What is Social Media? – websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Basically, it is computer-based technology ease the sharing of thoughts, ideas, and information through virtual networks. Worldwide, there are more than 3 billion social media users. It is a web-based platform that is ever- evolving and transforming. Through research, it is proved that more than half of the users are the youth. 90% are between the age of 18-29 uses at least one social media platform.

Today even it is used with great success in Politics, politicians make usage of social media to engage with constituents and voters. Foe common individuals it is a way to connect with friends and extend family. Some people have already taken it as career opportunities, to find people around the world with the same interests, to share thoughts, feelings emotions and those who are engaged in activities like these are part of social virtual networks.

Social Media was started as a way to interact with family and friends, but with development, it was later adopted by businesses to take advantage of the new communication to reach out to customers. It has the power to connect, share information, ideas to many people at the same time, located anywhere on the Earth. It also includes tech-valued activities like photo sharing, blogging, video sharing, social gaming, social networks, business networks, virtual worlds, reviews and much more.

Following are some Important Social Media Platforms with their utilization worldwide:

The depressing part is that there is still doubter out there who do not understand or do not want to understand the advantages of social for their business purpose, sticking stubbornly to traditional marketing methods. However, almost many people have started to recognize the social media power for the success and growth of their businesses.

Here are some benefits of Social Media as a Platform for Startups :

Learn about your Audience :

The key to accomplishment for the business industry is understanding the concept off target audience and social media exactly does that for you. With the assistance of Facebook Insights in Hoot-suite, it is possible to discover the age and gender of the audience on social media. Businesses can organize campaigns and product offers to target an online audience and create a trend by using knowledge and digital marketing strategies. Especially in startups, it is necessary to understand and identify different types of customers and their interests. Social Media helps you to find out their interest through their online activities related to the product or through your campaigns and product offers.

Instant Feedback :

This is one of the best benefits social media provides which are feedback or reviews. Customers provide positive or negative feedback to the company through insights, this makes the startup companies easy to understand the reach. Many companies launch their product online to measure how well it is received by customers. This gives a great opportunity to look after the likes, dislikes, trends customers needs in the market so that you can work accordingly. Polls, Q & A, voting, hashtags, quiz helps a lot to view insights on what customer’s offerings are or what improvements they need in the product.

Increase in Web Traffic and Search Ranking :

Absolutely important and beneficial for using social media for the startup is to increase web traffic. It is a way to engage and direct people to business websites. Here the goal has to bee a lot of shares, likes, and comments on social media posts and the greater its search ranking and online exposure. To get better results you must use keywords in the title and subheadings of your post. Bad traffic at some level can bog your business down. When you can increase your traffic along with the quality of the visitors, the better you will be able to increase your website conversion.

Increasing Brand Awareness :

With the minimum budget, it is possible to create brand awareness only through social media. Traditional brand awareness strategies were way more costly and time-consuming. Many business companies hire social media experts to attempt to increase brand awareness which has become a career option for many experts. Creating an account on social media platforms does not cost any price, therefore it is very profitable and easy to create huge brand awareness.

Viral Content :

Sharing your content with your audience is now a breeze, thanks to social media. However, you should keep in mind that it is of absolute importance that the content you share catches the attention of the customers and intrigues them. Curating engaging content acts as a key to further extend your reach in the market. The more your customers can relate to your brand, the better hold you have over the market. Posts you share should be in line with what your brand stands for and what it represents.

Get ahead of your competitor :

Staying on top of your game in the market isn’t always an easy task. You have to keep monitoring the changes in trends. Along with that, having valuable insights about your competitors through social media helps you take a big leap forward, surpassing the business strategies put forth by your competitors. You can closely analyze their offerings and develop products or services in the areas which they do not serve, thus capturing a bigger chunk of the market.

Howkya is an idea validation platform where startup businesses, with the help of experts, can make maximum use of social media platforms which will result in profits and gains for the business.

How Social Media acts as the Perfect Platform for Startup