Having proved that it’s here to stay, social media may have changed over the years, but it still offers businesses many advantages when it comes to marketing.

If you’re looking to expand your reach to a wider audience through social media marketing, here are 9 ways in which it can help:

  1. Brand awareness

With the opportunity to reach thousands of new people and potential customers, a social media agency in Surrey will use their skills to ensure that everything about your business is reflected in your brand, and that anything shared, is relevant to your target audience.

  1. Research

By using social media to add survey links or polls, you can garner quicker, more direct responses from your ideal customers, and easily identify what is working, with your products or services, and what isn’t.

  1. Influence

Having a strong and consistent online presence means responding to comments and messages etc, in a timely and appropriate manner. This can help you build trust with your audience and avoid online smear campaigns from disgruntled customers.

  1. Customer service

Increasing loyalty among your customers with exceptional customer service has never been easier than it is nowadays, with companies able to give instant responses to questions or complaints via social media platforms.

  1. Web traffic

It’s important that only a small percentage of the content you share on social media is promotional in nature (around 20% is ideal), but by sharing blog posts, inviting people to check out special offers, or sign up to a newsletter, you can generate more traffic to your website.

  1. Leads

If your content is worth sharing, people will share it, helping you generate many new leads. And if you’re struggling to boost your organic growth, it might be worth investing in paid advertizing, that will attract new people that may be converted into leads through promotional posts.

  1. SEO

An improved ranking in online searches is much easier for a business to achieve with strategic use of social media. When you create engagement on social media platforms, and increase traffic through targeted, promotional content, you’re helping to give Google a much higher opinion of you.

  1. Data

In terms of planning for future marketing, the data you gather about your followers on social media platforms, and their reactions to your promotional content, can be invaluable. Start by using Google Analytics (or the platforms own analytics) to see what percentage of your website’s traffic was from social media platforms, and gain insights into the age, gender and location of your followers.

  1. Affordable

Anyone can set up a profile on a social media channel entirely free of cost, making it a far more affordable form of marketing than via traditional channels. Should you want to boost your page or a certain post, you can pay for extra advertizing (and turn it off as and when you wish), otherwise, you can simply advertise your wares for free.

That said, you may need to invest in a good tool for management and scheduling of post and blog content, or hire a social media marketing agency in Surrey to do it for you.

Whether you’re a fan of social media or not, there can be no doubting the fact that many platforms present businesses with a wide range of possibilities and advantages when it comes to marketing, and if you haven’t yet explored some of them, why not begin today by signing up with a digital marketing agency?