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Make Social Media Profitable For Your Business

6 min read
July 14, 2016

profitable_social

CMO to CFO to CEO to entry-level clerk – everyone has heard something similar to this refrain: “Social media is great and all, but how is that going to make me money?”

Social media gives you the opportunity to be your own publisher and control the message about your brand. When people Google your business, more often than not your social media pages will show up on Page 1. So when you consider that you can regularly send content to your followers where they’re already spending time, social media can be more valuable than your website.

So, how do you make social media profitable for your business? Let us show you the ways…

Direct Sales

Depending on your line of business, every social media network except Snapchat has link capability so you can directly promote sales of your product to your followers and (hopefully if your content is good enough) your followers’ followers.

The key is that you can’t push sales down your audience’s throat 24/7. Follow these rules for a balanced social media presence:

  • 30% of your posts should be your own blog posts, videos or slides
  • 60% should be retweets, shares, or links to outside content
  • 10% of your posts should be sales messaging with a direct call to action

That ratio might shock some marketers, but it serves as a reminder that you need to first and foremost add value through your social media.

Social Media Influencers

Product placement with influencers on Instagram might be one of the most valuable marketing tools out there. Search through hashtags relevant to your industry and find the people who have the biggest followings. Reach out via direct message with a photo of your product and ask if they’d be willing to post about something you sent them for free.

If you have a budget, consider reaching out to bigger influencers and celebrities to have them post photos with your product on social media. It might not be free, but the power celebrities have to create instant trust and demand for your products is tremendous.

Email Capture

Building your social media audience is smart and effective, but as the saying goes, be wary of building on rented land. Those people that went all-in on Google+ probably aren’t getting much out of that audience. Drive your followers to a targeted landing page on your website with an incentive to join your mailing list. Capturing email addresses of your social media followers is a good way of building up your list of potential leads, and providing more fuel for your sales and marketing teams.

Employee Recruitment

Used to paying for those job posts on employment website engines? Use your social media channels to promote your big job openings. Ideally your employees are following your social accounts and will gladly share job openings so their friends and family see the opportunities — this is your most effective means of filling a new or existing position.

It’s also important to use your social media channels as a recruiting tool to show off your office culture and employees. Battling against the shop down the street for top talent? Post photos of the office ping-pong table, staff retreat to the mountains or that new Escalade you bought your social media director to your Instagram account, and suddenly you might look like the place to be.

Prospect Outreach

Targeting individuals and businesses on social media can be a great way to learn more about your prospects and then reach out to them directly in a more efficient and less invasive manner to drive sales leads.

LinkedIn has become a vital B2B marketing tool, for sales people contacting leads and also brands reaching out to potential partners and clients. Being able to follow people or brands on social media gives you the insight — and connection — you need to fuel your sales pitch.

Twitter can also be a valuable sales tool for prospecting. Looking to introduce yourself to a potential new partner? Follow them on Twitter, retweet their content with compliments, ask them professional questions tied to their content — and then reach out with a direct message asking for a conversation.

Paid Social Media Advertising

Organic reach on Facebook has plummeted to in some cases 5% (down about 10% in the last year), and algorithms on Twitter and Instagram mean that all of your content won’t be seen by your entire audiences there either.

The good news is social media advertising is extremely cost effective, and the targeting capabilities mean that it should be a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy. Don’t know where to start?

Download our beginner’s guide to advertising on Facebook and Instagram

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