Introduction – The Basics To Knowing How To Sell On Social Media
OK, before looking at “how to sell on Social Media”, let’s get a few things straight first off.
People don’t go to social media to be sold to. But that doesn’t mean they don’t BUY from social media.
Every business who ‘does’ social media expects to get something from it. Otherwise why do it right?
Many businesses have unrealistic expectations in relation to the time and / or money they may have to spend and the return they will get.
So, let me make this clear. You are either going to have to put money into this or you are going to have to put time into it. My suggestion is that if you have spare time and not much money – learn how to do it. But at the point at which you don’t have 2 hours a day to put into your social media, get someone else to do it.
We’ll talk about WHAT that should be in a minute but first another question.
Does Social Media Work for Business?
Of course it does. Sorry, that question is about as sensible as asking ‘Do websites work for business?’.
However, for a website to work, you must know the purpose of the website and design it around that purpose. You then need to spend money (or time) maintaining it, updating it and making sure it is fit for purpose.
Well it’s exactly the same for being able to sell on social media.
You must know what and who it is for, and you have to design your strategy around that and in line with the business strategy. Then you have to spend time or money or both updating it on a daily basis, and keeping up with all the many – sometimes daily – changes that happen.
You must also know where you are in your business life cycle.
Start-up Businesses
If you are a start up business, then your website’s job and that of your social media is to get you out there – educate your market that you exist – and give lots of content which positions you as an expert and someone who can help your target customer.
Established Businesses
If you already have a big and engaged following – then you still want to give content to your ideal customers, but you can also offer them more stuff – free and paid – than you can as a newbie. As a newbie you have to prove that your stuff is worth having.
The main problem you have is that there is a lot of noise. No-one knows you. And it isn’t that they don’t have the £99 to pay for your online training or workshop – it is that they don’t have the TIME to waste on something which could be a waste of time.
So – you need to prove your FREE content is valuable before you even try to sell your paid content/products or services.
So Just How Do You Sell On Social Media Then?
Ultimately – how you sell on social media is by not selling. You sell by understanding your customer, giving them information which is valuable to them, engaging with them, building a relationship with them and then offering them solutions that meet their needs. Hell, if you get really good at this – you can just have the stuff available and people will come to you. But you still have to let them know about it – in a helpful, rather than ‘salesy’ way.
Selling to people before they know you, is like trying to sleep with someone on a first date. Sometimes it will work, but it probably won’t be long lasting and regular. And with most businesses the repeat business is where the money is. The loyal customer who comes back and recommends you to others is not the one who feels sold to. They are the ones who feel loved, appreciated and taken care of.
And that takes time. Like any relationship.
Can You Shortcut the Sales Cycle?
Yes of course. But you can’t get rid of it entirely.
Ways to shortcut the sales cycle:-
Pay for celebrity endorsement
Spend a ton of cash on ads
Do work for free in exchange for rocking testimonials
Joint Venture with a firm that already has a list of your potential clients
Buy a (quality) list
Know how to get media coverage
Try to create viral campaigns or pay someone to create them
Pay a great social media company to spend several hours a day which you don’t have to supercharge your social media
Hire a full time social media manager (expensive) – only do this IF you know a shedload about social media and can recognise a superstar when you see one – and be prepared to pay a premium. Most people are great at one or two channels but not expert at all of them – and the rare fish who are can charge what they like!
Unless you have an unlimited budget – please see social media as something you have to do from now on (or outsource). It’s not just for now or a couple of months – it is forever. It’s a bit like dieting – they fail because you stop following the diet. The only way to lose weight forever is to eat differently forever.
Likewise, the only way to make social work is to do it forever. You have to be consistent, you have to spend time on it, you have to keep up to date with the many changes, and the many tips and strategies, you have to constantly TEST.
Why You Need to Sell on Social Media
Social Media is no longer a luxury or something you can do without. You will get left behind if you are not in it now. Don’t you wish you had started building your tribe in 2004 when Facebook started? Well, the second best time is right now.
And the good news is – that it can be just like your website. It is NOT something that you HAVE to do yourself. You can if you want to of course, but I would hazard a guess that your hourly charge out rate – your TIME – is worth far more per hour than you could pay a great social media company to do it for you. So why waste your precious time?
The best way to sell through social media is to have a massive presence, where you need to be, created by someone who knows what they are doing, make you look good and build you a tribe of loyal potential customers. Then YOU just need to create something amazing to offer to them.
OK, so this is going to be (kind of) a rant about something that’s been bugging me lately. But one that will hopefully help you out in your social media endeavours. It’s about how to use hashtags properly.
I think it’s damn near impossible to go onto social media these days and not come across a hashtag. They have become such a prominent part of tech culture these days (even being added to the Oxford English Dictionary) that pretty much everybody uses them. Which is fine. But it seems like A LOT of people don’t understand how to properly use them, or what the function of them actually is. People use hashtags because… well… because everybody else does, without giving it proper thought. #StupidPeople
The hashtag is there to help you increase engagement with people with similar interests. It makes your, s and other people’s, content discoverable. It is basically a way of categoriszing content on social media.
You should choose your hashtags carefully. Be specific. Don’t go throwing them around willy-nilly or try to be clever with them. For example if you are tweeting about food, use #food or #health or #recipe. DO NOT use something like #omgsodelicious #youshouldalltrythis #iamsuchagoodcook. If people are interested in recipes for food they WILL search for #food and #recipe. So keep it simple and specific.
You should test a hashtag out before you use it. Simply search for it in the search bar and if it is widely used then great! If not, there probably isn’t much point in using it. Some people like to overuse hashtags which comes across as quite spammy and desperate. No post ever should have more hashtags than words.
That is a big no-no.
People seem to mainly do this on Instagram. It’s not uncommon to see people using up to 30 (30?!) most of which are unrelated and pointless. Spammy and desperate is not a good look. It also seems like people use the hashtags as a description of their picture and to be ironic and funny. #Butitsreallynotthatfunny … see. They aren’t there to make you look cool or funny to your followers, they’re there to help you.
Hashtags can be really useful on Social Media, allowing you to reach a wider audience and make a good impression. (Plus they really aren’t that hard of a concept to grasp!) So – I hope this helped!
Follow us on @StrategySMedia for more helpful tips on Social Media
How important is your online profile? It turns out: very.
Facebook
Just last weekend on a drunken endeavour, somebody took a picture of my group of friends in a club. We’re all generally quite unphotogenic anyway, but the one person that stood out was my friend who somehow managed to look like he was getting his ugly mug punched in the face by an invisible entity. He was cross-eyed and looked extremely pained, maybe even as if he was getting electrocuted. Everyone else found this hilarious of course, but not him. He literally snatched the phone with the picture on from my other friend’s hands and deleted it before it had chance to reach any social media platforms.
When asked about his over reaction, he did seem to have quite a valid reason, to be fair. He had recently started a new job at quite a respectable company and didn’t want to jeopardise his reputation there with a drunken picture on his Facebook profile. A year ago I would have laughed at him and told him not to be silly and that nobody cares about your Facebook and nobody’s bothered about a silly picture, but working for a recruitment company for the past 10 months has taught me that this is WRONG, and how you appear online is very important when it comes to getting hired and your reputation.
Companies use social media to do a background check on you before an interview. This makes sense, as you are far more likely to show your true colours on Facebook. Whereas on your CV or Linkedin you’re going to big yourself up as much as possible. Whilst doing some research into this I came across an article about how you should present your Facebook when looking for a job. It said you should show no links to your personal life, you shouldn’t have pictures of your children/family and your profile picture should be smart/casual. For Linkedin this is spot on, but the article was talking about Facebook for crying out loud. I thought it was a bit extreme. In my opinion as long as your profile picture isn’t of you surrounded by half naked strippers whilst you down a beer bong, you should be fine. Just be mindful of the content you are posting. Ask yourself, “If I was an employer, would this put me off employing someone?”
This applies to status updates as well. “ERRRRRR gonna get soooooo mortal later!!!!” = not appropriate.
Linkedin
Your Linkedin profile is also of vital importance when it comes to your online persona. (If you haven’t got Linkedin yet… what an earth are you playing at? Go sign up, right now.) I like to think of it as the Facebook of the business world… but without selfies and status updates about what you’re having for tea. Now obviously you’re not going to post inappropriate materiel on here (unless you’re very, very stupid and have no ambition to be successful) BUT, there are some very easy mistakes that people make without realising it or considering it a big deal. Mistakes that could potentially stop someone from hiring you, such as:
• Having incomplete information on your profile
• Having no profile picture .This just looks as if you can’t be bothered to make the profile presentable, and also – this is online NETWORKING people. You wouldn’t turn up to a networking event with a bag on your head. People want to see who they are dealing with.
• Having no contact information on there… what’s the point of even having the profile if people can’t contact you?
• Never posting a status or update… how does anybody know what you’re up to when you don’t let them know?
• Using the title of “job seeker” rather than putting your profile job title.
These are just small things but they really do affect how employers view you, so be wary of this.
Finally, we are living in a social media world. It is no longer the province of ‘the young’ – and what you put online can always be found. So – think about how you want to appear to the world, and proceed with caution!
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