By understanding why people – specifically our customers and prospects – use social media, we will become better-equipped to make informed business decisions about how and what to do about it.
Social media content and interaction significantly impacts your organization’s online search engine results. Search engine results directly impact how your audience gains access to the products and services you provide. Businesses that provide better access to what is sought by their audience gain goodwill, awareness and connection to their desired audiences, resulting in more business opportunities. More qualified relationships translate to more business.
Now imagine for a moment the life of your typical customer. Being busy, he needs access to information about certain products or services that you happen to offer. He’ll either ask a trusted colleague or friend for a recommendation or seek information online, starting with a search engine. His online quest is one of 29 million search engine searches done by Internet users per minute. He typically scans only the first two or three words of the first four search results, rarely ever getting past page one. He clicks on the best match, which leads him to a website, blog, video, etc., and then makes a decision based on what he found and moves on with his life.
Other than proactively searching for information, what else does your customer do online? He consumes content, a lot of content. Thirty billion pieces of content (pictures, words, video, conversations, audio, links, etc.) are shared per month on Facebook alone. Over 2 billion YouTube views per day.
Why does he behave like that? Because he is among the over 77 percent of North Americans who have Internet access and regularly use the web to find information. He has been trained to know that he shouldn’t have to work very hard to find what he seeks. That’s the why that we need to understand, in order to fulfill our customers’ and prospects’ needs. Become a credible and valuable provider of the content he seeks, and you also become able to impact his choices and fulfill his need for information.
So the short answer to why people use social media? Access. Master the art of online access to your products or services, and your business opportunities will change drastically.
