Why are Social Media and Brand Building Important for Your Small Business? (Hint: Leads & Sales!)

May 04, 2013

The “birdy” soars to increase sales leads.

By Maureen McCabe

Are you are a busy business owner who sees no value in social media? Has your marketing consultant suggested yet again it’s time to ”explore” your options? This is “code” for I’m not giving up on you.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, think of me as your wise and wonderful mom who always had your best interest at heart. A young pup (a 20-something year old client) told me that I was a “sage” – no not the spice! Another client told me that I was spicy – to which I laughed (yes, aloud). I giggled to myself while I brazenly decided to share this comment – my mom would be horrified!

Learn how 600 small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) got more traffic to their website and converted those leads to sales.

Because I was a history major I like to go to the source and read the research myself. I don’t believe in relying on other people’s blogs who write about another person’s blog, and so on and so forth. The source of this blog is Optify’s 2012 B2B (business to business) Marketing Benchmark Report.

The report analyzed the business impact of the “big three” – Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The following are ‘gee whiz’ facts:

• Facebook: drove the most traffic to websites
• LinkedIn: showed the highest engagement rates(*)
• Twitter: strongest social media channel for generating sales leads
• Twitter: outperformed Facebook by a 9-to-1 ratio.
• Twitter: 82% of all social media leads were sourced from Twitter.

(*) A ‘page view’ defines engagement which refers to the number of pages a person viewed on your site. The more the merrier. Why? It means they are staying longer and the longer they stay, the more likely they will contact you. In my case for a free consultation with a “spicy” marketing consultant by phone!

Two tips from an honest marketing consultant

I just read a blog about the trust factor. To build credibility with prospective clients online is key, hence the use of the word – honest. To be candid, I must reveal this startling fact:

Optify’s report revealed that social media was still a small slice of the pie in driving website traffic and sales leads to B2B websites. It contributed on average less than 5% of all traffic and leads in 2012.

TIP 1: Set-up social reports on Google Analytics

The report will help you measure the impact of social media on your business. NOTE: you must insert the hyperlink for each of your social platforms.

TIP 2: Never heard of “GA”

Don’t be alarmed if you haven’t heard of it. Just get it set up. Why? Google Analytics is a fantastic, free service that provides detailed statistics about the visitors to your website.

You can do set it up yourself or ask your web developer. If s/he (no that’s not a typo! It’s my abbreviation for he and she and because I’m a sage, I always write the word “she” first!) won’t do it for free (because they should have done it for your when the created your site) look for another web company to maintain it. Attitude is everything and value-add is that much more!

TIP 3: Social Media Brand Insurance

I coined this phrase which means set-up a profile on every social media channel to protect your business identity. When you’re ready to pin an image to your board or use any other social platform, then you already own your own name.

Hint: If you are unfamiliar with the term, “pinning” I suggest that you read my blog regarding Pinterest to learn if it’s appropriate for your small business.

Marketing Consultant – Unbiased Reporting

Yes, there’s loads of hype around social media but why do I encourage clients to pursue a social presence? Do you want to ignore a 5% increase in revenue? Nope, me either.

If you would like help to develop your social media goals, and determine which social media platform is right for your small business book your marketing assessment today.

I would love to hear about your own experiences with social media. Please write a comment below to share this article, send me an email [email protected].

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