4 Overlooked Social Media Benefits for Businesses

Content marketing, advertising and lead generation are not the only ways in which social media affects businesses. Our list of the most overlooked benefits of social platforms will allow you to look at your social media strategy with a fresh eye. Our quick tips will help you get the most value out of marketing through social media.

28th March 2019 3 min read time

Article by Dawid Zimny

I am particularly interested in web analytics. Knowing the way your visitors browse your website will help you improve their browsing experience and is crucial for converting them into clients.

Improved SEO and search visibility

Google has made it clear that they consider “social signals” in their ranking algorithms. The search giant has moved on from being heavily keyword-focused and now approaches ranking in a more user-friendly way.

With almost a third of the world using social media regularly, it’s inevitable that one day it will become a very important factor when ranking your website – just like mobile page speed became one in 2018.

Internal search engines

If your business has social media profiles, there’s a good chance you’re sharing your content on these platforms. You might have heard about the story of someone posting an embarrassing search query on social media thinking it was Google. While this is more of a funny tale, it’s not far from the truth.

People don’t have to rely on Google. Considering how much time some of them spend on social media, it’s often more convenient to find your business there.

LinkedIn's content suggestions panel showcasing topics that perform well within the network. — LinkedIn goes as far as trying to inspire businesses by suggesting content that performs well within the network.

Built-in analytic tools

Google Analytics is a powerful tool, but it has its drawbacks. Google has to respect the anonymity of its users, while on social media people voluntarily share personal information you can access using built-in reporting.

Sometimes this helps you profile your audience better than Analytics would, on top of monitoring the social media activity of your followers.

An image showcasing how Twitter lets you browse different audience categories, like business decision-makers and more. — Twitter provides an easy way for you to analyse different user personas, such as business decision-makers.

Engrave your brand in your followers’ minds

In 2016 Facebook reported that its users watch over 100 million hours of videos each day. An average person spends nearly 2 hours a day on social media and depending on the platform up to 71% visit it daily.

A graph showcasing the percentage of users that browse social media platforms daily. Facebook - 71%, Snapchat - 63%, Instagram - 60%, Twitter - 46%, YouTube - 45%. — Your followers are likely to see your brand on social media at least once a day.

Depending on the quality of your content and considering that the algorithms vary between different platforms, it will expose your followers to your brand every day.

It’s a popular customer support channel

Providing customer support through social media has become an expectation rather than a nice-to-have feature. The instant nature of social platforms has made it one of the top choices in the eyes of customers seeking assistance.

Businesses can take advantage of that by meeting the customers’ expectations. Not only does it establish you as a trustworthy company with impressive response times (with the latter being showcased on business pages on Facebook), your customers will spend more the quicker they get your help.

Airline customers whose tweets were answered in 5 minutes or less paid 19.83$ for a ticket on that airline in the future. 8.53$ when it was 6-20 minutes, 3.19$ when it was 21-59 minutes and 2.33$ when it was over an hour.

Improve the cost-effectiveness of your social media strategy

Acknowledging the not-so-obvious benefits of social media for businesses is an easy way to boost your social media efforts. Some of them don’t require you to take any action, while other will inspire you to optimise your strategy.

We believe your business will benefit from our tips. Let us know in the comments below when that happens. We’re also waiting for some of your unusual social media tips. Tell us if there’s something we’ve missed and we will reply to all your comments.