Social media has the potential to help build brand recognition.
It also amplifies word-of-mouth advertising for your business. Both important pieces that can help sales, especially in a local environment.
Sue Cockburn wrote recently about this on SocialMediaToday.com
“Reaching your target audience requires more than setting up your business profile on a few choice social networks. Having a social media presence won’t magically or quickly:
- build awareness of your brand or business
- drive traffic to your website
- generate sales for your business
Like any other type of marketing, to see results, social media requires time, planning, patience, persistence and, more and more, an investment of cash. It also means your products and services need to live up to your brand promises. If they don’t, social media is likely to hurt your business rather than help it … but this is true whether you are active on social media or not. People share online about their experiences with products and services, whether the businesses representing those products and services are online or not.
That said, social media is a cost-effective marketing tool for many businesses, small and large alike. Well executed, social media can help grow brand-name recognition, your reputation and customer loyalty. When your brand is more widely known, with a good reputation, you are more likely to be in the running for new business than those businesses who are not known in your service area.”
See Sue’s 7 important areas to pay attention to when managing your social networks.
