How to Use Social Media to Increase Sales

Small business owners are sales driven and want to target the ready to buy crowd effectively. However, just as it takes patience to build your business, social media sales farming is playing the long game. You don't buy a hammer to pound one nail into a tree. You want to make a bench, which involves many other steps.

Grow your social media audience as part of a strategic marketing plan. You want to sell stuff and make money, but it starts with piquing customer interest. Get more newsletters subscribers, include digital coupons in Facebook posts or invite prospects to free events in their area via Twitter.

Social Media Statistics with Sales Implications

You may already believe that social media can help increase your sales, but let's look at some statistics that show usage rates and, therefore, opportunities to take advantage of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other platforms to reach prospective customers and boost your sales.

• LinkedIn is the only social media platform with higher usage among 30 to 49-year-olds than younger millennials.
• Facebook sends 82 percent of its traffic to longer stories, which can be blog content on your website.
• Sixty-three percent of Facebook and Twitter users use social media as a source of news. This provides an opportunity to provide substantial content to benefit users and invite them to your site, which is an effective lead generation strategy that can result in increased conversions.

Ways Social Media Helps You Increase Sales

You can find out what customers in different areas need by looking at various social media platforms. There are several ways social media can increase your sales.

• Establish a strong presence. Create a persona that users trust for information to engage an audience that will come to you first when they're ready to buy. Have a unique voice for your brand and share relevant content from credible sources. Consumers want to do business with authentic, reliable brands.

• Know which platform to use. Before you open a bunch of social media accounts for your business, research which platform is right for your target market. Select the platforms with the best potential to hit your target audience.

• Connect and build relationships. Connect with your existing and potential consumers. Do so by making comments on customer posts and answering questions about your brand. Reply to bad and good reviews in a professional tone and treat clients as consultants by asking them for ideas to improve it. Any positive interaction shows your earnestness and concern.

Make sure you link your social media pages to your Better Business Bureau Profile page, so customers searching for your company can learn more about you. Once you get their attention, it's time to sell your products without being pushy. When relevant, you can even link to pages on your blog or website. A link shows customers that you are a legitimate online presence.

Post Often

People love getting new information. If you keep your page updated with regular posts, they'll notice and come back, but the content needs to be tempered, so it's not overly promotional. Try to start a social blog that improves the lives of consumers. Effective content is catchy and has lots of pictures.

Post content that raises curiosity and positions you as an authority. This could involve posting an infographic or a status update that has unique content and attracts the right customers to your page. Having the right content helps readers trust your brand, so they feel comfortable buying from you.

Tracking Your Success

Facebook and Twitter are essentials in your marketing toolkit, but how do you know you're reaching the right customer base? Let's look at the biggest player and some of the metrics you should probably pay attention to:

Facebook Insights provides useful information about the success of your posts, including:

• People talking about this. This metric indicates the number of repins, retweets or likes your post generates.
• Post reach. Organic reach measures unique "hits" for each post and shows you how many people came to you via shares, likes, replies or clicks.
• Post engagement. Beyond the numbers of shares and likes, it's highly useful to track who's clicking on an image or video.

Using these metrics to tweak sales campaigns and promotions aimed at visitors likely to stay on your page.

Bottom Line

Social media is an excellent channel to market your brand. By employing the right social media platforms, you increase your sales without spending too much money. The rewards of social media advertising come only after you establish the right person and stay active on social media. However, when you find better ways to communicate with your following, this translates into sales.