Social media has gone beyond its infancy when it was the next really cool thing, to a point where it is part of many people’s daily lives and a cornerstone of the marketing strategies of global corporations and small indie operations alike.
If you doubt the power of social media and the potential it holds for your business, you need only look at some recent statistics on the subject.
A recent infographic from Wishpond contains many interesting statistics which illuminate the positive correlations between social media activity and online success. For example, it shows that ‘companies that generate more than 1,000 Facebook Likes also receive nearly 1,400 website visits a day’, while those with more than a thousand Twitter followers garner in excess of 800 new visitors to their website per month.
These statistics show that the rewards of social media campaigns are highly concrete, and that customer interaction with social pages can directly lead to further engagement with a brand and its website. The infographic also refers to Nielsen research which shows that 46% of users depend on social media when making a purchase. This illustrates the growing trust that people are placing on social media channels.
SEO benefits of social media
As well as its natural potential for drawing users into interaction with your brand, social media campaigns also have tangible SEO benefits. According to another infographic from eLearners, regular Tweeting can cut the time it takes to get indexed by 50%, while having content shared through social media can indicate to Google and others that your site is ‘fresh’ and thus improve rankings.
Many search engines are beginning to include social signals in their algorithms and this looks set to increase in the future. This is because they are recognising the power of social media to shape user activity, and this is a fact that many businesses are also waking up to.
Today it’s not a question of whether you should be using social media, it’s a matter of whether you’re exploiting it to its full potential.
