Some people just don’t get it and still don’t see the connection between maintaining a social media presence and an increase in traffic to their website or an increase in sales/enquiries.

Social media is an important part of any business’s Online Reputation and it is in every business owners interest to monitor and indeed cultivate their online reputation.

It makes sense that the more places you appear and the better the content on your social media platforms the more likely your business is to be found by the right people.

We’ve put together a few key points to highlight why social media does work:

• Social Media is just one part of SEO

Any marketing expert worth their salt will tell you not to put all your eggs in one basket. What they are saying is that digital marketing is a multi-strand strategy of content marketing, SEO and social media.

• Social Media is about being Social

The good thing about social media is that it is a way of selling your services and directing traffic to your website in a non-pushy way. By using the various social media platforms to engage with your audience in conversation, you can post information about your business, related industry content or other items of interest. The ultimate idea is to spark conversations, gain likes and shares, and increase the organic reach of your content (ie every time you get a comment, mention or share your content is in turn being seen by that account’s followers).

• Google loves new Content

If you have social media, you are more likely to create new content for your website. Google LOVES new content and is more likely to rank your page higher if you are producing new articles on a regular basis. These articles in turn can be broken down into bite-sized chunks which can be used as social media posts with link back to the articles on your website.

• Cost-Effective

Social media, whether organic or paid is still one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising.  Rather than spend all your advertising budget on a Google ad, a smart use of this budget is to experiment with social media. The keywords used for a Google Ad campaign should be incorporated into the website and social media post.

• Social Media statistics

If none of these arguments work then you could always show them the statistics. Always keep track of your insights and Google Analytics;  you can see where the website traffic is coming from and exactly how much impact your strategy is having. Check your Google Analytics and monitor direct clicks vs social/referral.
 
You might also want to direct these non-believers to this Hootsuite study that proves that social media has a positive impact on SEO.