Social Media for Business

14 Dec Social Media for Business

Can Businesses Survive without Social Media?

It is time for businesses to consider using social media, but their considerations should be based on two independent situations. First, what kind of impact do social media have on businesses? Second, what kind of impact can businesses expect without social media? The impact that social media has on business varies, but it’s been noted that almost 80% of SMBs or small and medium-sized businesses have reported an increase in traffic with the help of social media sites. However, this is not a reliable statistic alone to guarantee one’s success on the use of social media for businesses.

Numerous surveys have been conducted on the number of people that use social media sites and the way they can affect marketing strategies. For starters, Coleman-Parkes Research showed that 84% of American companies felt the urge to create new ways to interact with their customers, including social media and mobile marketing. Now, it is already evident that social media has embedded into the routine of people today. We cannot live without logging on to Facebook or Twitter. Just recently, Facebook released their Q1 Financials, which showed interesting data. There are 1.11 billion users on Facebook and 665 million daily Facebook users. If you take those numbers into consideration alone, you are missing out on a lot of potential leads and traffic by skipping out on social media.

In an old survey done by the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, the statistics showed interesting data which must be noted by business owners.

60% of American citizens use social media

90% of those noted that businesses should have social media presence

85% of those noted that businesses should interact with their customers via social media.

Consumers that were surveyed also indicated that businesses should use social media for the purpose of:

Problem-solving (43%)

Obtain feedback and comments (41%)

Customer interaction with company (37%)

Market to customers (25%)

These results should be more than enough for business owners to consider the use of social media. If their consumers want them on social media sites, it’s already a sign that they too want to reach to businesses. It’s a sign that businesses need social media because their customers are already there. All they really have to do is sign up, create an account, put pictures, update constantly, and they’re all set for life.

At this state, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are here to stay for a long time.