As internet engagement continues to rise, social media is the biggest beneficiary of the growing traffic. According to Statista, an internet user spends 145 minutes per day on social platforms; the time being shared amongst platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Social media popularity and wide usage is an excellent opportunity for businesses to increase sales and website traffic. Businesses can utilize social listings to showcase their brands, promote new products, communicate with clients, and improve visibility. For example, a business that seeks to target professionals can list on LinkedIn to access decision-makers like Sales Managers, CEOs, CFOs, and others. Instagram is another option, where 75% of users take actions, like visiting a company's website after viewing a post. 

So, why is a social presence beneficial to your business, and more importantly, what are social listings?

Social listings are online profiles that showcase important business information. Essentially, social listings provide information about locations, business hours, products, descriptions, and company updates. 

Each social platform serves a unique purpose and demographic. Instagram provides businesses with a channel to showcase products and services through imagery, videos, and stories. Twitter is an ideal site for businesses looking to drive conversations or listen to their customers. Commanding the largest share of users is Facebook, with over 2.89 billion active users per month. (If your business doesn't have an active presence on Facebook, you are missing on the opportunity to reach a variety of users/potential customers.) In addition, LinkedIn is ideal for promoting your company to business professionals with over 740 million users and 55 million registered companies. You can create a LinkedIn company page to share news, connect with potential employees, expand the company network, and enhance your visibility.



Ultimately, different social media sites offer varying benefits and features. It's advisable to have listings on some or all of the sites, to tap into the unique strengths and diverse users of each.

1. Gain a Better Understanding of Your Audience

Social media allows you to connect directly with your audience, gaining insights from them. Knowledge of your audience is critical in shaping your marketing strategy, product development, and continuous brand awareness. When you use various platforms to learn about different types of followers and general visitors who interact with your posts, you may benefit from these valuable insights.

As a brand, you can create polls, quizzes, or general posts to get reactions from social users, who freely express their thoughts and opinions. For example, you can create a poll to gather vital feedback on new products and apply the results to make necessary adjustments. 



In addition, social media platforms have analytics tools you can utilize to learn about your audience's behavior, demographics, or interests. 

According to Statista, there are over 3.6 billion users on social media. Social listings provide an opportunity to tap into this traffic and potentially gain additional audiences.

Here are two ways businesses can enhance brand reach: 

• Post Evergreen Content: Creating organic content that remains relevant regardless of the season, just as the Evergreen tree, never losing a leaf of importance. You can explore industry topics, news, humor, or posts that solve everyday problems.

• Utilize Hashtags: Hashtags enable social media users to contribute to a topic or a current trend. You can leverage an existing hashtag or create a branded hashtag to attract genuine followers or boost engagement.

Generally, a business can improve brand reach by optimizing its profile for local SEO, creating regular posts, targeting specific audiences, and promoting social profiles.

Social media offers a quick, transparent way to reach brands. It’s now possible for a customer to lodge a complaint on social media, and potentially receive an instant, or quick response from a customer care representative. 

A business can create live stories about a product and receive real-time feedback from their audience. The quick feedback helps make communication seamless and practical. You can also rectify mistakes if and when they happen, using input from your followers. 



In addition, your employees can use social media to find prospects. If you search for a company on LinkedIn, you'll also get employee profiles, which can boost prospecting. You can also initiate conversations using direct messaging before arranging physical meetings or a discovery call. 

The massive number of users that social media attracts can be a foundation for lead generation. These leads can greatly benefit business-to-business marketers when they’re able to identify those who are truly interested in their brand. Simply stated – a more qualified audience produces more highly qualified leads, which can come in the form of email addresses, phone numbers, or specific information like occupations.



Another great social profile feature is that you can optimize the ways visitors contact you by activating platform call-to-action buttons like “Sign-up,” “Call Us Now,” or “Contact Seller.” 

Try Our Listings Management Service

Social media attracts enormous traffic and usage. These are great reasons for businesses to utilize social listings since they can assist companies by enhancing communication, gaining customer insights and helping to achieve brand growth. 

It's wise to partner with Online Presence Management experts, like those at Summit Media Solutions. We'll optimize your pages to deliver complete, accurate information in order to provide value to potential customers. Contact us to get your free listing audit today.