Increase Sales with Social Media
For some, social media may be for fame or more specifically infamy. Some people are just getting on social media now. There are businesses that turned to social media earlier than others and experienced greatly increased sales. There are some that had been apprehensive to use social media for their business but are getting on now and utilizing it more and more. It doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. There is no other way to get in front of as many people for the respective costs.
5 things to keep in mind that will help you increase sales with social media
- Branding
- Engagement
- Visual marketing
- Consistency
- Tools
Branding
Branding is one that is easily addressed yet many people overlook this detail. If you are setting up your social accounts or are taking an audit of them, all of your accounts should have your logo along with the same look and feel. A visitor to your website or your Twitter account should instantly know that it is indeed the same business. Using the same logo, tagline, imagery and colors is a good place to start. Branding is so iconic that there is a game where you can identify company logo’s. How many companies can you think of that you know what types of products they have not only by their name but by their brand? Large corporations have rules about their logo including sizes, placement and colors. Even if you have a small business you should try to keep it as consistent as possible.
Engagement
Engagement is one that I can’t stress enough. People like to know there is a real person on the other end of the keyboard. The more “real” interaction or engagement you can have with followers/customers the better their experience will be.
Many people have automatic messages go out when they have a new follower on Twitter. Some of them are a simple, “thank you for following me”. While others are more along the lines of a dissertation or full blown advertisement. This is a bit of a sticky subject. My research shows that the majority of people do not like these auto-messages and want to have a real interaction. As much as you can, sending a more personalized or relevant direct message (not spam) could go a long way. If people are taking the time to follow you or your brand you may want to pay a bit of attention to them. Think of it in the same way as if you were walking into a store. Do you prefer if someone were to say hello to you or nothing at all?
Visual Marketing
Visual marketing is the same as saying a picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures can convey information so quickly and easily. However, you want to ensure you are conveying the appropriate message. Ideally images that are visually stimulating or interesting for people to stop and take notice of it.
Each social channel is a little different. Images can and should be used a little differently across the three major channels. As a side note, more businesses are using Snapchat and it is quite different than the other platforms. Just because your image is displayed for 10 seconds or less doesn’t mean that people won’t take a screenshot and keep it around. Don’t put anything on here that you don’t want others to see! In spite of the quick nature of Snapchat you may be able to grab someones attention who wants to learn more about your products/services.
Instagram-Think of it as a photo album, your post leads with the photo. In an Instagram post there are no hyperlinks. The only link is the one in your bio. Since there are no links in the message, all you really have is a photo. Photos and videos work very well on this platform.
Twitter has the limitation of 140 characters in a post. If you need more you can get creative by adding text to the image you are posting. People can easily click on a Twitter link and go to your site.
With FaceBook, you get a photo and an ample amount of text but that doesn’t mean everyone will sit there and read 5 paragraphs of information. Don’t abuse the possible length of a post. Ideally, you will pique someone’s interest with your photo and they will go to your website.
If you are using more than one platform it does help to have as similar a feel on the accounts so people know instantly and recognize your style. In some cases, if you are focused on different targets on the different channels than you want to deliberately make your look and imagery appealing to that group. Posting pictures of your products being used differently, in different colors or with different applications could capture someone’s attention. You can also do contests and have people that already have your product post pictures of themselves with it.
Consistency
Why would consistency be important? If you are posting once a week to social media how will anyone ever see your posts? Ideally, you will develop a following on social media and people will look forward to your posts. In order to build that following you should be posting consistently. All channels have different posting guidelines. For Facebook 1-2 times a day and for Instagram 1 time a day is good. There is a lot of conflicting information out there about the number of times to post to Twitter a day. With the way information is consumed on Twitter you can post multiple times a day. We recommend posting a minimum of 5 times a day on Twitter. This many posts may seem like a lot but you want to have as much exposure to an audience as you can.
Toolbox
Which tools are you using? The good news is that there are tons of tools out there for you to use to do all of this posting. The bad news is that you may spend a lot of your time learning how to use these tools. Make a list of the things that you don’t want to constantly repeat with social media. Give those activities that you would rather skip a dollar amount. This may help you to determine what class of product you want to use or to find someone else to manage your social media for you. This solution can get you to your goals quicker. Below are some of my favorites.
Social Media Management
Marketing Automation
CRM
In conclusion, all of these tips will convey your brand along with your products and services clearly to your prospects ideally garnering you more business.