As some of you may know, most social media platform like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter offer you the ability to advertise right on each medium. You could set up a Facebook advertisement to target people’s specific interests in geographical areas. For example, if you run a sports store and want to promote it via Facebook, you could target the interest of various sports and pick where you wish these ads to run. Or, just place a page on your Facebook with a unique offer to entice consumers to buy your product via the internet. Send them to a landing page to purchase and BAM it’s that simple. Maybe your target audiences is a certain type of job position, well then try using LinkedIn, which can target these specific positions in different industries. The cost of these can either go by CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-thousand). The difference between these options depends on your goal of the campaign (branding or sales). You could also promote different tweets on twitter to reach a wider group of users. This helps get your product name in front of more users and tends to give them a link back to your product or service. If a brand sends out a promoted tweet but it is not shared organically, Twitter will discontinue the use of the promoted tweet.
The tactics above are the same ones used for years in the old media. So how do you enhance these efforts to reach more people and increase more sales? The key is having a communication with your audience. Over time your business will build up a following as long as you promote your social medias and keep a constant connection to your audience. Using these social media platforms weekly, or even better, daily can help keep your company top of your customers' minds. My best example of this is something that happened to me. I liked a local restaurant on Facebook months ago. They never really posted anything on it to begin with and only had a Facebook because everybody was doing it. But then over time they started posting daily on their wall which would come up in my newsfeed. The first time I saw it, I immediately remembered them and made a trip to that restaurant that night. They offered a special that I couldn’t pass up and they brought their existence back to the top of my mind. Since then I have frequently stopped by for a meal due to the unique offers they put up. It’s like virtual couponing except you can do it within seconds. It’s an easy tactic and can be done for many different businesses.
Let’s keep looking deeper. How do you create the best product? Ask the people that are going to be using it. They will know exactly what they want. Like I said before, you need to keep a solid communication link between your audience and your brand. Any business can just pump out news releases and advertisements but in this day in age, it’s the businesses that listen who succeed. So start an open debate about your product, ask your costumers what they would like to see and I promise the more you listen the more you will get. Lays potato chips and Dunkin Donuts have both run promotions like these to ask their customers to create their next product. The buzz around their products created additional sales and David Tyler, Manager of Interactive and Relationship Marketing for Dunkin Donuts, said they received “a healthy response in sales during the promotion period.” Before social media, companies never really had a great way to easily communicate with their customers. Maybe a loyal customer would do a survey here and there, but now social media offers you the tool to create new and improved ideas for your products or services. So don’t be afraid, just ask them!
If you already have a sales team in place, then encourage your sales team to use social media to help promote your product. Facebook and LinkedIn give you the opportunity to reach out to people that may be interested in your product. Don’t be afraid to bug your friends, because a recent article by Forbes claims that “78% Of Salespeople Using Social Media Outsell Their Peers.” So get your sales team up to the 21st century.
Social media is not a simple thing to conquer. But using some of the tips above can sure help. Even more simple things like paying attention to who is following you or who likes your page can give you a better insight to your consumer base to help target them better in outbound marketing efforts (television, radio, print, billboard, etc.). Try posting videos on YouTube and link your website in the description. These videos can give a more in-depth look at your product and act as your very own sales person. You can even provide how-to videos on other subjects relevant to your industry. Even just taking pictures of your products and services can help stir an interest. Using art and creativity to place these images on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram will encourage people to share your product or service with others. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words. Speaking of a thousand words, I have just crossed that line and will let your mind ponder the endless amount of opportunities for using social media.
Photo Credit: TAUser via wikimedia
For years and years marketing was simple for business owners; print, television, radio, billboard, yellow pages, and direct mail ruled the world. Any demographic you wished to target could easily be segmented through these 4 advertising mediums with a little analysis of your target market. But that was the old days and now social media has started to change the way of thinking for many business owners. The problem is that the average business owner doesn’t know how to use social media to improve their profits. The amount of ways to increase sales using Social Media is almost endless. It just depends on the industry that you are in. Other than the amount of time needed to put into social media and the ability to pay for advertising, this advertising medium is the only one of seven that offers free platforms to advertise, brand and build your business. So let’s take a look at how to use social media.
Hopefully by now you have already created your social media profiles. First let’s take a look at the simple ways to generate extra revenue and then we will try to get a little more in-depth.
