Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are social instruments of two-way communication. This means, they offer businesses the opportunity to talk directly to their customers, but most importantly customers have the means to talk back to the company too, anytime, anywhere. And this is where the power of social media lies – in communication.

What some businesses get wrong is how social media can only serve as another advertising tool. The reality however is that broadcasting a message and simply selling don’t work anymore. As Brian Solis says: “People are searching for answers and directions, not messages or sales pitches.” It is ‘peer recommendations’ (the reviews and opinions about products and services by other people like us) that we seek on social media and that are absolutely critical to company’s marketing activities for one very simple reason: people trust friends and others like them, not organisations.

Research (see infographic by Hubspot below) shows that 75% of consumers do not even believe ads tell the truth, whereas 90% would turn to friends for brand recommendations and 71% are more likely to buy a product if someone referred to it on social media.

Here are some of the benefits and opportunities of actively engaging on social media that are worth considering:

Video is everywhere. More and more people view videos online on a daily basis. By 2015 online video watching is expected to double. No wonder YouTube is the third most visited website in the world and the second largest search engine after Google. Even video creation has become much easier with all these new gadgets and phones that allow us to make videos in a fairly good quality anywhere, anytime.

From a business perspective, video is becoming a must in marketing and PR strategies and campaigns to improve brand awareness and promote products and services.

But why video?

Simple. It’s a more compelling and interactive way of creating and sharing content that’s more engaging than plain text is. In the world of social media solely broadcasting a message is no longer effective; however storytelling is. Telling the story of your brand, your products or services through video can be way more exciting for your audience that is often not patient enough or doesn’t have the time to sit down and read through a lengthy product/service description. Demo videos for example are a great way of showcasing how your products work - something text often cannot explain well enough.

What’s more, videos can create a unique viewer experience much more realistic and life-like than text because they communicate feelings and expressions that can be easily perceived by yout audience. This is where the power of web videos for brand lies – in the ability to show their “human” side to build loyalty and trust. And by that, videos can be a great promotional campaign to boost your overall PR and marketing efforts.

Besides increasing online brand presence and consumer engagement videos can also improve SEO efforts - the chance of your business to appear in the first pages of a Google search. Most importantly, inspiring, provoking and funny videos are often shared, liked and commented by your audience, which can potentially make them go viral.