Most consumers have at least a basic understanding of how many people use social media, and how significant a role it plays in society today, from both a personal and business standpoint. However, the number of people who use some of the top social media websites might still be shocking. As of August 5, 1.15 billion people use Facebook, Pinterest jumped from 45 to 70 million, and Twitter no has more than 200 million active users. These high numbers mean that people have a better ability than ever before to stay connected, and there are plenty of social media marketing opportunities available for businesses who are looking to attract new customers and expand.

At the heart of every online marketing campaign there has to be a dynamic website that businesses can use to share information with consumers and, hopefully, make sales. While there are lots of ways to design a website, and there is not one option that will work for every company, they should all include social media website buttons that link to social media pages. Social media allows businesses to interact an engage with consumers in unprecedented ways. So if a business wants to stand out, they will need to make sure to place links to their social media pages on the websites that they use.

One of the benefits of adding social media website buttons and gaining fans, followers, and likes, is that it helps improve search engine rankings. B2B marketers rank social media as the second most important factor to search, after, perhaps not surprisingly, strong content. So well managed social media accounts will not only increase business and consumer interaction, but bolster visibility as well.

If businesses want to take full advantage of all the opportunities that internet marketing provides, they will need to make sure that they have a workforce capable of doing so. The average midsize or large company, that has 1,000 companies or more, has 178 social media assets, like Twitter and Facebook accounts and blogs. However, only a quarter of those companies actually provide employees with some sort of training. Some workers, depending on their background, might have no knowledge of exactly what is social media marketing. Investing in some type of training programs can go a long way towards making sure a business is able to capitalize on growing social media trends.