The Advantages of Social Network Sites

Social networking has become a fundamental sales and service component for many business owners. If you haven’t yet looked into the social media revolution to help grow your business, you could be missing some opportunities. Here are just some of the advantages of social media platforms and how these sites can help you run a more efficient business.

Demographics Research

Social network sites are experts in collecting information about people. A lot of this information is available to business owners through demographics data tools, such as Facebook Insights. Using this tool helps you narrow down your demographics, understanding not just potential customers’ basic interests, but their special interests and even buying habits. With the research tools available, you can create a large demographic target with niche market segments. This helps you develop more effective marketing strategies.

Sales Leads

The goal of marketing is to drive sales to the company. You can use social networks to help in this capacity as well. Not only can you get the niche segments, but you can advertise directly to those segments using Facebook, Instagram or Twitter ads. When your target market is the one seeing your advertising, you are more likely to get new customers.

Many business owners participate in social network groups as another participant. Being active and sharing your expertise in large groups where people might find your product of interest helps build credibility and generate leads. For example, a divorce attorney who provides basic advice to a custody group could get a lot of business from the group if he is credible, not always in sales mode and people find his advice helpful.

Customer Groups

Many businesses are now creating groups or pages for their customers to share ideas, give feedback, and get additional insights and resources. This is great for a business owner, who can now rely on others to help with customer service needs. Some businesses also create private groups so members can get exclusive promotions and deals. Inviting all your existing customers to follow the business page also opens those customers’ networks to you. This is a huge benefit of social network sites.

Social Proof

Referrals are usually the strongest prospects a business can gain. When you are in social network groups, it becomes easy for your customers to share your business information or invite people to like your page. You are also able to get customers to rate your business and leave a review. As people see this, your social proof credibility goes up.

Testimonials and positive ratings are key factors for other online friends inquiring about how your company can help them. Additionally, many people post online when they are seeking recommendations for anything and everything. If someone asks for the best roofer in the city, a list of the best is going to come from that person’s network. If you have a social media page, your customers can link it as part of the recommendation.

Major Social Networking Platforms

There are quite a number of social networking sites where your business can establish a presence and engage employees, clients and customers. Among the major sites are:

Facebook: The world’s largest social networking site. You can establish both a personal profile as well as a profile and site for your business. Visitors can view the information you post and, if you choose to allow comments, can also ask questions or provide feedback.

Twitter: Another very popular site, oriented towards very short posts, often on fast-breaking news and topics of the day.

Instagram: A social networking platform oriented towards images and videos. It can be very useful for highlighting product styles, especially clothing and technology.

LinkedIn: A site for professionals to communicate with one another, both as individuals and as a company presence.