Even if you hate social media, it still doesn’t change the facts… Google search results are heavily influenced by social media content. You might be wondering, ‘Does my small business really need a Facebook or Twitter page?? I mean, come on, I’m not a famous person and my company is not a national brand. Do customers really care about my tweets?’

Trust me, I thought the same thing when I first heard about Twitter and Facebook pages for small businesses back in 2010. I thought it was gimmicky to say the least. Just another bandwagon that everyone was jumping on board with. But here’s the thing, there are real tangible benefits why you would want a Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn page for your small business, even if you are not some internet marketing guru.

1) Google Loves Social Media – The Most Important Reason Why Your Small Business Needs Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

It might seem odd that Google would be so heavily influenced by social media, because you might think they would be above that. But Google’s main objective is to provide the most relevant search results possible. They know what’s relevant and what’s not. Google figured out quickly that social media outlets carry a lot of weight, both in content and in relevancy. People are using social media in increasing numbers every year, and therefore content on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is being picked up by Google searches. Have you tried searching for a company on Google lately? You’ll notice that the actual company website comes up first, followed by all their social media channels. It’s important when someone is searching for your company that they end up with a Google page full of your content and not your competitors since most people don’t venture past the first page of a Google search result anyways.

2) Social Media Reinforces Confidence in Your Brand and Provides ‘Social Proof’

Again, even if you don’t use social media personally, your customers most likely do. Facebook has 1.3 billion users as of 2014! (There’s 7 billion people in the world.) So that means there’s a good chance your customers are using Facebook and they are interacting with other people and companies. They are seeing what their friends like (or dislike), and are they are being influenced. They will likely search out a company they are intending to do business with on Facebook, before they do business with them. And if you have no Facebook page, you might lose credibility with your audience. Also, if they come to your page and it only has two likes (one from you and one from your mom) there won’t be much social proof for people to trust you. Anyone can start a Facebook page, but it takes time and effort to build a strong Facebook following. That’s why people trust companies with a large number of followers or fans because they believe them to be the real deal.

3) Social Media Interest Can Spread Quickly

One of the beautiful things about social media marketing is that once you have a fanbase established, you can market to them more easily. Say you have 100 followers on Facebook, all you have to do is post a new article about your latest product or hot deal and it will be spread to all of your follower’s news feed within seconds, for free. If they like it or share it, it spreads to that person’s friendlist as well. So even though you have a fanbase of 100, you could easily reach 300, 400, or 500 people with a single post or tweet. That’s one of the powerful things about social media marketing and you should be taking advantage of it today. One of the biggest reasons is because it’s free too!

Action Steps You Should Take TODAY

1) If you haven’t created a Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn account, do that immediately!

2) Invite your friends and family members to like/follow you on these pages. You can import your contact list from your email client.

3) Invite current customers to like/follow you and give a small incentive for the first 50 or 100 likes. It will help you build a following more quickly.

In the end, social media marketing is a powerful tool that is mostly free, all it takes is some time and effort. Don’t look at social media marketing as the end-all-be-all, holy grail of marketing, but rather use it in conjunction with your other forms of marketing, including blogging, direct mail, your website, email marketing, etc. Head over here, if you are interested in learning more about what your marketing budget should be.

Image courtesy of Thos Ballantyne.