Social media has fast become important to most online businesses these days. This is largely down to the fact that most people are now active on at least one social media platform, with a lot consumers using several platforms on a regular basis.
With so many of us using social media, it has fast become the most useful tool in an online businesses’ arsenal for many different reasons over the last few years. So just how is social media being put to work for these companies?
First of all, social media helps to bring in new customers. Having the ability to talk direct to such a huge audience, allows online businesses to promote their introductory offers to new potential customers. This could be in the form of discounts if the business is in the retail sector or as seen with online casinos with sign up promotions.
While attracting new customers is great, retaining them is even more important and again social media plays a vital role here too. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter allow businesses to run targeted ad campaigns. They can focus on the audiences they wish to target, in this instance their customers, informing them of their latest products and services, as well as providing the odd promotion and offer here and there too.
By being active on social media, it allows an online business to stay fresh and relevant in a customer’s mind going forward. The ad systems that are on offer across social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter also allow companies to monitor their performance in real time too. They can see if an ad is working in terms of the people it is reaching and the interactions it is gaining, so that the ad can be fine-tuned to make it work even better.
What is key in enhancing service when it comes to social media is the fact that it’s potentially the quickest and easiest way to get a query or issue resolved. It’s free too. In the past consumers would have to phone a number if they had a problem or they would have to send an email. Both these methods, while they do work, they could be painfully slow at times.
Nowadays, online businesses have staff who are monitoring social media during working hours who can often respond instantly if there’s a problem, getting it resolved quickly. This can be seen with a wide range of businesses from online casino brands like Unibet to Sky TV & Broadband.
The way we communicate has changed a lot over the last few years, with more and more people now preferring to do their talking through the medium of pictures and videos. This has given rise to social media platforms and apps such as Instagram and Snapchat and online businesses are also using these to their advantage too.
It’s free advertising for a start as it doesn’t cost a penny to upload pictures or videos to either platform. It also shows customers that the business is a forward thinking one too, that moves with the times and technology, instantly making it more appealing. These apps also allow users to receive notifications too, so they’ll always be aware of anything new, be it a service or a product.