The Brave New World of Communications
Like it or not, most of us could not live without our smart phones and this has opened up so many new channels of communications. Carrying these internet connected devices allows us to share where we are, what we’re doing and how we are feeling at all times via the many different social media channels on offer.
Social media channels Twitter and Facebook are probably the best known, with Instagram and Linked In and TripAvisor following close behind. The number of people using these channels is staggering with Facebook dominating by having 1.35 billion monthly active users, followed by LinkedIn with 332 million users, Instagram with 300 million, Twitter with 284 million and TripAdvisor 260 million. Social media really is a phenomenon that can help us in our professional lives by helping us to reach our target market and share business information quickly, easily and cost-effectively.
Facebook has become a media source par excellence, with journalists and media outlets using it to share news and drive traffic to their online news sites. In Spain a third of the traffic going to online press is coming from Facebook! There was a recent study by Zenith Optimedia which said that Facebook is the fastest growing media company that there is in Spain, growing by 64% from 2014 to 2015.marke
Hopefully this small introduction will show you (if you have any doubts) that the internet is a hugely powerful resource for businesses. Planning your marketing strategy is key to achieving your objectives and it’s important that you really understand who your target client is, so you can know how to reach them. Social media is a great place to start, but be careful when you’re creating your content that it properly reflects your company, your brand values and your company personality. Your social media posts could reach thousands of people (or even millions) so make sure you can be proud of the content you’re producing.
Invest time in creating quality posts which will inform your fans and tell them things they want to know. Promote those posts via groups and Facebook advertising to reach more people, grow your fans and followers and generate awareness about your brand, drive traffic to your website and get new clients.
However, it’s important that you don’t rely on social media alone, as you need to position yourself in the search engines as the go to company in your sector. Businesses today lose a lot of credibility if they do not have a strong online presence and you really need a website as well as social media accounts to be taken seriously. According to a recent study which was conducted in Germany, businesses without a website were throwing away a third of their potential clients.
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to create a quality website anymore. If you just want something simple but professional to represent your company and allow people to find out more and get in touch, you probably just need a simple five page WordPress site. Thanks to their free templates you can apply very cool designs to your business website for less! It’s important to remember that when you have a site you need to link it to your social media accounts to grow followers and create quality content such as blog posts which you can then share on the social media channels. This strong connection between business social media profiles and a corporate website is crucial to make it work best for your company.
Businesses on the Costa del Sol are lucky to be in a tourist hot spot which is recovering quicker from the crisis than the rest of Spain due to foreign investment. However we can’t sit back on our laurels, we need to show the world that we’re professional, trustworthy companies providing quality products and services. We need to reflect through online promotion that we are multi-lingual and can help both Spanish and English speaking clients and that we are the businesses to trust. Social media is a great way to do this, as long as we use it strategically as one tool within the marketing mix.
2016 looks like it’s going to be a great year, so we think that now is the time to switch gear and really starting pushing your company forward online and offline to show the world how great you are and get those clients flooding in. We can help you manage your social media accounts, produce your website and also blog to create great content. Please ask us how we can help you.