Social Media Marketing has become an incredibly important tool for businesses both in Oman and across the Middle East. Everybody seems to be doing it. From global corporations, active in the region, and government departments to small local supermarkets – all use Social Media Marketing in an effort to attract new customers, potential leads and deliver customer service in a changing marketplace.

But how do businesses ensure they are taking the right steps in a world where one poor judgement can land you in a lot of trouble? How can managers know they have a valid Social Media Marketing strategy that is in line with their organisation’s interests?

Increasingly, businesses in the Middle East are recognising the benefits of outsourcing their Social Media Marketing to experts specialising in managing their web presence. If you are considering using a professional Social Media Marketing company in Oman to handle your accounts, here are a few points to consider:
  

Time.

It just isn’t enough for companies with a large customer base to quickly post a couple of Facebook posts per week and hope everything goes well. Without a strategic flow of quality content, posts, tweets and interactions with your followers, your Social Media Marketing efforts may be a waste of time.

Many companies advertise software that claims to reduce all of your business’ social media tasks to just a few minutes a week by automating your posts. The truth is that even the best of these programs rely on someone knowing exactly what to post at what time.

Producing quality and relevant content, creating the appropriate graphics and reviewing statistics to see what’s working and what’s not takes a lot of time. Multiply this time across Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn and you could be spending over 50 hours a month to get the results you require.

Understanding.

Social media networks are built around user accessibility. Do you know anyone in your company who does not use at least one social media network? - So why not delegate the management of your business’ social media efforts to your workforce? Because having a personal social media page is completely different to running one for a business.

Ask yourself the following questions to see if you would know how to manage your company’s online presence effectively:

• Do you know what the best time of day is for your business to post on Facebook? 
• Do you know on which days or what number of posts should be implemented for you to achieve the best results?
• What proportion of Twitter posts should be about your company/products and what proportion should be just useful content for your followers?

Social media experts can ask many more questions like this because they understand how to manage your social presence effectively to get you the best results.

Content.

Social media is not about posting 30 times a day on Facebook telling your followers to buy your products now. Customers switch off to these tactics very quickly and you could soon be left with no followers whatsoever. So what’s the point if it doesn’t result in immediate sales?

Chances are, if you already have followers, they are connected with you because of some positive past experience. They “Like” your company or organisation because you were able to help them in the past. The aim now should be to reward your devoted customers by sharing interesting content, getting them involved in competitions, making sure they are the first to hear of any promotions you will be holding.

Social media is a two way street that turns your customers’ appreciation into a valuable relationship. It also ensures you brand is at the top of their mind next time they consider a purchase.

Value.

The value of social media marketing can be seen form a number of perspectives. But, perhaps the best way to appreciate this value is to recognise that the world in which businesses operate today is very different the one only 10 years ago.

Once ubiquitous, printed business directory books are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Newspaper readers in the Middle East are increasingly turning to online editions leaving circulations in decline. When people want to find out about you, your company, organisation or other information, most people will turn immediately to the internet. So do customers.

Today, people will expect to be able to find out everything about your business from the comfort of their office or home. How long have you been around. What products or services do you offer? What are your location and opening times? If you don’t provide this information, perhaps your competitor does.

As an online extension of your business, social media channels are a great opportunity of connecting your brand with existing followers and reaching out to new customers every day.