg-up you need from Vonazon.

Our skilled social media marketing services team offers customizable services based on your needs and goals. Start reaching more people — and improving their view of your brand — when you contact us today.