You know what they all are; tweets, Instagrams, status updates and Vines, but why are they important for your business? Many business owners find themselves asking this question because they don’t directly see how social media correlates with a better brand, here’s exactly why you need it to thrive in today’s marketplace:

1) Increased Sales

First things first, by simply having a social media presence, you’re already more likely to have increased sales. Why? By creating a legitimate social media presence, you’re telling potential customers, “yes, we’re real, we’re here to engage and we’re on top of our brand image.” But that’s not where the social media marketing stops—that’s merely where it begins.

Businesses increase sales by sharing their products on social media, advertising their services to audiences who may not have heard of them before and giving out advice that proves they’re a leading expert in their industry.

2) Increased Brand Exposure

The more exposure for your brand, the better, right? By creating a social media presence for your business you’re establishing a space where interactions between potential clients or customers are more likely to happen. Not only will you benefit from sharing links, branded graphics and interacting with your followers, you’ll also be boosting your ever-so-important SEO. According to a recent study, 95% of marketers who use social media at least 6 hours per week indicated their social media efforts increased exposure for their businesses—ask yourself this question: Is it really worth not doing? The answer should be a resounding “no!”

3) Instant Engagement

Time to get real. This is 2015 and a majority of the world is tired of waiting the usual 24-48 business hours for a response to their inquiry, complaint or comment. Cue social media! A good example of a business utilizing social media for instant engagement is Hootsuite. They have a whole separate Twitter account for questions and concerns that need an immediate response and because of it are growing at an extremely rapid pace.

4) The Competition Is On

500 million tweets are sent everyday. A portion of those tweets are sent from businesses craving your target market, and they’ll get to them before you have the chance to interact if you’re not active on social media. It shouldn’t take any more convincing than that.

So let’s get you started. Log-in to Twitter and Facebook and get your creative juices flowing. First things first for business social media marketing is a plan. If you would like some help with this, Social Media College offers the most comprehensive social media marketing courses available, and the best thing it is is all delivered online! Contact us for more information.