How Social Media helps Digital Age

Digital Transformation, Big Data, Analytics, IoT, Mobility, Cloud are the hottest terms around, with lot of confusion even in matured organizations. This is an effort to simplify the area.
Sunday, 1 April 2018
How Social Media helps Digital Age
Digital transformation for business is no longer optional but is on the top of the minds of most of the CEOs.  From global companies to local Mom & Pop stores, everyone is gearing up to enter on this digital bandwagon. As digital is bringing all the latest technologies into the game, keeping the human relationship is equally important to interact with customers.
In the end, Digital Transformation is for people. Social media is such an integral part of our everyday lives today, that we share our thoughts, pictures, videos with our family and friends.
Today most of the businesses are using Social Media to their advantage for this human relationship. They know the significance of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and Google+  in reaching prospects, customers, and partners.
More than 3 billion people are now online, and they are spending more time there than watching TV. They are making and watching videos about products they like and tweeting enthusiastically about customer service they do not like.
Social media can help build a vibrant brand, allow global reach & create and maintain better relationships with customers. Research says that Twitter is the most powerful communication tool, which shows real-time updates about what world is saying.
Here are top benefits of Social Media:
Search Engine Optimization: When someone searches for your business on Google, the social profiles are likely to be amongst the top results. For instance, when you search for Ferrari, their Twitter profile appears as the 2nd listing. In addition, the Ferrari’s other social media profiles are displayed on the right-hand side of the page.
Customer Service: Today, we see many people turn to social media to vent their frustrations with organizations. Consumers ask questions, provide feedback on a brand’s customer support team or seek assistance. Many big companies have recognized this, and have dedicated social media customer service agents employed to actively engage on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Brand Recognition: Using social media also helps to boost the business visibility with both current and potential customers. It gives you the perfect platform to share your brand's voice with your audience and spread the word about your products, services, offers and more. Burberry used social media to directly stream their fashion shows, which generated millions of dollars for them in new customers.
Marketing: Advertising on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn and YouTube goes viral today and helps great global marketing. Engaging with your brand’s loyal consumers bring more business and spread word of mouth publicity.
Business Insights: The best way to listen to your brand mentions in social media. It shows what your customers are saying about your competitors and discovering your competitive advantages in the process.  With Big Data , businesses learn about customers, their demographics, interests, preferences, etc. Using further helps marketing to improve the relevancy of messaging and build targeted campaigns.
One positive impact of social media is in the distribution of information in today’s world. If you don’t have a dedicated social media team, create one. If you do have one already, then make it even more efficient. If people are the soul of digital transformation, then social media is the heart.