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Social media platforms are a source of competitive advantage for online businesses, helping to engage potential customers and drive sales. In fact, social media is quickly taking over the web. Hitwise has reported that as of March 2010, Facebook is the new #1 most popular website, ahead of Yahoo and Google! The population of Twitter is now estimated to be between 40 to 60 million people and LinkedIn surpassed its 50 million mark this year.
More and more consumers are using social networks as their main navigation tool instead of search engines like in previous years. For this reason, integrating Social Media Optimization with Search Engine Optimization will give online businesses an advantage. The rising trend of social media means individuals are becoming more reliant on what their friends are saying. Web sites liked Angie’s list and Yelp have capitalized on this.
An e-commerce site that allows consumers to interact and share ideas and opinions via social networks will have a competitive edge. It’s just a matter of using social media effectively. Businesses that want to gain a competitive advantage should connect to all the popular social media platforms in order to maximize site visitors. But simply offering the social media networks alone is not enough. Encourage users to share and engage them with a sense of community around your company’s service or product. And finally, use metrics to get confirmed facts about how much traffic is coming to your e-commerce site through social networks. Ford’s social media strategy has been successful in promoting the “Ford Fiesta Movement”. The social media movement resulted in 11 million social networking impressions, and 38% awareness by Generation Y of the product.
By utilizing simple and effective social media tactics, online businesses can drive more visitors and increase sales. Is your company using social media effectively? Give us your thoughts and opinions here.
Use the Smart Advantage free tools to find out what competitive advantages you possess, if they are being used to their full extent, and what’s the cost of not utilizing them.
Tags: Competitive Advantage, competitive advantages, competitive edge, increase sales, Smart Advantage free tools
