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.

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.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10162803

Affordable & Effective Marketing Tips to Promote Your Business Online

There are many ways that you can market your business without having to spend a lot of money and if you know what they are, then you can get started. You can do this simply by creating some stunning content and having it posted on your blog or even by writing for an industry-related magazine. These are just a few of the many options that you can pick and choose from, so make sure that you are considering what options are going to be ideal for you.

Affordable Marketing Tips

Make sure that you are looking at the budget that you have for marketing and that you are thinking of how you can get the most for your money. Here are some great tips that can help you to save money or get marketing done at affordable prices, including:

• Creating some of the best and most unique content that is found on the internet and posting it on your blog

• Create your own My Business Google account to ensure the visibility on various sites like Google Maps

• Build an email list of interested customers and make sure that you are letting them now when new services or added or when you have a sale

• Write an informative article for one of your industry related magazines

• Attend some of the functions for local networking

• Sponsor or even co-sponsor a giveaway or contest

• Build an affiliate program for your loyal customers

• Write guest posts for some of the popular niche sites

• Comment on various blog posts

• Create a group and profile page on Facebook for your business

• Offer some free introductory products on your page

• Create some stunning infographics that you can use

• Create business cards that will catch the eye

• Host some classes locally

• Post free information on your social media pages

• Interact with customers on social media through comments, messages and more

• Buy advertisements on Facebook and other social media platforms

• Consider PPC as an option

• Offer discounts to people who subscribe to your mailing list

Think about these various ways that you can save money when it comes to advertising since most of them would be affordable and can fit into any budget that you might have. Find the ones that work for you and that would cover the needs that you might have, so start looking now.

There are plenty of ways that you can get effective and affordable marketing without blowing up your current budget. Think about creating some great content and posting it on your site along with writing guest posts for other industry sites. Also, you should make sure that your business is claimed on all of the Google Business tools and that you are updating the information as it changes, if it does. You also want to make sure that you are finding the right marketing technique that would work for you, including giveaways and much more.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10166104

7 Social Media Tips For Your ECommerce Website

Selling online has never been easier, and using social media marketing correctly can make it even simpler and more effective.

1. Create Valuable Content to Share

So that you have something to share on social media, create content that adds value to your audience. For example, create infographics, case studies, blog posts, and more, all designed to showcase your products to your audience.

2. Start Strategic Groups for People Who May Want Your Products

On Facebook, you can start a niche group for subgroups that might want to buy your products. For example, if you sell makeup, you can start a group for people who love makeup. On the group, you can do live events showcasing the makeup, showing how to wear it and even having a shopping network such as sales.

3. Work With Influencers on Various Platforms

A really great way to use social media is to contract with influencers on platforms that your audience loves. An influencer is someone who has a following that includes your target audience. They may unbox your item, use it in their videos often, or do a review.

4. Brand Your Social Media Platforms Properly

It's very important that you find your brand voice. Some companies that have done a really good job of developing a brand voice for their products include Penzey's Spices, Dove, and Dominoes. You can check them out for yourself to get ideas.

5. Engage Your Audience Often

Social media is supposed to be first and foremost a social interaction. That's why it's called "social media". So many businesses make the mistake of making it a one-way thing. But, you should seek a conversation with your audience so that they feel as if they know you and you feel as if you know them.

6. Follow Your Customers Too

Don't make it all one way. Be sure to like, follow, and reciprocate with your audience depending upon the platform. If you make it only one way, it's not very friendly and isn't a good way to use social media platforms. On Facebook, make sure you create a business page and possibly a public persona account so that you can freely follow your customers as your public personal profile has limits.

7. Integrate Social Sharing on Your Website

Let others do some of the work for you. Make it easy for them to share products by adding social sharing to multiple platforms on your site. Ask them to share and give them incentives to share, and they will.

It's important to select the right social media platforms where you know that your audience exists and wants to see your information. That way they're interested, will engage with you, and will respond to the things that you post.


Facebook wants you to succeed using their social media platform. This just makes sense. If you achieve your business goals while spending money on Facebook advertising, you're likely to use that marketing practice again in the future.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10190401

Social Media Marketing

Marketing is a way of communication between a business and potential customers for presentation and promoting values of a certain product or services. The main goal of marketing is to sell. Social media marketing is to take advantage of the benefit of the social network to realize some of the marketing goals such as promotion and establishing a relationship with customers etc.

Social media marketing is used to present business through social media and use this as a way to communicate a message to potential customers. Social media refers to different websites that allow interaction among users and the exchange of information through a variety of channels. Content can come in the form of blog articles, presentation, videos, e-books etc

Below are some of the most important websites


Facebook- it is seen as the most popular social network and also a network with the largest amount of potential customers. Facebook pages are for celebrities, businesses and institutions. A page can have several administrators/managers. Facebook groups are for users who share the same interests. It is also for college students etc. it can be closed/open or secret.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is regarded as the largest business professional network. It allows sharing of posts and profiles.
Twitter: it is differentiated by its microblogging from sending short messages called tweets. It uses hashtags.
YouTube, Vimeo: these websites host video files. Videos can be promotional, instructional or you can start a video blog. You can promote a video by sharing the link on other social channels.
Google+: It uses Google+ profiles for individuals, Google+ pages are for companies and institutions.
Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr: these 3 websites are visual-content sharing platform. It allows images and short videos for online stores, decorators, clothes manufacturers etc.
Foursquare, Yelp: Most times, tourists make use of these social networks for reviews on places visited.Blogging is a form of social marketing which uses blogs to create and publish content while establishing a relationship with the readers. Blogging is an interactive form of publishing content on the web. The act dates back to 1990s till around 2000s. It comes from the word "weblog" and publishes content which is useful, practical and engaging.



WordPress is the most popular blogging platform. Others are Tumblr, Blogger. For a successful blogging activity, choose a suitable design, be consistent, interact with the readers and analyse your performance.

Tips in using social media for marketing include


Customization: you need a profile image, description of the business, cover image, business urls, and lastly your business location.
Social Media Optimization: it entails that if a visitor inputs your business name on a search engine, it should be easy to find within seconds.
Follow social media guidelines: guidelines on text and URL in the cover photo, conditions when organizing online process and limitations should be adhered to strictly to avoid a ban.
Evaluation: It requires monitoring and analysis to evaluate your performance and determine if results are satisfactory. If results are not satisfactory, the approach and methods should be changed.When you intend to use social media for promotion, there are 2 major divisions of promotion for social media. This is the paid and free adverts.



Paid adverts allow direct promotion with paid ads. It also can track conversion and flow of a paid campaign. A free version, on the other hand, allows you to create and manage a social account and online promotion through a social media account.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10205053

Don't Be Scared To Pay For Ads On Social Media

When you're using social media marketing to get the word out about your business, it's important to understand that using organic methods is the long haul.

But, there are ways to speed up the process. Sometimes the best way to get your word out is to pay for it. Paying doesn't mean you're succumbing; it means that you're smart. It's important not to be afraid of paying for ads, because it's a fast way to get more reach and make more conversions if you have the right content.

To run ads the right way, you need to be clear on a few options first. These include:

Learn the Platform

Before you post any ads, it's imperative that you understand how to use the platform properly for placing your advertisement and targeting your audience. Using it right will make a huge difference. Using it the wrong way will waste your money.

Hire Someone

If you don't know how to run an advertisement profitably, you may want to consider hiring an expert. Choose someone with a track record of success. If they do their job properly it should not cost you anything as their fee will be a small percentage of the extra profits you generate from your ads.

Know Your Target Audience

If you don't know who your target audience is, it's too soon for you to try to run paid ads. Fully understand exactly who your ideal customer is before you get started.

Ensure Your Content Is Perfected

Before running ads, you want to ensure that your content is otherwise perfected. Although you can run tests and continue to run tests even with imperfect content, try to get it close to perfect before using it for an advertisement.

Spend the Right Amount

You need an understanding of how much money you should spend on any given advertisement. Some platforms like Facebook are good at making suggestions. Start with a small budget and then scale up as you start to get the response you want.

Watch the Data

Once you do place an advertisement, you want to monitor the data to ensure that what you're doing is working. That way you can tweak it as you go.

It's important not to be afraid of paying for advertisements. It can make a huge difference in how fast you expand your reach and start making a profit, getting more email sign-ups, and building your audience.


The majority of business owners who use social media to advertise their business claim Facebook is the best, most productive advertising service on all social media networks. The good news is that you can run a Facebook ad campaign for as little as $5.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10213285

How To Create Pay Per Click Ads That Get Results

Pay per click (PPC) is often overlooked by small businesses because they don't realize how effective a well-planned PPC campaign can be for them.

But, a PPC campaign that has realistic goals can be very lucrative. Here are eight tactics that work very well to improve your business when PPC is used.

1. Remarketing

Basically, Google or Facebook will provide you with a code which puts a cookie on the computer that has visited your website but did not convert. Then, when the visitor goes to other web pages, they will see mention of your website.

2. Build Your List

Instead of using PPC to sell the actual products you want to sell, use it to build your list. You can offer a freebie of some kind in exchange for an email address. Once they're on your list, you can now market all your products and services to them instead of just one at a time.

3. Local Targeting

Even if you have a national business, local targeting is a good thing to do. Write content that is focused on a particular location that has a high amount of your target audience.

4. Segmentation

When you plan a PPC campaign, you want to segment your market down as small as you can for each type of advertisement that you create. You can use the tools available to target only certain people with the ads that you create.

5. Make Better Landing Pages

When you plan a PPC campaign you should create special landing and sales pages for each advertisement. This will help ensure that you target the people that you want to target - not just with the ad that they click, but on the page they land.

6. Test Everything

Testing is important in all marketing and advertising. Try two different PPC ads targeted to the same audience with just one minor thing changed such as headline, or use the same ad targeted to different audiences to figure out which responds most. The important thing is to only change one aspect at a time.

7. People First

With all the focus on keywords, content, and technology, don't forget that first and foremost you're marketing to human beings - humans with thoughts and feelings and the ability to differentiate between a good deal and a bad deal.

8. Study Your Numbers

Nothing is ever complete without studying the numbers. At various points during your PPC campaign, compare the results with your goals. If they're not lining up then you need to adjust the campaign.

Running a successful PPC campaign is easy for small business owners today with the tools available on Google as well as social media like Facebook. But, before you start, ensure that you have a goal in mind, and that you have prepared for the PPC campaign to be successful.


Facebook wants you to succeed using their PPC advertising platform. This just makes sense. If you achieve your business goals while spending money on Facebook advertising, you're likely to use that marketing practice again in the future.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10295500

6 Ways to Effectively Market Your Facebook Page

With the constant changes on Facebook, promoting your page has become more difficult. Despite this, Facebook marketing is still a must for businesses because of the sheer amount of users. Facebook is one of the giant platforms when it comes to social media marketing. For a modern business to be more visible, they must exert effort into marketing their page on Facebook.

Now, this doesn't instantly mean spending money on ads. There are other ways to promote your page without it costing you a dime. Here are some tips for you to grow and maintain your audience.

1. Reach Out Your Current Network

For a young page, it can be quite a rough start. But you have your initial likers and followers. You can't work with only a small audience. Encourage your current likers to share your page to their friends and followers. You can also tell your friends and family for a promotion as well. This might be the most difficult stage, but once you've got it out of the way, everything will be a breeze.

2. Promote Your Facebook Page on Your Website

If you have a website, you may direct some of the traffic you get to your Facebook page. This works well if your website has good rankings on search engines. It will increase the visibility of your Facebook page as well.

Your Facebook page can also direct traffic to your website. Many people use social media to discover information. Your audience might search for your page instead of your website.

3. Produce Useful and Relevant Content

When planning how to attract more likers, try to put yourself in their shoes. What would make them like your page? There must be a reason. Of course you must the nature of your business clear in your page. If you are a restaurant, it must be visible at first glance when they visit your page. Aside from that, your content must provide some form of benefit or entertainment. Share content that is helpful or relevant to them. This will encourage them to interact with your content instead of being a passive viewer.

Tell them which dishes are best-sellers at the moment. Got a promo? Make sure to announce it. They appreciate it when you update them with information they needed to know.

4. Make Your Customers Market for You

Social media is not at all social when it does not prioritize interaction. Your likers and followers are what keeps your page alive. When they provide feedback about your product or service, you must always acknowledge. Nothing gains trust more than a positive review from an actual person. It works better than you marketing your own product or service.

Respond to comments and messages on your page. Facebook shows how you reply to inquiries. When your audience sees that your page is active and responsive, it will encourage them to ask questions or like your page and posts.

5. Tap Influencers in Your Business Area

Influencer marketing is on the rise these days. Getting promoted by an influencer will expose you to their large number of followers. This one usually doesn't come for free, though. You can negotiate with them on what they can get in return for promoting you. Contact one that is related to your area of business. If you are a facial spa, for example, get an influencer in the beauty industry.

6. Try Advertising on Facebook

Facebook ads cost money, but you can make the money spent all worthwhile. Use the targeting feature to filter your target audience from the rest. For a new page, this is also helpful to immediately gain a significant amount of audience that is within your target.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9950119