How to Use Social Media to Increase Sales

Join a community and create a persona:

Companies needs to spend time with the tool they plan to use, whether It's Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. It’s important to build up a personal account, have conversations, and become acquainted with the norms and expectations of the community. Companies needs to keep in mind that their brand image needs to be a likable and trustworthy within social network communities. It’s effective when companies comment a lot to get people to go to their site. Once you have a lot of traffic and a live feed then the network will consider your company to be a trustworthy resource.

Determine the best way to connect with prospects:

• Facebook is the popular place for a business to drive consumer sales.
• Linkedin is a platform for sales of business to business products or services.
• Twitter can be employed for all kinds of sales.
• Blogs ignite all types of live chats and encourages for live comments.

 

Connect:

Friend, follow, or connect with individuals with profiles that match your clients. The company can conduct a search on each social networking website to find people who are talking about their industry or using their products and services. Companies can drive consumers to their site by encouraging consumers to “retweet” a comment.

Build a relationship:

Companies need to develop relationships more than they need to develop leads. Relationships go a long way and will then create leads. After establishing the relationship, you can tell if the prospect might want or need your product or service.

Engage in a conversation:

As recently discussed in my interview post, Interview with David Prince, VP of Marketing at CQ Fluency, you must be sure to engage your readers. Don’t just post a message with a pitch, because that will not interests your potential consumers. If you really listen to what the prospects are saying online, you can open doors to conversation without having to force it. Encourage consumers to contribute to a conversations and share content, it will increase awareness. Their friends will see it and their friend’s friend and their friend’s friend friend will see it.

Social media is about being social but most importantly it’s about building relationships between consumer and companies. People buy from a brand they live and trust. The questions is, how do companies build relationships and eventually increase sales? The preceded were ways to increase sales. The above are simple strategies that companies can implement to help them closer to the goal of increased sales. It’s not difficult, it’s about building rapport and connection with your desired audience.

Where Social Media Will Take Us

Remember everything I spoke about in my previous post about the power of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms to help develop modern businesses. It’s evident that Facebook creates opportunities for companies. Social media sites continue to increase sales for companies and widen their networks of connections.  The fact that Facebook hit 1 billion users means businesses have more potential users to appeal to. Customers appreciate how easily accessible information can be found online. The benefits of sharing information online are that it’s quick and easy. This generation wants everything at the tip of their fingers. Social networks are becoming a new kind of virtual currency for companies and corporations. You may ask yourself how much social media will evolve over the years? Companies are behind the eight ball when it comes to adapting to the newest technologies and change. Social media provides companies with power and allows them the opportunity to become market leaders and influencers.

Companies should know the following about social media:

1. They know what their consumers are interested in. They know what you’re interested in buying, selling, and seeing. With a simple "like" on Facebook or "follow" on Twitter companies know what their consumers are looking into.


2. Companies know before they know. They do their best to know things before their consumers know. Companies want to know what the customers thinking of. They are sites like Chango with information about what their prospects and consumers are looking at. This benefits the company because it will lure the potential consumer into their services or products.


3. It’s not who you are it’s what you know! The power of networking will benefit you in the long run because the contacts you gain may help you book an interview or meeting with a potential employer. To measure your online influence, visit Klout and login with your social media accounts. The site will generate a score that measures your influence among the media platforms you are active in. It also has a this cool feature, “pulse”, in which you can keep up to date with the world’s top influencers and see where they stand among the rest.

Here you can see how influential Justin Bieber is compared to our President on social media

These many changes continue to shape how companies and well known corporations such as CBS, NBC, and etc., conduct their business. We live in a social media driven world, embracing change is optional but then again so is survival.

Social Media Developing Role in Business World

Companies do well because they invest in their brand image. Marketers want to humanize their brand. Why do you think about 80% of the top 100 fortune companies are using at least one social media platform to engage with their customers (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and YouTube ? The power of social media campaigns is stronger than anyone can imagine. It creates more room for the business to grown and gain prospective clients all across media platforms. Executives believe more that social media engagement leads to increased sales.

Social media plays a large role in the marketing and community functions for a company internally and externally. Companies use social media to communicate to their employees and their customers. All in all, social technologies have improved communications and collaboration within and across enterprises.

Furthermore, social media is used as a recruiting tool. HR departments use social media to connect with job seekers and streamline the application process. While other departments such as sales, operations, and distribution uses social media to track and forecast sales. It’s serious as to how social media is being viewed as a business tool in today’s generation.

The amount of information that social media provides the company is endless. Companies can stay on edge with the latest trends and fashions by maintaining their social sites. They have a direct connection with their customers and prospective customers. Which is why social media is such a asset to companies.

It has become a must have for any business to manage the “big three”, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These platforms are playing a vigorous role in the business world. It changed how we interact and work altogether. The possibilities are endless because social media is opened to a large network of people around the world.  Social media has a developing role in the business world.

Interested in knowing which top companies profit off of their social media outreach? 

The following list is the biggest numbers of impressions in clients:

• Kellogg – 1.89 billion impressions
• Comcast – 1.89 billion impressions
• Dell – 1.9 billion impressions
• Fab.com – 1.95 billion impressions
• American express- 1.97 billion

There are many other companies that produce billions of impressions.

But, which media is mostly utilized? Take a wild guess… YES, FACEBOOK! Companies are advertising through their company pages. Facebook gets $1 billion/quarter in advertising revenue. They use this platform for heavy promotion. The likes create clickthroughs to their page and etc. This will expand their customer base. You can meet the 30 biggest advertises on Facebook here.

Moreover, companies that want to enhance their brand image and strengthen their customer relationship will adapt in social media.  As new technologies are changing the world, companies must accept the change and adapt accordingly. 

Did You Know?

Did you know an estimated of 300 hiring professionals monitor social media to search for job candidates?  I find that intriguing! We spend so much time on it that we sometimes forget to filter what images or language we post online. Are you careful with what you post online? Hiring managers search through social networks thoroughly and examine the types of posts and behaviors you are associated with. Employers usually screen candidates after receiving a completed application. Even though Facebook is said to be a dying network, employers use Facebook the most to screen the candidates. You may not think that employers are taking the time to look you up but they actually are! So, don’t give them a reason to reject your application. The main thing you want to refrain from is lying about your qualifications and having them cross-check your LinkedIn profile to find out it’s a lie! Today, nothing is private! Corporations may be interested in observing your social skills and personality and see if you will fit in with their corporate culture. Your name is your brand! You don’t want to deteriorate your personal brand by associating with negative comments or exaggerating about your skills.

Below you will find another inforgraphic, How Are Employers Screening Job Applicants?” 

As students, especially as graduate students it's imperative that we are cautious as to what we are Tweeting, Face-booking  and so on. We are no longer undergrads in which we were naive and young. Now, we are at a different level and are viewed as professionals.  But we have to remember that personal brand isn't perishable. So whatever we may have posted in the past will not go anywhere. Even if you go a year without activity, social media sites will still remember who you are! Scary? Just a little! But that’s the risk you’re taking when you create all these different accounts. So what we have to ask our self everyday is, “Is this building a personal brand?” if so, then awesome, if not, then refocus your priorities.

 

Is Social Media Taking Over Our Lives?

Is social media taking over our lives? Recently, social media has become one of the most powerful sources for news updates through media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. For instance, companies and organizations are using Facebook Pages to update their employees and prospective employees. Nowadays, social media has a HUGE influence on networking and job searching as well. Companies are utilizing LinkedIn to screen employees for potential job opportunities.

Below you will see an Infogrpahic by Morrison & Forester’s popular Socially Aware Blog that captures American’s true obsession with social media.

Again, is media taking over our lives? Let’s see how much time we really spend on social media…

I thought to share this with you all because I found the statistics to be so fascinating! The numbers actually amaze me in the sense that I thought we spent more hours a month on social media networks. All the time spent interacting digitally hinders the face to face interactions and even creativity! It makes me think about those who are introverted and can network on line from inside their comfort zone but when in person they cannot articulate or communicate as effectively. As social media is relatively new I still feel there will be a impact sooner than we think. 

Just some food for thought!