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In the event that you selected the second last option, we’ve made a blog post just for you! Check out our top 6 reasons to use social media for your business right now.

We have created a system that scours the web searching for big brand mentions and ranking them together. We have called it the Social Barometer and we hope for it to provide an insightful picture of how brands are performing online.

Although it is just the first release, we hope to improve it over time by adding even more brands, analytics, past changes and more.

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Hubspot revealed, after analyzing two years of data, that Inbound-dominated organizations average 60% lower cost per lead than outbound-dominated organizations!

The report is based on a survey of 231 people involved with or familiar with their business’ marketing strategy.

Social Media and blogs are the most rapidly expanding category of marketers’ overall budgets.
Over 40% of customers using Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and company blogs have generated a customer from that channel. This is a massive revelation and definitely proves their are untapped opportunities when it comes to establishing a presence on social networks.
The findings are indisputable – people are sick and tired of banner ads, mass mailed e-mails, and droning 30 second commercials. They want real value and relationships, and the companies giving that value will be the ones paving the way in the business world this decade.

You can see Hubspot’s full report here.

Social media is an excellent tool, but many may not fully understand or utilize its benefits.

Getting customer feedback

Customers are always talking, and sometimes they talk about you. Ideally, they should talk to you directly and in a way easiest for them. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter make it really easy to do so – provided you have the right exposure on those sites.

Gauging brand sentiment

How many people love you? How many hate you? Why? Do you know the answers to these questions? There are great tools out there than scan thousands of news and social sources looking for brand mentions of you. These tools tell you how it is – what people like and don’t like about your company and give you indications as to how you can improve your brand and PR.

Crowdsourcing ideas

If you’re in a product writer’s block, so to speak, social media can help you create ideas by allowing the crowds to decide the route to take. Sure, the customer may not always know whats best, but they definitely know how to create a buzz if they’re in control. Look at the success of Coke’s recent social media campaign to see what I’m talking about here.

Engaging clients en mass, but personally.

It is often quite difficult to engage with thousands of people and still keep communications personal. Social media allows one to do this, and with the right tools and mindset, one can engage one’s public en mass. You can keep your customers informed and up to date about new products and services, sales and discount specials.

Increased SEO and website exposure and traffic

This one is a no-brainer – if people are talking about you on social media sites it increases your online brand awareness which in turn leads to website exposure and more traffic. If you have a blog with which you engage your audience, this can further increase your website exposure by generating many inbound links and conversations about you.

More customer leads and brand awareness

Through sites like Linked In and Twitter, you can find plenty more potential leads that can turn into sales with the right conversion strategy. The followers of your followers will get the picture and may even share the news with their followers. Through 6 degrees of freedom, the whole world is connected. You only need one more degree of freedom to reach thousands more prospects online, and social media allows you to do this easily.

Please contact Fuseware today to learn more about the specific benefits social media has for your business, and how we can help you achieve your social media goals.

Social media is a great way of connecting with your customers and getting feedback, and it has definitely exploded in popularity in developed countries. But what about developing nations, such as South Africa?

South Africa has many social networking sites that are buzzing with information. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since over 5 million South Africans are online, and more are joining every day.

The biggest SA based network is of course MXit. This is used by over 15 million people locally, and many millions more globally. Although MXit has traditionally been a chat client used for cell phones, it has started embracing social media on the web by allowing companies to interact with MXit users via the Tradepost service. MXit’s Evo suite of products is also another way they are innovating and extending their product line by evolving onto the web.

Blueworld is a relatively new social network that has simply exploded in the last few years due to its sheer openness. Almost all profiles are completely open, allowing people to share the pictures and notes with the world – and not just their friends. Companies have not engaged this site as effectively as they could have.

Twitter, although a massive hit overseas, must not be discounted in South Africa. Twitter receives over 500 000 visitors from SA every month, so there is definitely a large market segment where companies can engage people. Many SA companies have created innovative campaigns on Twitter, such as the recent Woolworth’s love birds competition.

The classic Facebook has received plenty of attention from locals, and is currently the 2nd most visited site in the country (behind Google). There are massive opportunities to engage with your customers on Facebook – but this site isn’t appropriate for all businesses. It has worked very well for businesses with a large online customer base that already have a loyal following.

Besides the big social networks, many blog sites have taken off with thousands of South Africans wanting to be heard online. The big names here are Blogger and News 24 blogs. Each and every person with a blog can be heard by anyone in the world. If they are talking about your company, are you effectively listening and responding to them?

With so many social media outlets and opportunities out there, it is easy to become inundated with choices and confused about which direction to take. Contact Fuseware today to get a better understanding of how best you can use these fantastic methods of business communication.