The 15 Most Overlooked Benefits of Social Media

Table of Contents 

• Introduction 
• Top Social Media Advantages That You Are OverLooking
• Conclusion 
• FAQs 

Social media is no longer an option for brands but a necessity. Some brands, especially the small ones, might consider social presence a side dish in their main marketing course. However, social media marketing is as important as your traditional marketing. With billions of people already using some kind of social platform or the other, you don’t want to miss the crowd. 

So, is it just because about half the world’s population is on social media that your brand needs to be there? It’s not just about being there. Mere social presence isn’t enough; you’ve got to make the best out of it. What benefits can your business get out of social media? It’s much more than your business reach more people. Read on to know the best benefits of social media, including those often overlooked. 

Top Social Media Advantages that you are Overlooking

1. An ideal place to identify real-time industry trends

Social media is that one place where you get to see your target audience’s social activities on the fly. You can pick up on industry trends in no time from their activities. Hashtags in shared content, for example, would give you a pretty good clue of what’s up and about in the social network of your audience. 

Trending hashtags on social media will let you in on the highlight of the day/week/month. 

Think of the instantaneous and ‘open’ nature of social media. This is where we get to see activities, interests, and opinions of both brands and consumers laid bare for all. Which brand is being talked about, doing well;  what’s abuzz among the audience, who are they singing their words of praise to, and who’s getting the wrath of the society, the picture is out in the front. 

2. The search engine pleaser you didn’t know you needed

As a digital marketer, you must have known enough to keep your websites and pages SEO optimized (for your good). And you also know that SEO is an ever-evolving creature.

So, you’re constantly crafting your pages around the latest SEO trend, aren’t you? That is if you want your content to pass that relevancy vibe. Well, guess what? Social media can propel your content towards relevant search.

With the right social media marketing strategy, you can enhance your ranking on Google and other search engines. Your social media health has some bearing on your SEO. Social media posts that generate visits to your website or blog will drive traffic, ultimately notching up your brand’s presence.

A concept called linkless backlinks is gaining a collective nod from experts that say social media correlates search performance. Shares and social click-throughs reflect positive search signals to search engines for your brand. Besides, your social media can make up a sizable, if not big, traffic source. There are tracking tools to measure your social media traffic, like Google Analytics. 

A good performing content (likes, shares, comments) on your social media is great for your site traffic. This referral traffic from social media can be enhanced by implementing the right scheduling system. 

3. A place to extract content and source inspiration from

Social media is a place where brands and users share their own content. Thus, another benefit of social media is that you can use it as a gold mine for content discovery and generation. Closely following your brand mentions (through tags, for example) can show you positive audience content on your brand page — photo posts, tweets, comments, etc. Many brands curate such positive user-generated content for their social/digital campaign. These customer contents will help weave shareable success stories, eventually driving conversion and engagement rates.

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Besides uncovering content to use in your marketing campaigns, curating customer content enhances audience connection. When you share customer-generated content, the customers (content generators) feel noticed and loved by your brand. And that’s one great way to gain an affinity towards your brand.

4. Eying your competition’s every move like never before

Most people don’t realize just how much of an intelligent power social media holds for a brand. The ability to see when, how, and what a competitor is doing on their social front cannot be underestimated. What are the competing brands promoting? How much talk are they garnering? Are they running ads, if so, what’s their style? By keeping a regular tab on competitors’ activities, you can determine the kind of strategy they use. And social media has made keeping an eye on them as easy as can be. Performing competitive analysis reveals the ways in which competitors are doing better than you. 

Say your competitors are doing great with their Instagram engagement while yours look like a deserted island. You might want to study how they’re doing it and take inspiration. Or, find their mistakes and build your strategy better with the learnings. There are several competitor analysis tools to monitor how you compare with competitors so you don’t lag behind.

5. Improving customer service

Most customers are already using social media to raise their queries or concerns. The great thing about providing customer support on social media is it’s speedy and practical nature. No phone calls or passive-aggressive email rants. Brands can have meaningful conversations with customers in the process of clarifying their questions and concerns.

Keep in mind that your competitions are also watching you. Executing forward-facing interactions on socials has a positive impact on your brand. 

Be it complaints, concerns, queries, or any form of feedback, you must address them promptly in real-time. The urgency and passion with which you respond to say a lot about your brand’s eagerness and readiness regarding customer concerns. What better place to show that than on social media. Not to forget, social media is a great place to determine customer sentiments and opinions on your brand; it’s also a great place where you can collect feedback from. This is one of the top benefits of social media.

6. Strengthening your brand

You want to build a strong brand that resonates not just with the material interests of the audiences but also with their human value. Many businesses are using social media to connect with customers on a personal level. 

Humanize your brand by breaking away from formalities at times. You could talk to the audience like a normal person; keeping a casual tone and expressions in your communication. Social media is ideal for showing off your brand’s human side because the relevant vibe out there is casual rather than ‘formal/business.  

A great way to do this is to tell your brand story instead of only talking about your products and services. Reveal your brand’s human faces. Throw the spotlight on the people behind your brand, for a change. Highlight and appreciate employees’ workers featuring their stories with photos, for example. You can also highlight social issues the brand cares about or demonstrate it through activism, philanthropy, etc. 

7. Promoting brand authority 

Brands strive to be known as an authority in their respective field. You want customers to see you as a credible knowledge resource in the industry. Social media is an effective way to build your brand as a thought leader to establish authority. 

Social media is where you can actively showcase your brand’s authority on a subject. This isn’t an overnight process, as you’ll need to consistently produce high-quality content and actively promote it on social channels before you can be recognized as a thought leader.

8. Giving you a voice

The major benefit of social media is that it gives you a voice. Your social media page can show your audience the real side of your brand. The way people engage with you and you with them or the positive reviews can help you connect with your potential customers. The other thing you can do is to be your authentic self. Being fake gets called out and can hamper your brand beyond repair. Other tips include having relatable brands and creating a stable relationship with people who follow you. This builds a loyal base that turns to you for a particular product or service. 

9. You reach a wider audience

For this, let’s take a small example. You are someone who sells handmade jewelry in your hometown. You are doing well, and you have a set of loyal consumers too. But, your audience is limited to the people in your town. Now, let’s say you start posting on Instagram or Facebook and start selling there too. Your audience base automatically becomes wider. Many sellers on social media platforms show us their amazing work and give a link to their e-commerce store or take electronic payment and ship you the products later.

10. Stay on the minds of customers

Social media ensures that your audience will never forget you as long as you post consistently and have a strong content plan in place. An average individual will open social media at least a couple of times throughout the day, and when they come across your post, you remain fresh in their mind, and chances of them purchasing from you goes up.

11. Find leads

Social Media is a great place to find leads. When people display interest in your product, you have an opportunity to directly connect with them and convince them why they need you. Being on social media is a tremendous advantage for lead generation as a business. Several social networks offer ad formats that can help generate leads quickly.

12. It is free

This is one of the best benefits of social media for business. While you end up paying a hefty amount for other digital advertising methods, social media is free. You can easily gain more followers with the help of strong content and graphics. For this method, you need a consistent plan and strong content. To make it easier, you can always use a scheduling app to never miss a post.

13. You can use influencer marketing

Today, influencers are ruling the town. They bring a sense of trust and credibility to the table, which can help you expand your number of followers and sell your products or services to your target audience. So, join forces with influencers who are the right fit for your products or services, and it will make all the difference.

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14. You can experiment

With social media, you don’t have to follow a format. You can try various things to keep your audience engaged, which means they will likely stick to you. From adding humor to your content to sharing stories, the sky’s the limit here.

15. Higher chances to go viral

Finally, with social media, fame is just a post away, which means keep trying to come up with something unique that will resonate with your brand, and the chances of you going viral are high. This means more people will know you, and more people will want your product or service.

Conclusion

Social media is much more than a mere content dissemination platform. While consistency and relevancy of your content are important, keep an eye on the other players. Using the right social media marketing tools must go hand-in-hand with proper knowledge of their benefits. And do squeeze every advantage out of your brand’s social media campaign. How has your brand/business benefited from social media? 

FAQs