The power of social media is unmeasurable for more than a decade now.
With Twitter’s 10th birthday and the recent Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, it is clear that these and many more social networks are playing an important role in both business and personal lives of consumers.
Impactful as they are, they still do not create wonders. This means that even though e.g. Facebook, as a network with the greatest number of active users, can be a good source of referral traffic, there is a ton of things you need to do first in order to dominate and get those numbers rising.
How To Use Social Media To Generate Sales
Here we have made a list of four social media strategies which can help you in managing and improving sales department.
1. Grow a community
There has been a lot of rumor about this kind of social media advertising – the fact that it is practically hidden makes it so ingenious and convenient.
Since people are on social media to see images and videos of cute pets and their family and babies, generally – things that evoke positive emotions – they certainly do not want to see your ads popping up every second from their news feed. Rather, you can circumvent this annoyance and still manage to make profit on social media, in a subtle way.
Namely, we think about creating a community to which you present engaging content and thus generate sales via occasional ads. In a nutshell, this means joining community groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, engaging by posting useful things (actually contributing to the community, rather than being a passive observer).
Or, even better, create a group of your own and invite people who can make value of your content. Ryan Stewart of Moz explains this process in detail, so do check it out.
2. Relationships with influencers
Word of mouth is the best way of advertising since the dawning of time. However ancient this method is, it has slightly altered a bit now so rather than simply waiting for people to put a good word about your brand, you can kindly ask a famous person to help you.
Since people are more likely to listen to influencers than advertisers, use this in advantage and see who is popular (i.e. influential) in your niche (and even outside of it) on social media, and see how you can create engaging content with them giving a review of your product or service. It works!
3. Paid social media marketing
If you still have not heard of paid social media marketing, do feel free to read this extensive article. SMM basically consists of creating ads on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and since recently – Pinterest (but only in the US).
How does it work? You bid on a pay-per-click principle and people convert so you eventually get your return on investment. In fact, this is the biggest source of income for Facebook, and as the statistics show, it is one of the most effective sources of referrals and extra traffic.
4. Experimenting with different channels
And finally, the biggest secret of social media: it is all about experimenting. Since every company is unique, as well as every service and every product, it is practically up to you as a social media manager or community manager to test and see what works with your audience. Depending on the industry you are working in, you can choose different media channels to generate more sales on social media. For example, women represent the majority of Pinterest users, so you can reach them there if you sell beauty or clothing products. Or, if you happen to have an online shop, you can try Facebook’s awesome e-commerce app, Ecwid, which integrates online shopping with Facebook.
Are we missing out on some other strategies you might know of? Let us know in the comments below or on our official Facebook page.
