Selling on Social Media Without Driving People Away

5 Social Media Selling Tips & Warnings

Social media is one of the best marketing tools out there: you can grow and reach a large audience with content and ads, and people who like and/or follow you are your fans, so they're already your target group.Article Source

However, people can be resistant to selling on these platforms. They see sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as places to share content and interact with friends, families-and nowadays, brands.

You really have to approach this the right way or you could alienate your audience, causing them to unfollow or unlike you because they expect a two-way conversation and engaging content, not to be marketed to.

It's also important to clarify that social selling doesn't mean advertising your product or service online for people to buy.

Social selling means you're using social media to connect with sales prospects and nurture relationships to hopefully convert them into customers.

For example, I recently did a Tea Time Tip about things that you need to consider before you start building your website. People could comment and asking questions in real time, and the Facebook Live had a lot of information about hiring a professional web development company.

So, I wasn't simply talking at people to hire us for their website-building needs; I was sharing pertinent information and nurturing those leads who might be looking for a company to help them out.

Now that we've defined social selling, let's discuss what you can do to increase your odds of success:

1. Think relationships, not dollar signs.

Make sure you're posting relevant, non-sales content. You want to become an expert resource in your industry, so focus on adding value to your users' feeds.

According to a study performed by LinkedIn, buyers who are active on social media welcome input from industry experts. In addition, 76% of buyers are ready to have a conversation with potential providers.

Get to know your potential customers by asking them engaging questions, answering their questions in a timely manner and responding to comments. The more trust and loyalty you build, the better your odds of converting a follower into a paying customer.

Read: The Power of Social Media Storytelling

Once upon a time your strategy was probably largely focused on sharing links to third-party content with your audience. Well, those days are over, and if you want to stand out in the crowded and noisy online environment, you need to focus on content marketing storytelling.

2. Take the time to build out your accounts.

Make sure that your bio and profile are filled out on all the platforms you want to use for social selling. You should include your website URL, About Us, phone number and any other relevant contact info.

It can also help to pin relevant posts, make sure your branding stands out and have high-quality images to attract followers' attention. Again, this builds trust and loyalty, making people feel more comfortable and secure doing business with you.

See how one of our clients, A Family Law Firm, has taken the time to not only fill out their contact info, but also the "Our Story" section on Facebook.

3. Choose your messaging wisely.

What works on one platform may not work on another. Where do your potential clients hang out? Where do they talk business, or go for restaurant recommendations? Generally:

* LinkedIn is more business-focused, so people are more comfortable with marketing messaging there.

* Twitter has a great search function, so you can more easily connect with prospects, and find relevant topics.

* Facebook has many communities that you can join and network in (remember, don't be pushy!)

* Instagram and Pinterest is for visuals, not long content pieces.

By tailoring your messaging for each platform, you'll be more likely to attract the right kind of customer.

4. Let user-generated content sell for you.

You don't have to do all the work of social selling alone! There are so many ways to use user-generated content (UGC) to your advantage, including:

* Contests and giveaways that encourage followers to share your content, hashtags and/or messaging.

* Ratings or reviews for your product or service

* Testimonials

For example, J.Crew posts user ratings and reviews on their website, so when they post a dress or shirt on their social media account and someone clicks on through, they see other people's votes of confidence.

Not only does user-generated content help you, but it helps your customers. Almost 80 percent of people say that UGC drives their purchasing decisions. It's a win-win situation!

5. Try, test and try again.

Every business owner should be tracking and measuring their efforts, whether it's a digital Newsletter push or a Google AdWords campaign. Look at your data and stats to determine what's working and what isn't.

Maybe people are being referred to a page on your website from your Facebook post, but they're only spending a few seconds on it.

You need to look at why that is: is your messaging unclear? Boring? Is there a broken link? By tracking your visitors' paths, you can see where you need to take a closer look.

Google Analytics is a free tool you can use to measure your website statistics, and there are also paid tools out there that can help you break down and understand your data.

The more you test and tighten your social media selling attempts, the better your ROI will be (and the happier your followers will be).

While social selling is different than traditional methods, it's still about building relationships and credibility. Focus on the person behind the platform, not on converting them into a sale or guiding them down a marketing funnel. Take the time to build connections and you'll create a community of prospects who will welcome hearing from you.


Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.

As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way.

Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and download your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results"


P.S. I would like to hear from you! Please put a comment below about this post, your opinion or suggestion might be valuable to others! I promise to answer every question you may have or a discussion you might want to start!

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Thank you for your time and participation!

5 Proven Ways to Make Money on Social Media (No Product Needed)

3 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2020

Social media marketing is forecasted to grow rapidly, estimated to more than double in market size from 2018 to the year 2023.
Most markets do NOT double in size within five years. This growth rate is a strong indication that social media marketing is not going anywhere.
However, it is going to morph with the times. If you are a small to medium-sized business, you need to know about any social media marketing predictions, so that you can keep ahead of the already complex social media marketing game.
Therefore, to keep your social media marketing methods effective into 2020—read on and find out how social media marketing is predicted to change.

1. Organic Video Content Goes Big

Advertising prices are rising across platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Thanks to this, it is likely that many marketers will utilize the production of video content for the promotion of their brands.
According to statistics, video content is the content type with the highest level of engagement. 83% of marketers believe it is growing in importance, and 53% of consumers engaging with a brand after watching video content from them.
What’s more, video content offers the ultimate ‘pause scroll’ advantage. Thanks to its engaging format, consumers are likely to stop scrolling when a video starts playing within their feed. Provided that it is attention-drawing from start.
This poses large potential gains on social media, where everyone is vying for the users’ time and attention.

2. Businesses Will Take Advantage of Stories

Social media stories and live video have exploded in popularity. Fed up with staged and stilted content from influencers and brands alike, users are looking increasingly for content that is real, raw, and unfiltered.
While many businesses have held back from posting stories, for fear that it will be unprofessional, 2020 is likely to be the year when businesses access the full potential of stories and give their audience more behind-the-scenes and authentic content.
Incidentally, Joseph Kenney, the president of 316 Strategy Group, often refers to the brilliance of Snap Spectacles which were launched in September of 2016. Spectacles are high-tech sunglasses which carry a tiny camera with a 115-degree field of vision plus a microphone and can be used to create authentic stories and live video via the Snapcat app. Although still in use, they didn’t catch on. Kenney says innovations like these foretell that the future will hold more live video and stories, not only from consumers but from brands as well. Kenney encourages businesses of all sizes to give consumers a behind the scenes look into your brand or business. It’s one of the easiest and most often overlooked ways of building trust with the consumer.

3. Social Media Predictions That Quality Content Will Become Even More Key

With consumers increasingly tiring of typical marketing content and overtly self-promotional advertising—the stage is set to see social media marketing relying more and more on quality content.
Quality content has always been king. However, with increasing competition on platforms, 2020 is likely to see an even more heightened need for social media marketing content that engages users and which speaks to their tastes, interests, and needs.

Are You Ready for 2020?

Do you feel ready for 2020? The advice from these social media marketing predictions will go a long way to preparing you for the new year in social media marketing and what it will bring.
If you are in need of professional social media marketing services to keep up with this ever-evolving (and crucial) form of marketing—you can call on us.
We are avid followers of changes in social media. Our president, Joseph Kenney, has spoken on social media across the country, throwing to light developments in the space and what is to come.
We are the proud leader for social media in the Omaha, Des Moines, and Nashville markets. So, do your marketing strategy a favor, and browse our services today.

https://www.articlecity.com/blog/3-social-media-marketing-predictions-for-2020/

Which Is Better for Building Your Small Business: Pinterest or Instagram?

Discover which platform your ideal users prefer and how to you know if it's right for growing your business

Visual aggregator platforms for social media marketing really boil down to the two majors: Facebook-owned Instagram and Pinterest.

Both have their own way of presenting images and allowing users to compile images they like but they also have limitations that may push your ideal users towards the other option.

Growing your business with Instagram is a great idea but don't count Pinterest out.

The main appeal of Instagram is the images are supposed to be unique and even candid. Overly corporate posts seldom do well, and users don't want to see traditional advertising methods employed.

Pinterest allows users to curate images from anywhere online and on the platform.

The images are often very polished and professional. Traditional advertising methods are also seen a lot more on this platform such as how-tos and DIY posts.

Demographics will play a big role in your decision. Is your product or service more appropriate to women?

If so then Pinterest is for you. The most recent stats show within Pinterest user demographics that women make up over 70% of Pinterest users.

Pinterest also draws in a slightly older, domestic demographic.

What about services that are better promoted through a discussion? Are you a speaker who wants to show off a recent speaking engagement and create a dialogue around your expertise?

These make you an ideal candidate for using Instagram to promote your small business.

Remember this audience is a fair split between men and women and Western vs. International users. They like to see photos and videos of what you do or sell in action and they like to engage the poster if possible through the comments section.

The best business Instagram accounts show off your core brand identity.

Are you hoping to sell items through a post that links back to the page on your site with that product or service?

Instagram only allows one place a user can click through from. With IG you get one link in your profile bio. Whereas with Pinterest, you can link from the actual post like a traditional ad.

The big difference is how you intend to start your customer experience.

If they start with you at a brand level and you intend to use the entire account to create the first step in your conversion, Instagram is great. For anything where the user starts at the actual post level, Pinterest is going to be better for you.

It's something you can plan for if you haven't already.

Look at your ideal client as you defined them and evaluate the demographic information in your analytics. If you deal locally or even nationally to women and you're selling a product, then Pinterest is obviously the best option.

If your online marketing is about building a brand around your expertise and location isn't as important nor gender then you would be better served by Instagram.

If you can't nail down which would serve you better you can always try both!

Having the capacity to create content suitable to both platforms and manage both profiles is great.

If you do elect to use both a good rule of thumb is: Pinterest for images of what you're offering and Instagram for images of you creating those images.

If you make a Top 10 list with a polished image you can use that on Instagram as well but get lots of video and images of you creating the image that goes with that list and post those to Instagram!

Once you see better traction on one you can then focus your efforts on it.

Pinterest is a fantastic tool for many businesses but if your business is your brand and you're building your online reputation, Instagram is going to be a better option.

Vary your content but remember when users do follow you, they do so for a reason so don't stray from your core brand identity.

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.

If you are new to Social Media and online marketing or find it overwhelming and confusing, my monthly group coaching program, AMPLIFY! Business Academy http://amplifybusinessacademy.com/ is a perfect way for you to incrementally learn the best strategies and tactics to help you grow your business online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10008200

Why Affiliate Marketing Is the Best Way to Start an Online Business

If you've educated yourself enough with the information available to us via the internet, then you should have realized by now that your pursuit of a career in the corporate ladder is futile at best. Basically, the idea is to start as an intern, then a regular employee, then move up to a supervisory and/or managerial position and finally up to the executive levels of the corporate business that you're in. Personally, I have nothing against this kind of aspiration as I too once dreamt of such things myself; however, the toll it takes to get to EXACTLY where you want to be could at least take 30 years; 20 if you're exceptionally good at it.

The problem is we all can't be exceptional and aside from the fierce competition in play, you'll also have to face the insurmountable amount of bureaucracy, racism, favoritism, gender inequalities and other negative things in order to literally move up the ladder. The trade-off is not an ideal payoff even from an optimistically assessed standpoint. Therefore I would advocate that you start your own business and the cheapest way to do it is by building an affiliate marketing blog or website.

Defining Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an easy income-generating business method where you take the role of the promoter and help the manufacturers and sellers connect with the end consumers. It should be clear that whether you take a passive or active role in this business, you are by no means the originator or creator of the products/services you promote. But you will get a small portion of the sales as compensation nevertheless. It's basically a 3-way relationship between you, the seller and the customer.

What Affiliate Marketing is NOT

If you get an unsolicited email inviting you to join an affiliate network and it's asking for an upfront payment, then you definitely have to scrutinize them and find out whether or not they're scam or legit. Go to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and find out about the company, if you can't find any, then go to affiliate marketing forums and discussion boards. They would know a lot about these scam sites as news spreads fast in social media and forums. Another thing to look for is if these people are selling you unrelated products or something that you will never be able to use, like the $350 "Secrets to Affiliate Marketing Success" book or some other catchy titles; although a few are genuine but they don't charge you that high.

The truth is you can learn basic affiliate marketing from top ranking websites and blogs. In fact, they can teach you more useful information than all those specialized books and DVDs that other people are selling. Becoming an affiliate is free when you sign up to affiliate marketing programs and the only thing that will really cost you money is web hosting, which is around $70 - $100 a year for your affiliate marketing blog. A few other expenses may include a unique website/blog logo (optional), your electric bill; hire a blog writer (optional because you can write the blogs yourself) and probably paid advertising to promote your website or blog (optional).

Types of Affiliate Marketing

What's interesting about affiliate marketing is that you can earn commissions in more ways than most people think. Allow me to explain the 3 different types of affiliate marketing and how you can earn through them.

1. Unattached Affiliate Marketing - This type of affiliate marketing will not require too much work from you, you don't even have to setup an affiliate marketing blog like those for Amazon Affiliate Programs. This is more like a PPC marketing (pay-per-click) where you just show affiliate ads on sites that allow this kind of marketing and then get a commission for each click through that web users make on the ads.

2. Related Affiliate Marketing - This type of marketing is where you are required to have some level of involvement and this is where you create an affiliate marketing blog or website and always show affiliate links on almost all of your website/blog pages. You also earn a commission for each time a web user clicks through the affiliate links.

3. Involved Affiliate Marketing - This kind of marketing may require you to actually use the products/services before you write a review about them and you should be able to write a more comprehensive and honest reviews.

You can choose from these 3 types of affiliate marketing methods, but most affiliate marketing programs uses the Type 2 affiliate marketing, which has some level of involvement and online presence from your end.

Putting the Cogs and Wheels Together

Now that you have an idea of what affiliate marketing is all about and what its common pitfalls are, you are ready to start your journey to financial freedom and a wealthy lifestyle! Affiliate marketing is just like any other type of business and you'll have to plan a strategy months or even years ahead before you begin, so I will give you the basic strategy of how to become an affiliate marketer, signing up for affiliate programs, setting up your affiliate marketing blog and all the other important details about it.

Steps to become an affiliate marketer:

1. Decide what niche topic you want to use for your blog or website. It's better to write reviews or general information about products/services that you're passionate about, because you will write better articles for them compared to those that you don't like. For instance, if you're mad about crochet or kids bicycles, then that is the niche you should pick for your blog! Affiliate programs have a huge inventory of items for sale and they do include crochets and bicycles for a fact. If you're more of the business-minded individual and you think you can write just about on anything, then by all means pick the niche that's most profitable among the lot.

2. Create your website and purchase a cheap but reliable web hosting. You don't need a web designer to build a website or a blog. You can use WordPress, Weebly, Web.com, Blogger, eHost and others to do that. Using their user-friendly "click & drag" features you can create your blog/website in 5 - 10 minutes!

3. Learn basic SEO and use it on your blog or website. Search engine optimization or SEO is a very good marketing strategy to allow your website to be known throughout the entire internet or at least the majority of it. If your website is easier to find in search engines, then it is more convenient for people to visit it, and more visitors means more money for you.

4. Learn social media marketing to extend your presence online. In reality social media marketing or SMM is also a part of the grand scheme of SEO and without it, your SEO campaign would not be as successful as you'd expect it to be. There are literally billions of people hanging around the web on a daily basis and much of them are in social media sites. It would be a logical choice to get visitors there for your website and increase your income potential.

5. Learn about paid advertising and consider it deeply on whether you need to use it or not. Paid ads help because they target the right kind of people who are already looking for products that you promote. Meaning there is a good chance that they will buy. Wouldn't you want them to buy products through your affiliate links? I would!

6. Start filling up your website with content. In case you plan to write boring and unimpressive blogs and articles, then I'd advise you to no longer continue in your pursuit of creating an affiliate marketing blog, because I promise you people will not want to read your blogs or visit your site. Write articles that will impress you first. This will let you know whether or not people will want to read about what you have to say. If you can find an extremely critical person to judge your writing, then that would be better as it will help you greatly improve on your writing style. Reader engagement is absolute in affiliate marketing. It will determine your income capacity, so do your best in writing content for your site above all else.

How you earn in affiliate marketing:

• The manufacturer/seller signs a partnership deal with the affiliate network or program and in turn, when you sign up with the affiliate network as an affiliate, the partner affiliate network will give you a small percentage share on every item you helped sold.

• You'll need to embed or display affiliate links on your website or affiliate marketing blog about the products you're promoting. The purpose of these links is to guide your blog readers to the seller's webpage (which is usually in the affiliate network's site) so that they can make purchases of the items they like.

• The percentage commission on each sale range from 1% - 10% (some give more than 10% but rarely) and this is how you generate income. For example, a web user happens by your blog about coffee machines and he/she read your blog review or informative article. The reader was impressed by your blog and decided to click on the affiliate link, then make a purchase of 1 coffee machine worth $350. If the affiliate network allowed 7% of that amount to be your commission, therefore your income for that sale alone will be $24.50.

• You may notice that $24.50 is a small amount and not enough to convince you to become an affiliate; however, if you were able to bring 10,000 visitors to your blog in the span of 30 days and about 4,382 people bought coffee machines for themselves, then your income for that particular month should be $107,359! If you're able to bring as much visitors to your website on a regular basis, then you can bet that your monthly income should be around these numbers. Now you can appreciate the value that SEO and SMM can do for your affiliate marketing business.

How Much can you Make?

The straight answer to this question is... there is NO LIMIT to how much you can earn. The website called Pickmyshaver.com around October or November 2013 and then 8 months later its regular monthly income became $8,446! If it had continued as is it would earn over $50,000 a month by now, except that it was purchased in Flippa by an anonymous buyer for $60,100 around June 2014. That's just 1 website and I'm pretty sure on your best day you can manage 2 - 3 sites for affiliate marketing.

At this point I will let you use your imagination as to how much you can earn; or is it how hard you desire to earn. It's entirely up to you. I am confident that this article should help you get started in creating your own affiliate marketing blog and earn not just money, but your freedom from the everyday worries of life. Once you start earning over $8,000 a month, then you can buy more time to spend it with the people that matters to you most - your family. I wish you all the best and don't forget to drop a comment below and tell me how affiliate marketing has changed your life like it has changed mine.

Kit has been a student journalist since she was in junior high and while she took up an associate's degree in computer science back in college, she was still active in her writing career. After many years working in several corporate offices, she found freelance online jobs [http://davedeib.com] on different websites back in January 2011 and she has been doing this ever since. Today she has made her own voice on the web by helping business owners setup their blogs and engage customers. Kit is also an affiliate marketer and she plans to share her knowledge and experience with others as well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9219185

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How Social Media Data Can Boost Your Sales

Social media data is one of the richest sources of information available to modern marketers, influencers, website operators and data scientists. One of the challenges, though, is finding the right way for your operation to harness that power. Let’s take a look at how social media data can boost your sales.Article Source

The Raw Data in Social Media

There are plenty of ways to deploy data analysis tools to both mine data and derive insights from it. These include looking at data points like:

• Shares and likes
• Mentions
• Hashtags
• Click-thrus to URLs
• Addition and loss of followers
• Demographic groups
• Influencer networks

It’s important to not obsess about the vanity metrics, though. All the followers in the world don’t mean much if they’re not translating into sales. For example, tracking codes need to be embedded with URLs to verify that social media followers are moving into the marketing funnel. By using embedded referral codes specifically designed for your social media presence, you can keep tabs on whether followers are converting.

Finding useful sources of data is also important. There are plenty of free options, such as pulling marketing data from:

• Facebook Insights
• Google Analytics
• Twitter Analytics
• LinkedIn Analytics

Some social media companies, such as Instagram, also offer paid access to their data. In many cases, however, it’s possible to pull data using other solutions, such as web scrapers.

If your setup is properly configured, you should be able to track engagement as it moves through your marketing funnel. For example, your Twitter-specific referral code will show up in both Twitter Analytics and Google Analytics, making it easier to tie user behavior to particular campaigns.

Developing Insights from Social Media Data

The best pool of information means nothing if you can’t use data analysis tools to derive insights from it. Foremost, you need to know what goals your business is shooting for. You can make a checklist that covers things like:

• Acquiring new customers
• Developing a more widely recognized brand
• Making decisions based on social media data
• Responding better to customer concerns
• Fostering a superior customer experience

Let’s say your business wants to focus on social media as a way to quickly identify customer complaints. One great thing about social media is that folks quitting your brand might not call your customer support hotline to express their discontent, but you can bet they’ll complain to their friends online about your company’s products and services.

One way companies take advantage of this is sentiment analysis. This is a data-driven decision-making tool that focuses on gathering data regarding positive, negative and neutral statements that people make about companies online. By regularly scanning social media, these firms are able to “read the room” at a global scale. Instead of letting customer anger fester out of sight, sentiment analysis allows companies to get out in front of problems.

There is also plenty of information hiding in the networks that folks form on social media. Marketing data can be developed by creating network maps of their social associations. For example, a retailer that wants to build an influencer campaign on Instagram wants to know which users are going to spread ideas the fastest. They can then supply those Instagram influencers with:

• Early access to product details
• Marketing and brand materials
• Product demos and samples
• Immediate access to top-tier customer and technical support
• Opportunities to meet with key players
• Invitations to company-sponsored events

Driving Business Decisions

Using marketing data should not be seen as a one-way street. There’s a lot that can be learned by monitoring the social media sphere. Trend analysis, for example, can allow companies to get ahead of what people are excited about. A clothing company might focus on analyzing trends coming into each of the fashion seasons, allowing them to handle ordering issues like:

• Choosing quantities
• Conveying customer demands to overseas buyers
• Establishing transport times to put products in stores in time for trends to peak
• Re-ordering items that are expected to sell out

It’s important to develop a data-driven culture at a company in order to make the most of social media data. Stakeholders and decision-makers shouldn’t be stuck wondering what the social media budget is actually doing. By deploying dashboards, data scientists at companies can provide real-time, engaging insights to those parties. In no time at all, folks who once questioned data and social media expenditures will be checking the dashboards on their cellphones to see how campaigns are unfolding.

Building this sort of data-centric business culture requires an investment. Infrastructure has to be put in place to ensure data scientists on your team have the servers they need to pull data, clean it up, analyze it and generate insights. Done the right way, though, building out this sort of infrastructure can help you get a better grasp on how customers interact with your brands, products and services.

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How to Grow Your Business with Social Media Marketing

If you’ve taken even a cursory look into how to market your business, then you’ve most definitely come face to face with the term “social media.” These platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have quickly risen to become a core part of establishing your business online.Article Source

If you’re new to the field, however, you might wonder just how social media should be so crucial to your business’s growth, and what benefits it can offer. Let’s take a closer look and help you get one step closer to dominating the online world.

Source: Content Writing Tips

The reach of social media

First, to understand just how valuable social media can be, it’s important to understand that it’s massively popular. 69% of all adults in the US are active users of at least one networking site. That raises up to 88% for those between the ages of 18 and 29. Furthermore, the average user has multiple accounts. Out of Facebook’s two billion users, 1.2 billion of them are actively using the platform every single day.

To put it simply, social media offers a platform that you can use to get directly in touch with your audience. Rather than having to fight to bring them to your website or online store, they’re already using those platforms. You still have to put the strategies in place that help you get noticed and build connections with those social audiences, but the potential reach of the platform is undeniable.

Increase revenue directly

If you’re looking for new clients and customers, then social media platforms can offer you a direct way to ensure your marketing reaches them. Most platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, have advertising networks directly connected to them. By crafting advertisements built specifically for the platform, you can increase the reach and visibility of your products and services, leading to new customers.

You can make sure that your advertisements are aimed specifically at those most likely to convert, too. Targeted advertisements can be used to appeal to the demographics most likely to be interested in your services, using factors like age, location, occupation, and interests. Remarketing can take it a step further, targeting those who have visited your website before.

Source: rd.com

Drive traffic to your website

By most accounts, the website is the core of your online marketing strategy. It’s where your customers can find the information they need, where you can convert visitors into customers, and offers them a direct line to get in touch, to buy, or to find support. Increasing traffic to a well-designed, helpful website will increase customer conversions. However, a lot of businesses struggle with getting visitors to their website.

Social media isn’t the only tool used to increase traffic (we’ll cover SEO, later), but if you’re not on platforms, you could be missing an organic pathway that customers can follow to end up on your site. Creating a profile linked to your page and using networking platforms to share interesting content hosted on your site acts as the welcome mat. From there, they can share that link to others or further explore the site if you’ve managed to engage them effectively.

Grow new leads

The majority of businesses use social media to find new leads to nurture and convert into customers. There are a variety of ways to do this. For instance, hypermedia is widely used to share content, such as blog posts, that readers may be interested in. You can gate certain pieces of content, meaning that users have to sign up to read more about the topics they’re interested in. This gives you a line on their email address, which can be used to guide them down the sales funnel further.

Other ways to grow leads include running contests for free products, discounts or prizes, for which customers have to give some personal details to enter. Or you can host hangouts, webinars, or live videos, addressing questions, or delivering informative and educational content. Once you get those customer details, you can further use tactics like email marketing to close the deal.

Source: BrandAid

Empower your SEO efforts

Search engine optimization is an online marketing practice that has become just as ubiquitous and as important as social media marketing. It’s the practice of improving your search engine rankings so that more web users can find your site more naturally. A lot of SEO is about making sure that your website is Google-friendly, with well-written, valuable content. However, they can improve your rankings as well.

Search engines like Google value the relevance and popularity of web pages. By sharing your content, you can improve the page’s ranking with every click. Furthermore, you can build the ranking of your profile itself, helping improve brand recognition and visibility.

Build a connection with your customers

Social media can be used solely as a channel for marketing, but the truth is that it has the potential to become much more. It can become the home of an online community growing around your brand. As your brand’s presence on social media grows, you should hopefully find your followers growing, too. Amongst those followers, some are going to be more likely to engage your brand directly.

By answering questions, getting involved with conversations, and providing support, you can build a connection to customers that fosters trust and loyalty. People are a lot more likely to further engage with a company that communicates directly with them, rather than just through passively reading marketing material and blog posts. This can greatly improve your reputation amongst your customers, creating loyal brand fans if you’re smart.

Spread the positive word of mouth

Those brand fans can help you grow your company even further by carrying your message far and wide. Positive experiences between a customer and a brand create loyalty but, on social media, you have an audience for those experiences, as well. This is part of the viral potential of networking. A company whose approach to customer satisfaction catches attention can quickly find themselves engaging with new customers drawn to that good reputation.

Establishing a healthy following on social media is a boost for your business, too. It acts as positive social proof, showing the market the evidence that your business has supported so. Thus, it’s worth supporting.

Gain insight on your own business

Social media offers analytics you can use to track the successes and failures of your online marketing campaign. By seeing how many people click on your links, share your posts, or otherwise engage, you can reinforce strategies that work and find the weaknesses that could use a little extra work.

However, you can go beyond the analytics to get a much broader understanding of the perception of your brand. Social listening is all about paying attention to what customers, influencers, reporters, competitors, and others are saying about your brand, about market trends, and about the industry in general.

By following mentions of your brand name, username, and other relevant terms, you can get a real insight into what people like or dislike about your products and services, customer pain points you can address, and so on. Some platforms, like Twitter, use hashtags that make it easy to follow discussions around certain topics, as well.

Learn from your competitors

Knowing your rivals can help you grow your business and there is no better way to learn about them than to follow them and their customers on social media. By monitoring their own marketing efforts, you can see which of their own posts are more successful, and which largely go ignored. As such, you can build on their successes while learning from their failures.

Though some might consider it cutthroat, you may even be able to capitalize off those failures further. For instance, by following mentions of their brand, you can find dissatisfied customers and reply with a tweet, post, or comment that addresses their pain point directly, highlighting your own brand as the alternative that you need.

Become a thought-leader

Brand reputation and integrity are hugely valuable. If people respect your brand and see it as an authority in the industry, then it means they’re more likely to become your customers than to join the competition instead.

By sharing great content through social media, contributing to conversations, and networking with other industry heads to share their content and get involved in their discussions, you can build a very valuable reputation. Besides making your company look like the go-to choice, it can open doors for PR opportunities, such as guest articles on trusted and widely read web publications.

Source: HubSpot

Where do you start?

Hopefully, the above points have proven the worth of interactive media and given you a few ideas of how you can start using it to grow your business. If you don’t know where to start, however, WSI can help. Our social media marketing services can help you establish your presence, catch up with your competitors, and start paving the path to having the marketing strategy that will directly contribute to your business’s success.

Visit https://www.wsiprovenresults.com/ to learn more about how social media marketing can benefit your business.