Benefits of Social Media Marketing

According to the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Michael A. Stelzner, there are many benefits when it comes to social media marketing. Some of the benefits include improved sales and search rankings, generated leads, and grown partnership; however, the two main benefits of social media marketing are increasing exposure and increasing traffic. Since the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, “marketers reported increased benefits across all categories [exposure, traffic, loyal fans, marketing insight, etc] since 2013.”

<http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2014.pdf>

In the chart above, the results of the survey can be found. As stated previously, the top two benefits of social media marketing are increased exposure and traffic with 92% and 80% of marketers, respectively, believing that social media marketing has brought these results.1

Why Is It That Marketers Have Seen These Results?

To tackle this question, we must delve into the basics of the situation.  There must be an audience for marketers to campaign for and to advertise their brand, product, or service. This audience on the Internet has been growing. As of July 1, 2014, the growth rate of Internet users since 2013 hit 7.9% bringing the number of Internet users to 40.4% of the world’s population. Internetlivestats.com has projected the number of Internet users to reach 3 billion by the end of 2014.2 That is a large audience. In Korea alone, 50.4% of Internet users use social networking sites (SNS), according to the Korea Internet & Security Agency. Of these 50.4%, 87.7% check SNS at least once a week. With the ever-increasing size of the targeted audience, marketers are looking to develop loyal fans, generate leads, increase traffic & exposure, and more.3

What Other Lesser-Known Benefits Might There Be?

Being ahead of the curve in any aspect of marketing and business is a huge benefit, especially in a field that is going anywhere but down in the future. Social media has become a crucial part of people’s lives and it’s not looking to leave its position anytime soon. Being ahead of the curve gives marketers a competitive advantage over those who have not started implementing social media marketing into their business plans. Those who have not or are not willing to use social media marketing are missing out on a huge medium to a large target audience.4

A marketer should always look for ways to gain a competitive advantage or stay ahead of the curve because in business, those who fall behind usually stay behind. The marketing industry is a very grueling marathon and little advantages such as creating a structured social media marketing plan will prove to be of great use in the long run.

<Source>

1 http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2014.pdf

3 http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/

3 http://isis.kisa.or.kr/

4 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2013/03/12/the-hidden-benefits-of-social-media-marketing-why-your-strategy-may-be-working-better-than-you-think/