In an era where digital is taking up more and more space, companies must also get up to speed and rework their means of communication. Webmarketing, once the prerogative of start-ups, is becoming commonplace in the professional world. In order to continue to prosper and maintain the link with their customers, more and more structures have become aware of the importance of social media for a company. Digitization, which is essential today, has many advantages, but also some negative effects.
Why use social media in business?
In terms of digital marketing, companies must differentiate themselves from their competitors and maintain a constant link with the customer throughout the sales process. The purpose of using social networks is to humanize the relationship with its client. By putting themselves within its reach and listening to it, the customer recognizes and identifies with the brand, which can lead to a purchasing decision on their part. With the help of new professions such as community managers, the processing of complaints is processed much more quickly via social networks and makes it possible to show that customer satisfaction is at the heart of the brand’s concern. Finally, social media make it possible to create surveys in order to improve its services and products and highlight your expertise.
How to use social networks in companies?
To properly use and optimize the benefits of social media for businesses, it is essential for the professional to properly target his persona in order to choose the social networks most likely to have a positive impact. In addition, social networks require special attention and cohesion regarding the editorial charter. Thus, it is wise to dedicate a team of community managers who will positively reflect the image of the company. The team must be consistent in the way they communicate. The subscriber must think of being able to speak to a single interlocutor. Indeed, social networks must be used to create a constant bond of trust with the company and its target. This is why it is important to interact regularly with its subscribers and if possible animate its networks on a regular basis.
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The most significant social networks
In order to optimize its communication strategy, the company must select the right social networks on which it can reach its potential target. If some networks are dedicated to communication, others are more suitable for a prospect looking for information.
When you are a company opening up to digital, it is very difficult to ignore the giant Facebook. With more than 1.5 billion daily users, the social network offers an absolutely essential possibility of visibility. Mark Zuckerberg’s network allows you to create a professional page dedicated to the company’s services and products. Additionally, Facebook’s huge algorithm helps target potential leads when buying paid ads. Facebook therefore offers the possibility of attracting new customers, creating links with buyers already acquired, working on customer loyalty and offering a shop window at a lower cost to promote the professional.
280 characters available, that’s what Twitter offers to create your posts. The interest of Twitter is therefore to promote the company without going into the superfluous. With a limited number of characters, the community manager must convey the main idea without embellishment. The great advantage of Twitter is based on the sharing of publications. Thus, the same Tweet can be shared thousands of times and create increased visibility for the company. It is the most direct social network. It is very efficient in terms of redirecting the prospect to a commercial site. However, this synthesis of information can also have negative effects . Indeed, with the retweet, it is also possible to be the victim of bad buzz shared at lightning speed.
This social network is the most visual. The interest of Instagram is based on the possibility of presenting the company’s products or services through striking photographs or illustrations. The social network also has enormous loyalty potential since it relies on the community aspect. Indeed, the use of hashtags is very effective in linking various subscribers around an idea or a concept in order to promote a product or convey the values of the company. However, in order to maintain consistency between social media and the company’s brand image, internal communication between the various employees must be well understood and applied by all. In effect, Instagram remains a very impactful vector in terms of web marketing.
The benefits of using social media
Social networks provide essential advantages in order to make your business profitable in the digital and web era.
Improve your positioning
Social networks can improve its visibility on the web and its positioning on the most popular search engines.
To work on its positioning, it is possible to pay the search engine in order to appear on the first page. This is called SEA (Search Engine Advertising). Through advertisements, the SEA makes it possible to generate traffic according to certain keywords via the purchase of advertisements. But the most profitable long-term means of positioning remains SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Totally free, SEO is based, among other things, on the creation of relevant content to rank well on search engines. It increases the organic traffic of the company’s merchant site and boosts its visibility.
Work positively on your e-reputation
The impact of social media is also very important for working on your e-reputation. Since the social network is accessible to everyone and at hand 24/7, having a regular professional activity makes it more accessible to its customers and prospects. By using social networks to resolve disputes or complaints, by presenting new products or services in preview or by answering questions from Internet users, the company highlights its customer service and availability.
A good reputation on the web works like word-of-mouth, but on a national or even international scale. A good e-reputation is a guarantee of quality and seriousness. It generates many positive comments and benevolent recommendations capable of provoking the act of purchase in the target prospect.
Develop your communication strategy
Being on social media allows companies to offer a privileged communication channel with their customers and subscribers. Customer service is almost immediate and avoids waiting for the customer, as is often the case with customer service by telephone in particular. In addition, the medium makes it possible to respond to objections, in an optimal way. This is intended to create interaction with subscribers, to show that the company is particularly concerned about the opinion and satisfaction of its customers. This open dialogue also reassures the potential future buyer of the reliability and seriousness of the professional in question. A bond of cohesion and community is created and reinforces mutual trust between subscribers and the company.
The disadvantages of using social media
If the advantages exist and are numerous, the disadvantages of social media for businesses are, unfortunately, the flip side of the coin.
Information leaks and competition
The main risk of using social networks comes from poor management of internal communication. Poorly trained and poorly supervised, an employee may divulge confidential information inherent in the very operation of the company or on the innovation of a new product or service. The competition can thus take this information to its credit. Industrial espionage can take place through social media. Piracy and counterfeiting can, in many ways, cause enormous damage to the professional victim. The risk of appropriation of a false profile, in the image of the company, can mislead subscribers, generate illicit scams and bad buzz. Another risk is the disclosure, fortuitous or not, of the personal data of buyers.
Hacking and cybercrime
Hackers can have a field day. In fact, phishing, spamming, tracking, illicit geolocation, defamation techniques through the creation of false profiles, identity theft and damage to image and intellectual property rights are issues that should not be ignored. There are 1,001 risks of exposing your business on social media.
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