Why Social Media and Inbound Marketing Go Hand in Hand

With all of the benefits that inbound marketing brings, businesses often struggle with developing and implementing a solid inbound marketing strategy because they feel overwhelmed with the many different options available, and they don’t quite know where to begin. One of the easiest and most effective beginning steps to take is to develop a strong social media presence for your brand. Any serious conversation about inbound marketing strategy must include social media, as it goes hand in hand with inbound marketing. Savvy inbound marketers understand the power of leveraging social media to increase brand awareness, foster customer engagement and attract high quality leads. Below are some key points to consider as you begin to implement social media into your overall inbound marketing strategy.

Relationship Building Should Be Your Top Priority

Social media is highly relational by nature, and any marketer worth his or her salt will readily admit that relationship building is the most vital aspect of inbound marketing. As you begin to take the initiative and reach out to the influential figures, thought leaders and potential buyers in your particular sphere of activity via social media, you’ll build your credibility as a trustworthy industry participant as well. By establishing a presence and building relationships through the major social media channels (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), you gain the opportunity to expose and distribute your content not only to your own network, but also to the network of every person you’ve built a relationship with.

Social Media Activities Should Be Regularly Scheduled and Closely Monitored

It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the countless status updates, likes and follows that come along with managing a social media account. If you’re not careful, what may start as a powerful business tool can quickly turn into a massive time suck. For this reason, it’s critical to schedule your social media activity each week, allotting a certain amount of time for developing new content to share, posting status updates and responding to inquiries or comments. Proper scheduling will enable you to publish content that stays in lockstep with key business activities such as promotions, sales, contests, new product rollouts and so forth. Close monitoring of your social activities will also pay great dividends, as it can present you with key areas of opportunity to hone in on such as popular posts, insightful customer feedback, etc. You can also use the information you gather from your monitoring activities to adjust your scheduling, so you can capitalize on lead generation opportunities that present themselves.

Use Social Media to Increase Interaction with Your Audience

It’s no mystery that social media is a powerful tool for interfacing and interacting with customers and potential leads. By utilizing a social platform, you can lend an ear to your audience, discovering their needs and identifying their pain points in the process. Direct interaction with prospective buyers and current customers can provide you with more valuable information than a dozen generic surveys or market research reports. While it may not be practical or even possible to respond to every single direct message or tweet, you can still extract the primary themes from the feedback you’re receiving in order to efficiently and competently address the questions and/or concerns of your audience.

Without a doubt, social media has proven to be one of the most vital elements of an effective inbound marketing strategy. When properly utilized, social media can increase traffic to your website, amplify brand exposure and position your business to garner more qualified leads. By keeping the above points in mind, you’ll position yourself to take advantage of the many benefits offered by social media as a must-have component of inbound marketing.