How social media enhances content

How media networks draw the public in

Within the last decade, businesses around the globe have turned to social media outlets to publish content and to promote their brands, products and services. Social media is an extremely effective and efficient way to spread direct information to a global population in real time. HubSpot’s Inbound Certification Course explains how companies can use social media to ultimately gain more customers.

According to HubSpot, an astounding 70 percent of the world’s Internet population is active on social media. These days, business prospects spend more of their free time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ than they do shopping in a store or searching the Internet. That is why it is crucial for businesses to embrace this technological shift and use social media to their advantage.

Social media is the quickest and simplest way to gain the attention of potential customers in a nonintrusive manner. By effectively using social media through an inbound marketing strategy, marketers compel readers to learn more about a solution, product or service and the company behind it to make informed buying decisions.

Companies that use the inbound marketing method effectively reach potential customers who are in one of the three stages of the buyer’s journey:

The awareness stage
The consideration stage
The decision stage

By using social media, businesses can engage the public and prospective customers who are either just realizing they have a problem or actively looking for a solution.

Companies should always assess the needs, wants and challenges of their target buyer personas when posting content on social media. After all, posting content that engages the reader is the key to effective inbound marketing.

Social monitoring is the best way that companies can decide what content is best for their buyer personas in each of the various stages. Through social monitoring, companies can assess what the public is saying about their brands and analyze whether certain content can turn those readers into leads, customers or even promoters.

Companies should embrace social media as a new and innovative tool for effective marketing. The popularity of social media has grown tremendously recently and companies would be foolish not to embrace this ground-breaking technological shift.

Pauline Blum is studying marketing at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She plans to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in management in marketing from the A.B. Freeman School of Business in 2017. Connect with her on Facebook and Instagram @pollyblum.