The use of social media as a marketing channel continues to grow and many businesses are finding they cannot afford to ignore them and must become part of them in order to remain competitive.

Generally, websites can attain higher search engine rankings through good SEO practices and blogs but as good as they are they are no longer enough on their own because reaching wider audiences is now better and more quickly achieved by creating a company page on social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Social media is all about sharing information with others which although is often just general chit-chat amongst friends and family etc, also works extremely well for business exposure providing users like what they see and recommend to others.

Linking your website to social media allows interaction with users who even though they themselves may not be interested in what you have to offer might know others who are and if you are inventive with content you could benefit from a significant increase in exposure and a higher awareness of your products or services rather than relying on potential customers finding you via search engines alone.

Take a look at any number of websites and more often than not there’s a social media button to found on their pages and your web design company will no doubt be happy to place any number of social media buttons on your website if you ask them. However, if you already use social media as part of your marketing strategy but don’t have a button on your website you could be losing out because you need to let visitors know where to find you and be able to get them there in a click of the mouse.

Whether you are a fan or not, social media is practically everywhere. Even television adverts are inviting us to follow on Facebook/Twitter etc and it seems now that if your website has no connection to social media then you’re all but invisible to a large potential market.

It’s fairly safe to say that marketing through social media is now all but a necessity in order to keep up with the competition, and those businesses not currently doing so are putting themselves at a disadvantage and missing out on what has become one of the most effective marketing channels in recent years.

Until next time.

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