Thanks to the increased popularity of social media sites amongst all age groups, it’s a great place to promote your business, develop your brand, and increase your profits. However, setting up your profiles and participating infrequently isn’t going to get you anywhere in terms of attracting customers and making sales. To generate profit through social media, your business needs to have an active presence.
A concern you might have about maintaining a high activity level on your social media sites is annoying your audience. However, the best way to gain attention on social media is through frequency. If people do unfollow you for posting too much, they probably weren’t your target audience anyway and wouldn’t have bought from you. The benefits you’ll gain by posting frequently far outweigh the few followers you might lose.
What Should You Post?
You should post content that sets you apart as an expert in your field. Post information based on what you know and the products or services that you provide. Informative tips and advice are good ways to go, like how-tos, what not to do, things you must know, and more. For example, if your business is based on organic foods, you can post the latest research, how to shop for organic food, etc.
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When you post your content, don’t do it the same way every time. People will get bored of walls of text or constant videos. Instead, mix it up with videos, photos, quotes, and blogs. You can also post content from another expert in your field, and by giving them credit, you might gain some of their followers.
While it’s tempting to post links to your products or website every time, don’t do it. Only about 20% of your content should be promotional. The rest should be informational-based. As your followers grow, you can gradually increase the promotional content, but you’ll gain more followers with informative content.
Whatever you post, make sure it’s coming from your tone of voice, if your’s is the voice of the business. You don’t want to confuse followers by having a different persona with every post.
Now that you know when and what to post, here’s how it’ll help you increase your revenue.
Improve Brand Awareness
Maintaining a high level of activity on social media improves your brand awareness and recognition. This makes it a great tool for small and medium-sized businesses, especially. People won’t know that they should buy your products if they’ve never heard of you, and social media can help spread the word about your company. Being active on social media will help make you a familiar face in your industry and create awareness about your product, which will help you gain new customers and increase revenue.
Generate Leads
A majority of consumers rely on social media to direct their purchasing decisions. Being on social media at the same time as your potential customers puts you front and center during the research stage of the sales cycle. Utilize your social media pages to guide potential customers to your website. Your profile and page activity will increase their interest so they’ll head to your website to learn more about what you have to offer.
Build Credibility
People don’t like buying from someone they aren’t familiar with or don’t trust. Your social media pages are the perfect place to build that trust needed to turn prospects into paying customers. By sharing the type of content we talked about earlier – informative, useful, and relevant – you’ll establish yourself as a trusted leader in the industry and remove any of the uncertainty potential customers might have.
Create Engagement
Social media activity is an excellent way to harbor positive emotions towards your brand. Conversing with your audience, sharing stories, promoting deals, asking questions, and being helpful are all ways to help your audience feel closer to you and your business. Positive interaction like this can turn prospects into customers and one-time customers into loyal consumers.
Deliver Customer Service
Good customer service is critical to any business, and social media is a great way to go above and beyond with your customer service. You can have real-time access to customer complaints or problems so you can offer solutions nearly immediately. By responding to both positive and negative reviews and comments, other people will see how dedicated you are to your customer’s needs and be more willing to purchase from you.
If you aren’t using social media on a regular basis, you could be doing a disservice to your company. Activity on your social media pages promotes relationships and awareness. Your business will be at the front of people’s minds when it comes time to make a purchase, and your participation on your social media platforms can make a big difference in your revenue.