I’ve had a few friends lately who aren’t sure about the value of social media marketing, so rather than debate the merits of social media verbally, I thought I’d save the time needed to argue it repeatedly, and do my best to compile my thoughts so I could merely direct others to this posting in the future. Below are what I believe to be the 7 benefits to engaging in social media. Keep in mind, different individuals will have different objectives, and therefore will look for different benefits. Here is a summary though:
1) Increased Branding - SMM can increase the visibility of a company or its products online, which in turn can help to instill familiarity and confidence in a company. The likely result … higher click-through rates, and higher conversion rates (we as individuals are more likely to deal with a company we’ve seen before than one we haven’t … assuming the initial experience wasn’t horrific).
2) Increased Awareness - SMM can create awareness of new companies, products and/or services, and/or new uses for existing products and services (eg. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda as a tooth paste). Search isn’t particularly good at creating awareness, since its a directive form of media, but social media is.
3) Increased Site Traffic - When done properly, SMM can drive substantial relevant traffic to a site. Once the traffic reaches the site, its up to you to figure out how to monitize it (CPM, Adsense, sales, etc.) or capture its inherent value.
4) Increased Rankings - One of the primary purposes of social media to SEOs is in generating relevant backlinks. Backlinks as we all know, play a substantial role in the algorithms or major search engines. So, the more relevant links, the better the rankings. I’ll even take it one step further and suggest that more site traffic will lead to more RSS subscribers and social bookmarking of the site, which will (if not already) play a role in a site’s rankings.
5) More Subscribers - More traffic to a web site likely means more subscribers to a site’s newsletter and/or RSS feeds. More subscribers means opportunities to market to more people on an ongoing basis.
6) More Friends - I don’t know who said it, but they were absolutely correct when they said “Its all about who ya know”! Social marketing involves social networking, which necessarily means making new online friends. Friends in turn create opportunities that would otherwise not be available. Whether its guest blogging opportunities, referrals, speaking engagements, book deals, or whatever, friends bring opportunities.
7) More Knowledge - By participating in social networks with your friends, you’ll ultimately be exposed to a larger number of relevant articles, postings, and information. There is bound to be some really worthwhile pearls of wisdom in those pieces, making you a more knowledgeable individual. Knowledge is power afterall!
In the end, the question of viability arises as it is difficult to cost justify social media since it generates business indirectly for most, as opposed to search engines that generate business directly. Accordingly, its more difficult to measure and quantify, and is viewed as being more risky. In the end, it really shouldn’t be a question of ’should I or shouldn’t I?’, but rather one of ‘to what extent, and which tactics’?
As posted in Social Media, Content.
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11 Responses to “7 Benefits to Engaging in Social Media Marketing”
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Internet Marketing Best Blog Posts of 2007 » techipedia | tamar weinberg Says:
December 26th, 2007 at 7:56 am[…] 7 Benefits to Engaging in Social Media Marketing (Search Engine People): Jeff Quipp explains why an SMM strategy is important for any business. […]
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Interview with Jeff Quipp | CEO of Search Engine People « SEO Company > NorthSouthMedia Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 9:20 pm[…] have spent a great deal of time and effort, with no real returns. So, begin by setting objectives (Benefits to Engaging in Social Media Marketing). Its not for every business … its merely a tool in our toolkit. So make sure the effort can […]
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SEO 2.0 | How to Get More Visitors for Your Blog Without Social Media Marketing Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 2:09 am[…] use social media as they were intended: for fun, sharing and news filtering and get popular anyways. People know me and even vote for my […]
October 31st, 2007 at 8:01 am
Does this mean I can’t rag you about it now?? Good luck… Where’s my ROI (tee hee)??
Anyways, seems to be a popular topic today - some others I ran into;
http://www.doshdosh.com/the-importance-of-social-media-marketing/
and
Van-G has another; http://www.yellowhousehosting.com/resources/2007/10/30/social-media-branding/
Those seem to fit in with this post… I am still sitting on the fence (outside of the obvious brand management/building aspects). I personally find the traffic a fickle bunch and certainly think it’s best suited to certain markets over others. Sure, it is far more fun than most areas of iMarketing, but I feel it converts far poorer in most cases….
Thanks for giving me more to think about, no really,, thanks a heap.. grumble mumble….
Dave
October 31st, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Nicely written. It’s good to find a very straightforward list like this. I found it as i was searching for more info on social media marketing. If you’re interested, I just posted an article commenting on another great social media mktg article I just found which takes a different angle. Many people know it’s good, but most don’t know it can be done cheaply and easily. Yeah, seriously.
purethinking.typepad.com - - Cheers, Ken
November 1st, 2007 at 3:30 am
@ theGypsy - I’ll win you over yet Dave! You are right … in most cases it does convert poorer, though in some it converts better. Its just a far more indirect path to sales for the most part.
@ Ken Barber - thanks for the comment Ken, and that was a good article.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:18 am
i haven’t been much successful with social media but i am trying now
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:52 am
You left out link building on there. With spreading your content all over these social media outlets you are naturally going to draw some links through the linkerati or from syndication sites.
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:33 am
Hi Jordan,
Good point. I actually had grouped link building into ‘increased rankings’ in an effort to factor the list into its component parts.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
It’s Ken again - sorry, I gave the main-page link to my blog in my comment above about another interesting social media marketing posting. I meant to point you guys to this one, entitled “Social Media Marketing *can* start off easy here
June 14th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Einstein Photo is good