26 Reasons your Small Business Needs to use Social Media

Are you still trying to determine the value of Social Media for your small business?

Have you jumped on the bandwagon and set up profiles on some of the more popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) but are not really sure of why and, more importantly, don’t have a clue of what you are doing?

It’s tough for small businesses to find the time needed to establish a proper presence on social networks and often one wonders whether it’s really worth it.

A while back I came across a great infographic which clearly outlined the reasons a small business needs to be using Social Media for growth. The guys at Trecebits.com (a great Spanish Blog about Social Media and Journalism 2.0) did such a great job that I thought I’d use some of their arguments as the basis for this blog post – that and the fact that the infographic is in Spanish so many of you probably wouldn’t understand it anyway 😉

I have also added a few extra reasons I found in an interesting report written by Hubspot (120 awesome marketing  stats, charts and graphs ).

So let’s get to it. Here are the 26 Reasons your small business cannot afford to miss out on the Social Media phenomenon:

1. Consumers are looking for information on social networks. Think about travel, restaurant reviews, product reviews.
2. 80% of internet users use some form of social media. Just in the US, 93% of internet users are on Facebook (Source: Blogher, April 2011)
3. Just because your business isn’t on Social Media doesn’t mean that your clients aren’t going to talk about you. Believe me, they’re already doing it and you need to be there to listen to what they are saying!
4. A presence on social media sites can generate more visits to your website.
5. 84% of B2B marketers use social media in some form. (Aberdeen)
6. Having social media accounts in the major platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest) can help your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Obviously, it’s going to take a lot more than simply setting up an account; you need to have an active presence on these sites.
7. 83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business (Social Media Examiner)
8. Actions on social media sites can lead to sales and more customers.
9. You can gain more brand loyalty from customers through your presence on social media.
10. It’s a direct channel of communication with existing and future clients.
11. The number of businesses that say Facebook is critical or important to their business has increased by 75% (State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)
12. Allows you to provide a better customer service experience.
13. Social Media sites are a great channel for showcasing your products or services. For example, think how hotels can use photos or video to show off their best features.
14. 57% of marketers acquired customers from blogging (State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)
15. Allows us to receive direct feedback from clients and users which, in turn, helps us to improve our products and services.
16. Better segmentation and targeting of ads through platforms like Facebook Ads and Linkedin Ads. It’ll be much easier for you to target your ideal audience.
17. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links (Hubspot) which leads to better SEO and search engine rankings.
18. If your company is active on social media, you portray an image of being modern and up to date.
19. Social Proof: If you gain lots of followers, you’ll give the impression that you are a popular and quality company.
20. Social Media penetration keeps growing across different age groups (Emarketer, Feb 2011)
21. 9 out of 10 people who use the internet trust the recommendations of people they know; social media is a fantastic way to spread these recommendations.
22. If you are not on social media, you run the risk of becoming obsolete. Not looking after your online image and brand in this day and age is suicide!
23. Social Media provides is a great tool for recruitment – Think of the value you could get from a site like Linkedin.
24. Nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes (Emarketer, 2010)
25. Used correctly, social media can become a fantastic internal communication tool for your business.
26. It’s a relatively cheap and cost effective way to get your name out there.

So that’s 26 reasons your business needs to be on social media. There are many more but this list should be enough to get you thinking. How about your business? Are you on Social Media? Can you think of more reasons we could add to this list? Feel free to post your thought in the comments below.