Written By: Christopher Adams
The growth of communication technology has created so many channels to stay in touch with customers that it often becomes quite confusing to decide which channel to use for the most rewarding marketing campaign. The success of any marketing campaign depends not only on the right marketing strategies but also on selecting the right channels for marketing. Unless you select the highest impacting communication channel for engaging customers, you can never create the desired impact on them that is capable of generating high returns. The local SEO success depends on how well you use the social media platform to make your business omnipresent so that search engines and customers never lose sight of it.
Why use social media?
High visibility leads to better search rankings that ultimately translate into more business. Taking into account that 80% consumer research online before making a purchase decision and that the majority user uses the social media, it makes perfect sense to take your business to the crowd. Having a strong social media presence can put your business ahead of the competition during local searches. Although the social media signals do not have any direct co-relation to search results, the power of social media in driving traffic is undeniable. As you read on you will come to know why the social media is so important for local business and how you can use it most effectively.
Create business awareness
Social media has the unique quality of involving people into the conversation. Whatever content you post on social media – images, videos or textual content like blogs and tweets, you can be sure that it will elicit a reaction from the readers and viewers that can become viral. This creates an instant connection between businesses and viewers and the circle of communication keeps growing rapidly through sharing content, reposting and retweeting, without the need of putting in any additional effort from your end. This trend is highly beneficial for small business that gains high visibility. The brand awareness spreads across rapidly as more and more people discuss it among themselves. Your brand gets wide publicity without any investment.
Connect with customers
It is always beneficial if you have a comprehensive customer database that you can use for keeping in touch with clients at a personal level. However, for a local business that comprises of small businesses mainly, this is always not possible. So, how does local business keep in touch with their customers? Use social media to highlight your business activities that draw the interest of clients, and you will be surprised how quickly the customers start responding to it. The most sought after relationship building exercise seems so easy on social media and you can take it ahead to create new customers.
It is free advertisement
The profile that you create on social media for your local business becomes the place for advertising your business without spending any money. You can create compelling content that portrays your business achievement, and showcase the products or services with regular updates by using appropriate videos, images, and blogs. By following a planned routine of using social media, you can create a sustained advertising campaign that takes your products to the doorsteps of customers without having to look for where customers are located. Since the trust level of the social media is quite high, the advertising campaign gains considerable value.
Social media influences search rankings
Search engines like Google and Bing depend on social signals to gauge the authority of websites. If your local business is not on social media, then you deny yourself of the benefit of better ranking that originates from social signals. More people will talk about your business only when they find enough worth in your products or services, and this is the reason why search engines equate social media response as a measure of qualitative excellence. If you look at the search results for specific brands, you will observe that the social media profile of businesses shows up beside the listing. It creates additional opportunities for earning more clicks for which you must pay attention to the optimization of the social media profile of your business.
Websites with more authority attract search engines, and rankings improve.
Offline sales get a boost
Although customers depend on online resources for information that helps them to take purchase decision, it will be wrong to think that it translates to online purchases only. The majority of the decision made online culminates in offline sales at brick and mortar stores and is the reason why local business stands to gain a lot from its social media presence.
Selecting social media channels
Now that you are convinced about maintaining your business profile on the social media, you must be wondering how to begin. It may seem a bit confusing with so many different kinds of platforms available and new ones cropping up almost every day. Do not make the mistake of being on every open channel of social media. To make things simple, start working with the social media platforms that you are most comfortable in using. Another aspect to consider is that not all social media platforms garner the same kind of attention. Therefore, select the platforms that are capable of generating qualified traffic that is most relevant to you, not only online but offline as well.
Consider business compatibility
Not all social media are not alike. Some media like Instagram emphasize on using images only, some like YouTube are good for using videos while some others like Twitter and Facebook use images, videos, and texts in balanced proportions. Consider what kind of content would be best for representing your business and products and choose the media accordingly. The type of content gives you direction about which social media platforms would be right for you. Above all, what you want to achieve from a social media presence will drive your choice of the appropriate platform.
You must take care of your social media campaign just in the way you drive your SEO campaign to get the results that you expect.
Author Bio: Christopher Adams is an expert in digital marketing and looks after social media campaigns, content marketing, and SEO in his current assignment. He has guided several small businesses in local SEO matters. Astrology is his hobby that he practices as an amateur.
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