A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Marketing experts know the value of social media. However, that doesn’t mean every marketing executive knows how to successfully leverage the same to attract and keep customers. It’s no secret that social media can do a few great things for any business.

• It connects a company to its customers.
• It provides an avenue for communication between them.
• Social media is an excellent source of free advertising.

The best part of social media is witnessing how quickly a conversation grows and the benefits that follow for any company.

With all of these great benefits to utilising social media in the business arena, it comes as a surprise to some that social media, when used incorrectly, can actually hurt a business.

How is this possible? An online presence means that a business is connecting to its customers, right? Yes, that’s true. However, a social media site requires constant maintenance in order to achieve desirable results.

What is the intended desirable result?
It is an increase in the bottom line, of course.

One mistake that is often made by marketing managers is that they turn to the same social media outlets time and time again. They may not consider that using more than one or two can make a difference in customer attraction and retention.

One emerging trend is to use social networks with pictures. While Facebook and Twitter are primarily focused on text-based messages, some of the newer social networks have made pictures a priority.

Why is this the emerging trend?
It is because people tend to gravitate toward more visually-appealing posts.

For example, utilising a site such as Instagram allows an organisation to visually tell their story. In a world where immediate gratification is the order of the day, sites that use pictures can attract younger customers. Armed with the knowledge that these kinds of social networks can be an effective tool to engage users, marketing managers will be well on the way to increased sales.