Social media marketing is the technique of using social media to spread the word about your business or organization, with the objective of increasing traffic to your website.

The days of the water-cooler aren’t exactly behind us, but fact is that social media plays an important role in staying in touch, in the quick dissemination of information, maintaining top of mind, and even organizational validation. Should your company be using social media? The answer is — probably.

Like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media marketing isn’t necessarily going to instantly boost your inbound traffic (unless you have something go viral!). That said, lack of any social media presence may result in loss of validation. Social media is a form of third party endorsement — what do you have to share with the world, and what do others have to say about it?

More and more people also rely on social media to learn about businesses. Just like face to face referrals, social media provides a means to allow people to learn about your business long before they might need to visit your web site.

We can advise you the appropriate mix of social media marketing, and whether it is relevant to your situation. Our focus is guided by your overall online marketing strategy. There are many social platforms – you don’t need to use them all. We help you identify the best ones to achieve your goals.

Why use social media?

Here are some common reasons:

• Create a buzz – Get people talking about your products, services and events
• Word of mouth – Customers want to know that they can trust you. If they see a friend or colleague has used your services, they are more likely to feel comfortable doing the same
• Help Customers find you – social media is another way to get huge exposure outside of the light of the “top 10” listings on the first page of Google
• Find out what your customers want – social media is a great way to reach out to all your loyal customers to ask them what other services or products you could offer
• Link Power – links from social media boost your SEO rankings.
• Engagement – as one of the cornerstones of an online marketing strategy – social media gives you another way to engage your potential and existing customers