Social Media Helps Reduce Costs.

Social Media can reduce marketing costs significantly. Perhaps one of the most appealing features about social media is its a free way to distribute content to potential customers. Facebook allows businesses to create pages and groups with no costs associated with them. Pizza Hut, Victoria Secret, iTunes, and Starbucks are great examples of companies that have taken full advantage of Facebook pages as a free advertising tool.

Public Relations firms have leveraged free advertising by promoting events and media to distribute information on companies for many years. Today content is distributed by over 2.5 billion social media users world wide. Not only social media as a distribution channel significant but the value of content distributed through friends has a higher trust level that content delivered through companies through advertising. For example Facebook content share from friend to friend is read at much higher rate than Paid Advertising.

A 2013 Social Media Examiner Study indicates at least 62% of businesses with 10 or fewer employees agreed social media reduced marketing expenses, while only 38% of businesses with 1000 or more employees agreed.

Determining the best network for marketing is Key. Facebook and LinkedIn are the two most important social networks for marketers. Of those surveyed in the Examiner Study 49% of marketers selected Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 16%. Marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube (69%), Facebook (66%), blogging(66%), LinkedIn (65%) and Twitter (64%), in that order.