Whilst the personal uptake of social media accounts is rife amongst the general public, some companies are still reluctant to join the social revolution, for many reasons. These can include fear of the unknown, a worry that it will become a platform for complaints and not having the time to invest in it.

However, it’s crucial you, as a brand, take the plunge into social media marketing. There are myriad reasons for this, but here are three of the biggest…

Audience reach

Consider this – Facebook has 901 million users and Twitter approximately 500 million. There are few (if any) other mediums that give you such a large potential audience. Of course, you’ll recognise that you won’t have one million followers within a week of joining Twitter or Facebook, but your audience will build over time. What’s more, the beauty of these networks is the sharing factor.

Even if you build an audience of let’s say 500,000, the potential reach of your content/brand doesn’t stop there. Imagine if one-third of these people shared your content with their respective networks of 1,000 people – or potentially more. Those contacts then share it with their network, so on and so forth. The potential for new custom is never-ending on social media and furthermore, Google now takes into account what it calls ‘social signals’ when calculating its rankings; things like ‘shares’ and ‘likes’. This means setting up on Facebook or Twitter could even bump you up the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Brand awareness

Obviously well-established brands will probably already have a strong reputation, however if you’re a start-up or a particularly local business, then your awareness could probably do with a boost. Here’s the thing – if you take the time and effort to publish content on Facebook or Twitter that educates your audience, they’ll share it, as we discussed before. This can increase your brand awareness and make people aware in many other countries that you’re here and providing an excellent service to your existing customers.

Even if someone hears about your brand but isn’t yet at the purchasing stage of the buying cycle, they’ll gradually begin to hear more and more about you. They’ll start regularly checking your social media pages for updates, or interesting content they can read. They’ll start building trust and respect for your brand; holding your opinion and service in the highest regard. Then when the time comes to buy, be it six weeks from now or two years, they’ll likely think of you. It’s a long-term investment for sure, but it’s worth it. After all, people are becoming so immune to hard sales tactics nowadays that if you don’t take the time to invest in your relationship with them, they’ll go elsewhere.