7 Ways Marketers are Using Social Media in 2014 for Business Growth

Happy Tuesday all!  I hope that you’ve had a great weekend.  If you didn’t get a chance to catch my series on Lead Generation Using Social Media, please be sure to check it out.

Speaking of Social Media, one of my favorite blogs – Social Media Examiner published their 6th Annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report.  The report gives feedback and responses from more than 2,800 marketers and how they are using social media for business growth in 2014. 

The one section that is always interesting to me from the report is the most-used social media platforms.  In this section it’s nice to see what the latest trends are on the social front, and how the world of social media is constantly changing.  

I also like that this report gives more insight as to what specific platforms other marketers are using to grow their businesses and which social media platforms you should focus your time and energies on using to maximize your marketing efforts.  Here is a chart detailing the benefits of social media marketing:

Benefits of Social Media

Social Media Examiner 2014 Report

 

From reading the report, in the case of marketing here are the 7 ways that marketers are using social media for business growth:

  1. Mobile Optimized Blogs for social sharingThis is a very important trend these days.  Having a responsive – and mobile optimized blog and website makes it easier for your visitors to read, view and share your content via social platforms. If you need assistance with setting up a mobile optimized site and blog, please feel free to contact me.  My web development and design company will happy to assist you with your project.  
  1. Integrated Social Media Marketing Activities – Marketers are now integrating traditional marketing activities into their social media marketing mix.  A few examples of this are:
    1. Adding social media buttons to your website – Social media links to your site can help generate traffic to your website
    2. Promotions and Advertisements  –  Instead of paying expensive advertising fees for newspapers and the yellow pages, you can now use various social media platforms to share content about your products and services with prospective customers
    3. Customer service – Traditional customer service involves calling customers to request feedback on services – whereas with social media you can answer questions and get feedback via platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
  1. Increased Business Exposure – Based on the report, nearly all marketers (93%) who’ve been employing social media marketing for one year or longer report it generates exposure for their businesses.
  1. Lead Generation – Spending just at 6 hours a week using social media platforms has proven to be very successful in lead generation or the individuals surveyed.
  1. Improved SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Rankings – 60% of respondents stated that they saw improvements in their search engine rankings as a result of using social media in their marketing endeavors traffic as a result of using social media platforms.
  1. Traffic Generation – I can definitely attest to these findings.  As a result of using social media platforms to share, and distribute content, I have seen an increase and improvements to the traffic to this website.
  1. Reduction in Marketing Expenses – This is a huge one and also one of the main reasons you should be using social media.  The fact of the matter is this, the majority of the social media platforms available for use these days cost you nothing but your time.  By spending only a few hours a week or so to market your company, you will be surprised as to how effective social media marketing can be.

If you enjoyed todays post, I would love for you to share it with your friends and people you know on Facebook and Twitter.  Cheers to you all!

Annika Bansal
 

Annika "The Chick Geek" is the founder of AnnikaBansal.com. Small Business Sense shares small business ideas, tips and resources for independent Entrepreneurs and Small Business owners.

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