By Molly Grane - Social Media Specialist at Xapsis Integrated Marketing
Social media is now considered a must in most businesses. What was once considered only for your personal life has been taken further and branched off into businesses. How many of you remember when Facebook was only for students? Yes, true story, not too long ago you actually had to have a student email account for allowance. What was once set up for students is now a wide-open social platform for parents, children, businesses, restaurants and much more.Most social platforms are enhancing companies' advertising efforts by reaching out and tapping into the business market. For example, on Facebook, have you noticed more ads in your home feeds? Trying to prepare for our little girl to come into this world, a few weeks ago I was looking on the Boba baby wrap’s website. Since then, I've been bombarded by multiple Boba advertisements on the homepage of my Facebook page. How did Facebook pick this up? Not once did I look on Facebook for them, but somehow they've overtaken my Facebook account. This is one great example of how Facebook is using advertisements catered to specifically – YOU. Everything you look at on your computer is stored and then passed through as interests for Facebook to pick up on. Kind of creepy? Yes, but vital in this changing world of marketing.
Every business must go forward and join the times of the social world. Every business should have a presence in the social world, but it is important what social platform you decide to go with. For example, a small retail store works great on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. All of these social platforms take advantage of the look factor to catch any potential customers. Also, these are great platforms to run effective campaigns spreading the word about your business.
A recent article I read did a study in 2012 which showed 78.6% of sales people using social media to sell outperformed those who weren't using social media. This in particular should be reason enough for placing you or your business in the social world. Even as a beginner, this is possible. Going off of Forbes.com here are the 5 Steps to Making a Sale Through Social Media:
- Join groups and create your own persona
- Determine the best way to connect with your potential prospect. For example, which platform best fits you or your business
- Connect online by answering questions on other networking groups relative to your business
- Build a one-on-one relationship
- Always engage in conversations
Fidelman, Mark. May 19th, 2013. Study: 78% of Salespeople Using Social Media Outsell their Peers. Forbes.com. Retrieved on July 3rd, 2013 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2013/05/19/study-78-of-salespeople-using-social-media-outsell-their-peers/
