You may be wondering why, and indeed how Social Media channels have become so important in shaping business over the last few years.

How? Is easy to answer.  It’s become an essential marketing tool for any business.

Why? Is a little more complicated – so read on.

Once upon a time we all found the services and products we needed through word of mouth, shop windows, advertising and phone books. However things have changed, and some might even say, not for the better. Whatever your opinion it’s clear that things have changed and our purchasing habits have changed too. Are we really aware of how much though? It’s happened so rapidly that many individuals and businesses are getting left behind and there’s a lot of confusion around Internet Marketing.

We all think we’re making our own choices when we’re looking for a particular product or service and we may believe that we’re not influenced by marketing tactics at all. This simply isn’t true and it’s never been true – even in the early days of trading goods our ancestors would have been influenced in this way. Whether you like it or not every purchase you make on or offline has already been dictated to you in some form.

Search for something online – ask yourself, “How long will I search for a service or product online? How many pages on Google will I trawl though? How many keywords/phrases will I type into a search field before I find what I’m looking for?”

This is how your product or service is found. If it’s not coming back in the search results, then it’s not going to get a look in. And this is what drives business today.

If your product or service is easily found in a search engine then the chances are you will be the recipient of someone’s ‘hard-earned’. If it doesn’t, you’re going to miss out. Obviously it’s important to make sure that when that person finds your website they find what they need – but that’s another story!

If you’re reading this, the chances are you have some understanding of how it all works; i.e. how to rank higher in a search engine results (SERP) for certain keywords etc.

If you don’t know – here’s how in three simple steps.

• Another important factor in achieving high ranking in SERPs is the content and structure of your website. Search engines love a well-formed, easily navigated website and will give you kudos for making it as relevant to your business and your customers as possible.

• The third part of the process is to advertise online. A pay per click (PPC) campaign, such as Google’s AdWords will ensure that you rank highly, but can be expensive if not done properly.

Obviously the above steps are simplified. But, if you break it down and look at it logically, it’s common sense. It needn’t be a nightmare and although Internet Marketing can be confusing if you take it stage by stage and think like a customer (hopefully you will have already done this) or a search engine (see above) it’s actually pretty simple – albeit a bit time-consuming and an ongoing practice.

If your business has created a credible and solid presence online, coupled with a connection to the customer through Social Media then you’re there – don’t bother to read on.

If you think there is more you could do then please continue.

An SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) practitioner knows that Social Media is central to changing consumer behaviour as it’s capable of rapidly shaping and influencing opinion.  According to Neville Hobson, “99% of all consumer purchasing behaviour online is research – finding out what others think about Brand X, reading product reviews, asking questions on social networks…”

When it comes to making that purchase there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve done your research in this way (you can bet your potential customers have!) and your decision has been shaped and influenced by your peers and online community already. So, it clearly does matter to your business. You need to be able to engage your customers in a language that they understand, in a place that they are spending their time and forming their opinions.

Do your own research; find out where your customers are spending their time, understand how they are communicating with each other and engage them with relevant content. It’s what they want from you and increasingly it’s what they expect!

If you need a hand with your Social Media campaign, Contact Us and see how we can help you today.

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