Social media channels have the collective goal of connecting humans around the world. Viewers of a post, picture, video or other content are encouraged to save it or share with other colleagues, perhaps with their own commentary attached. If all goes well, many people will continue to share the same item.

Once many businesses saw how well people were engaging with each other, they decided to join in. A business social media page is a perfect place to learn more about a company you like, including their products, services and people, and even offer an easy way to interact with a question or complaint.

Now, it’s almost required for a business to have some kind of social media presence, or if they have the resources, a unified presence on several channels, all connecting to their main site. For instance, there could be a main Facebook page but visitors can also watch videos on YouTube, look at photos on Instagram or get moment-by-moment activities and commentary on Twitter. It’s smart to do so – since so many people use social media, having a presence there makes a company noticeable.

The regular presence on social media of businesses has also changed how people interact with them.

  • Faster response time. Before social media, people would contact a company and be happy to get a response in 48 hours. Now that they know they can contact them through social media, they can send them a quick text message and get a response back in minutes (which is a warning to businesses to make sure someone is always monitoring these feeds and ready to respond.) 
  • Reputation management. Being able to give instant feedback easily is positive and a negative. Good service can lead to good online reviews, especially if customers are aware of when and where they can leave feedback. But poor service can lead to poor reviews. 
  • New spending options. Instead of traditional advertising, many are investing in social media sponsorship. This puts their posts in front of more people, often at an inexpensive price.  

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