WHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS IMPORTANT FOR BUSINESS

July 9, 2021 . 5 MIN READ

Social media is one of the most important tools to boost brands images on the web and generate leads. It has changed the focus of interaction and communication between the businesses and customers. Marketers are not anymore restricting themselves to traditional marketing channels like ads on electronic & print media, billboards, banners etc , they are heavily using and investing on social media heavily. Recent PEW Research Center Report “The Demographic of Social Media Users-2012” Indicates that Young adults are more likely than older adults to use social media which is a great news for ecommerce websites.

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-media-users.aspx

According to a new eMarketer report, “Worldwide Social Network Users: 2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates,” -“nearly one in four people worldwide will use social networks in 2013. The number of social network users around the world will rise from 1.47 billion in 2012 to 1.73 billion this year, an 18% increase. By 2017, the global social network audience will total 2.55 billion. The rapidly expanding social network audiences in the emerging markets of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa will be huge drivers of social user growth. Though Asia-Pacific will have the largest social network population worldwide through 2017 and the Middle East and Africa will have the second-largest audience starting next year, their population penetration rates are among the lowest. Out of the countries included in the forecast, eMarketer expects the fastest increases to come from the social network user populations of India, Indonesia, Mexico, China and Brazil.”
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Social-Networking-Reaches-Nearly-One-Four-Around-World/1009976#fXiIbWFlBoohGzAi.99

Image 1: Social Network Users Worldwide

Image 2: Social Media Users by Region & Country

Looking at those statistics its easily understandable that the growth of social media is phenomenon and marketers can hardly deny the fact that social media would eventually be one of the most influential means of business communication in near future.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Youtube, Foursquare, Tumblr, Instagram , Pinterest are namely some of the most used social medias. Choosing and identifying the right media is essential to attract more fans and customers for online marketers. But if you consider greater traffic and lead generation, choose the big players who has plenty visitors and offer attractive social marketing features.

The following table depicts the exact scenario how social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ capture the people’s mindset that they cannot think their single moment without social media and this trends are growing day by day. U.S. audiences alone spend a half-hour to three hours daily on social media.

(http://www.businessinsider.com/is-pinterest-right-for-your-brand-2013-7#ixzz2YXlj0YEa)

Table: 1 Social Media Number World-Wide (Last Updated: May 2013)

Social Media	Total Users	Daily Active Users	Penetration Rate (%)
FACEBOOK	1.1 Billion	665 Million	51
GOOGLE+	500 Million	359 Million	26
TWITTER	500 Million	200 Million	22
YOUTUBE	1 Billion	4 Billion Views	25
PINTEREST	48.7 Million	4 Million	04

Image 3: The Landscape of Social Media Users. (Source: Social Media in 2013: User Demographics for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest And Instagram http://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-in-2013-user-demographics-for-twitter-facebook-pinterest-and-instagram)

Above mentioned data and stats clearly show the potentiality of social media for the marketers who prefer more engagement through website traffic & generate leads through social media and turn them into customers in the end. Social media has huge potentiality and we have to think about how to utilize and cash on it. Why marketers embrace social media for marketing is an important aspect to consider. Here are some trends and numbers that inspire marketers to optimize and develop a social media marketing strategy to enhance their brands image ,increase sales and maximize profit:-

Marketers marketing strategy is shifting to social media and giving extra priority which they cannot afford to ignore. They are investing and taking appropriate actions to ensure better optimization that leads them to the success.
Eventually marketers apply different social media marketing policy through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and you can name more.

You cannot imagine how whole marketing scenario has changed recent years that most of the marketers tailored their marketing and promotional activities according to the social media they opted to.

Facebook has 751 million monthly & 665 daily mobile users alone. And they are the potential customers of your products and services, how can you ignore these numbers?
LinkedIn is the largest professional business network in the world over 200 million users enables you to open groups and keep in touch with trends of your area of expertise. There are 1.2 million LinkedIn groups and 2 new users joining every day & 2.6 million companies have LinkedIn company accounts.
Experian (http://www.experian.com/) reported in April that “16 minutes out of an hour online is spent on a social network or forum. Think about that with your parks & recreation or YMCA in mind – your customers and members are much more likely to interact with you on Facebook than your website.”

Twitter has over 500 million users worldwide and growing. This micro-blogging site huge potentiality that fashion designers, politicians, actors, businesses, brands using Twitter as their premium business tool and engage with customers instantly.
Do you know YouTube has 1 billion unique users each month? And 100 hours of videos uploaded every minute? This staggering numbers are not just stats. Its fact. How can you ignore the magic of social media that changing every day and shaping the world of online marketing?

Search engine giant Google’s Social media site Google+ also growing at a rapid pace that surpasses Twitter, has 359 million active users and acquiring 925,000 new users every day.
According to marketing Profs (http://www.marketingprofs.com/), among smartphone owners age 18-44, making phone calls accounts for only 16% of the total time spent with their devices, whereas the remaining 84% of time is spent texting and interacting with email and social networks.

According to Qualman (http://www.socialnomics.net/), social media is now the #1 activity on the web. And whole scenario of social media evolving & shaping into a new dimension that we cannot predict. But it’s high time to embrace social media for your business for superior engagement and enhanced sales & profits. Before choosing your right social media, prepare a bullet proof strategy that convert your fans & followers into customers with effective, accurate and result oriented customer satisfaction.