Social Media ~ 5 min

How to Increase Online Sales through Social Media

Sales Team, Experts in business development, Sociabble
Sales Team Experts in business development

It’s fair to say that the advent of social media networks has meant a drastic shift in sales methods. Potential clients are no longer influenced by hard sales tactics. They prefer a softer approach.

Social selling is exactly that. In their latest article Times Live discusses the benefits and challenges of social media. Additionally, they cover the networks you should be using and how to build your social selling game.

The benefits and challenges of social media networks

Social media has some incredible benefits, especially when it comes to prospect research. Using sites such as LinkedIn to make direct contact with prospects, and others such as Twitter and Facebook to understand pain points is both useful and time-saving.

On the other hand, one of the greatest challenges of social media is the consumer’s power over a brand. They can rate and comment on a brand online with a simple click of a button. In an instant, consumers can leave a glowing or scathing review. Therefore it is important that brands efficiently manage their image across social media platforms.

Define your Audience and Platforms

With the amount of people, companies, and communities, all on social media, it is difficult to stand out. Because of this, it is important to decide exactly who you want to see your posts. By having a target audience, you will be able to create content that caters exactly to what they want, making them more likely to see it and be interested in it.

Once your social media audience is decided, you need to establish which platforms you will be focusing on to reach them. Will you better target your audience on LinkedIn? Twitter? Instagram? Facebook? These social media platforms are different and will cater to different audiences. Figure out which is best for your brand and target group.

Social Media Strategy

Once your audience and platforms have been selected, next comes developing how to reach that audience while using those platforms. What content can you create that will be unique to your brand and create an online persona and voice that is different from other companies? What will your posting schedule be like?

You want your online brand and presence to be separate from others while also being credible and reliable. Exuding a credible reputation online will help draw in your audience, and maybe even other potential clients. Additionally, you want to post often. Make sure your accounts are not going inactive and that you’re keeping your followers engaged and updated on all new information.

The Importance of Visuals

Along with your online presence and posting schedule, the type of content you are posting is very important to your brand. Social media is run by images and videos. To boost post engagement and content views you also need to ensure that you have great visuals to offer.

People scroll quickly through their newsfeeds. You need to have eye-catching and attractive images, videos, graphics, etc. to make sure people stop for your brand. Also, attractive visuals make content more shareable. Additionally, you don’t have to be the only person posting your photos. Social media influencers are a huge part of today’s online society. You can find someone with strong social networks to help promote your product.

These influencers can not only bring lots of exposure, but also potentially new clients.

Over 70 percent of consumers trust social influencers, brands must use these platforms and the talent that create content in order to increase visibility, which, in turn, drives sales.Forbes

Be the Complete Package

Although you are using social media networks to increase sales you need to ensure your networks offer more than just product descriptions and demos.

In addition to showcasing what you sell, it is important to establish trust and demonstrate your expertise within your industry.

To demonstrate your expertise focus on generating content that is relevant to your industry, but may not feature your own product. To build trust look into employee advocacy or social selling programs which are designed to create brand ambassadors out of your employees.

Additionally, studies have shown that people are more likely to trust individuals over brands. So who better to represent your brand than the people who know it best, and can truly convey its benefits while directly connecting with your target audience?

The Bottom Line

Embracing social media is a great way to build your social selling game. Using online networks allows you to listen to what people are saying about your product.

This lets you improve your products, your social media strategies, and whatever else they have opinions on.

It also leads to building relationships and trust with your customers, while growing your followers and your profits. For more about using social networks to increase sales read the complete Times Live article here.

About Sociabble

Sociabble is the leading provider of social selling software. Our unique platform organizes brand, third-party, and user-generated content onto themed channels. Users then share on social media and administrators can track subsequent traffic and lead generation.

Available natively for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, Sociabble features include :

  • Gamification,
  • Newsletters,
  • Calls-to-action,
  • Advanced analytics,
  • Lead tracking,
  • Individual performance dashboards,
  • And a lot of others features…

The platform also integrates with a number of CRM, content curation, listening and retargeting tools, including Office 365, Salesforce, and RadiumOne.

Used in over 60 countries, Sociabble’s client base includes companies from multiple sectors including; energy, tech and communications, finance, government, education, and media.

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