Generally, it takes more of human intellect, yet less financial cost to promote a product on the social media. The human social connection factor is why a company’s social media presence plays a huge role in retaining customers. Social media users are quick to share, tweet about and like products they enjoy, thus enabling an organization to capitalize on the viral benefits of online marketing.

It is important for businesses to have social media presence. Web portals such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest are accessed by billions of people around the world both via computers and mobile devices. With social media usage growing at such a staggering rate each year, why wouldn’t organizations turn to social media portals as customer retention tools?

Web Site Integration

Certainly, designing a marketing friendly website is essential, but it is also a must for the web developers to link the pages to social media platforms and outlets as these are hubs for connecting with current customers and attracting their like minded peers.

The company social media outlets are merely the first step for creating social media presence. Integrating social media channels into the website and every step in the sales funnel allows visitors to see the business as engaging them where they are. If the social media marketing is in capable hands, then the product, service or brand gains positive worldwide popularity. A certain image, video clip, or a post when properly managed has the potential to be seen by billions. By using social media, not only do people buy the product, but they also recommended it and share it on their account profiles. Welcome to the new word of mouth advertising!

In House or Outsourced

Many businesses do not delve into the social media marketing realm with an understanding of the speed at which social media changes. Business pages of social sites such as Facebook may serve as company social media communication outlets, where the business projects its brand today, but tomorrow their ideal target market may decide to abandon Facebook in favor of Instagram. For this reason alone, companies need to hire experts for social media management in order to stay ahead of the curve and keep their consumer messaging consistent across the various social media platforms.

In lieu of making the human capital investment in a social media manager, some organizations choose to outsource the tasks to specialists in the field of social media management. Social media managers use a variety of tools to promote an organization including PowerPoint presentations, video clips, and paid and free of cost advertisement links, blogging, article marketing, contesting and much more. All of these media forms keep the consumer engaged in conversation with the company leading to enhanced customer loyalty.

If customer retention is the goal, often times, the breadth and value an outsourced provider brings to the table outweighs the benefits of hiring someone internally to handle the corporation’s social media campaigns.

Many big brands and savvy Fortune 500 corporations who value repeat buyers have flagged their social media presence as a valuable tool for customer retention. Some have even started using social media sites such as Google+ and Twitter as customer service portals. Ultimately, when you open your business door to the social world, be prepared to innovate in order to retain those valuable customers.