When it came to knuckling down with coursework or exam revision at University I found myself – like many other students – refreshing my Facebook and Twitter pages at least every five minutes. It was almost as if it was a valid excuse to get away from work. Nine times out of ten I was doing it without even realizing! And on numerous occasions I would get bored of looking at my newsfeed on my laptop screen and would look to procrastinate in some other way like on my smartphone… déjà vu! I was looking at the exact same newsfeeds on my smartphone screen. I was addicted.

I fall into the same category as the people in a study conducted last year by the University of Winchester which found that self-confessed social media addicts suffered withdrawal symptoms after giving up Facebook and Twitter for four weeks. Many reported being isolated from friends and family and feeling “cut off from the world”!

Social media is becoming more and more powerful; in April it played a vital role in forcing the issue of the Nigerian schoolgirl kidnappings onto the agendas of the world leaders. As you may have witnessed, thousand of people, including celebrities, uploaded photos of themselves holding pieces of paper stating #BringBackOurGirls. World governments have the power but social media can force them to listen and take action when enough people campaign.

Numerous studies, newspaper articles, social media campaigns and various accounts of people attempting to give up social media all highlight the value of social media and subsequently the value of social media marketing. In ‘Business Day Live’, Richard Branson even commented on the importance of social media in business and how crucial it is for connecting with customers, marketing new products and keeping up a brand image. Never before has there been available the opportunity to connect with customers on such a personal level. There’s so many different types of social media popping up all over the place, including Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+ and many more.

Another relevant example of the usefulness of social media in modern business is the sole use of social media by Beyonce in December to promote her new album. This was an alternative to the usual mass media release of a radio campaign, multiple TV appearances and retail and consumer brand promotions. Instead she announced the launch to all of her followers on Instagram with the word “Surprise”. This social media marketing was a success and it exceeded the album downloads of the previous album which had used the traditional marketing model!

There are so many benefits of using social media in business and according to a report bySocial Media Examiner in 2013, 86% of marketers regard social media marketing as very important, notably for increasing exposure. It also helps increase traffic, maintain a good reputation, develop loyal fans, generate leads, improve search rankings, grow business partnerships, reduce marketing expenses, improve sales and provide marketplace insight.

BUT, social media can be very time-consuming to manage and that’s where we come in handy! At Reflect Digital we offer planning and management of your social media which includes:

Advice and guidance on dealing with mentions of your brand name found through our scanning software
Ensuring consistency across the major social networks
Ensuring that your ‘company’ pages are fully setup and branded with informative and stylish imagery that perfectly reflects your company
Training on how to use the various networks and a training manual
Ensuring that all of your content, including news stories, blog posts and any relevant company news are pushed out to the correct social media networks.
The generation of new content (if required)
Help on how to build your social media presence and increase your ‘following’ across each of the major social networks.
Support in running polls or competitions to generate more engagement

If you want to find out more use the following link: http://www.reflectdigital.co.uk/marketing/social

Or alternatively, call us on: 08448705204