Why Is Social Media An Important Part of Inbound Marketing?

  • Social Media
Why Is Social Media An Important Part Of Inbound Marketing? 1

Whether you own a small business or are a part of a large corporation, how you attract, engage, and convert customers is important to establishing and maintaining those long-term customer relationships. What you may not have known is that the attract-engage-convert process is called inbound marketing.

While there are many ways and places to attract customers, one of the often overlooked opportunities is where the customers are already starting conversations and relationships on their own — social media! 

In this blog, we’ll dive into the details and define why social media is an important part of inbound marketing and also why it should be incorporated into your digital marketing strategy if it’s not already!

What is Inbound Marketing?

And why should you care? We’re so glad you asked! Inbound marketing is essentially the method that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences that are tailored to them, rather than interrupting them with content that they may not necessarily want to see.

By first attracting the right people with content that aligns with their goals or issues at hand, you are ultimately providing them with the tools and information they need to be successful. This positions your company as a trusted source that the customer will likely end up referring to time and time again. 

All of that being said, you may be wondering, “so, how does my company become the go-to source”? That is where social media comes into play. While different platforms might be best for your company, depending if you are B2B or B2C, here are a few ways that show how social media can be crucial to helping you attract, engage and convert those potential customers.

Social Media and Inbound Marketing

1. Social Media Helps Promote Your Content

Your company is likely coming up with great content already, and promoting that content on social media is an easy way to attract new customers! The right social media strategy for your business allows for your content to get tons of visibility with very little effort. 

There are three types of media to consider when promoting content on social: 

  • Owned Media consists of the posts you’re creating, podcasts you’re recording, and blogs you’re writing. 
  • Paid Media is made up of your sponsored or boosted content and ads (i.e., Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Google ads, etc.). 
  • Earned Media are reviews, comments, shares (and so on) that help to promote your business through positive [digital] word of mouth across non-owned platforms.

By analyzing your social media following and creating content that they love, you’ll be able to generate more earned media, which means less money spent on paid media to get your content in front of more people.

2. Social Media Is Where Your Customers Hang Out

As anyone knows, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, among others, are likely where your audience is spending their free time. Social media can quite literally put you in your audience’s pocket on their phone, tablet, or laptop at any time! 

You can create content that they want to respond to and ask questions that they want to answer, which opens up a great opportunity for dialogue. Whether they’re taking a quick break in-between meetings or scrolling through while they “watch” TV, your potential customers are absorbing A LOT of information. Some of that information may as well be yours, right? 

3. Social Media Helps You Understand Your Audience

Because a lot of potential customers essentially live on social media, you can use that to your advantage when it comes to creating new content. By seeing what customers are talking about, what is trending, and what the latest reviews are saying, you can begin tailoring your messages to meet their needs and helpfully answer their questions. 

By reviewing your social media analytics, you can get a breakdown of who your audience is and what they engage with most (and what they don’t), which will allow you to more strategically create tailored content for your audience in an effort to turn them into customers. Once you have a grasp on what makes your audience tick, the possibilities are endless!

4. Social Media Drives Traffic to Your Website

While social media does not directly impact your company’s search rankings, it does allow you to create content that is prime for driving traffic to your website. 

For example, if one of your followers shares a blog, which leads to their couple hundred (or if you’re lucky – a couple thousand) followers seeing your content, that could result in an uptick of website traffic! More people spending time on your site means more opportunities for conversion. 

Overall, social media and inbound marketing go hand in hand to attract new customers and retain your current ones. So keep creating, and keep posting, and enjoy all of the new customers that you are able to bring in!

Want Help With Your Social Strategy? Reach Out To Us!

Don’t have time to feed to social media machine? Give us a call! We have a proven track record of success in helping clients create and maintain their social media presence as well as their overall digital marketing strategy.

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