Yes, social media marketing is the real deal. Since the proliferation of social networking sites in the early 2000s, social media marketing propelled from a mere option to a key factor among small businesses. In this day and age, more and more small businesses are taking advantage of the platform’s power and influence, with facts and figures to support their claim.
The social platform is so powerful that more than a quarter of small business marketers allocate at least one hour daily for social media marketing. On a more minute level, more than half of small business marketers spend 10 minutes or more daily on social media marketing. In 2013, the use of social media marketing will increase 80 percent for small businesses.
Why bother with social media when it is known that nearly all marketers are already aboard the ship? Social media marketing helps small businesses extend their arms to customers across numerous touch points, reach target audiences and customers in platforms where most of them gather, heed customer expectations they will be on social media, and engage interactively with customers.
With social media taking the world by storm, the best way to gauge its power and influence is through measurable results. In terms of traffic, businesses nearly doubled their online traffic after they passed 1,000 Facebook likes. Businesses generate more than 100 percent of web traffic if they have 51 to 100 followers on Twitter than those with 25 or less. When it comes to purchasing decisions, most online users and shoppers rely on social media to make a purchasing decision, or purchase a product or service through a recommendation on social media. Most social media users are more likely to buy a product or pay a service from a business connected with them. In addition, LinkedIn business pages have the most number of generated customers, followed by Twitter and Facebook.
Tips to Master Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
1. Share valuable, educational, and engaging content to your target audience.
2. Share content to a particular social platform when traffic is at its peak.
3. To start discussions and keep the audience abuzz, ask questions.
4. Use social media for customer support and feedback collection.
5. Choose the social platform where most of your target audience are and make the most of it.
6. Manage only a handful of social media accounts to not lose focus on your social media marketing campaign.
All those data and more are found in an infographic presented by Placester and MarketMeSuite. 
