Social media is sales as well as marketing
The days when retailers had just one sales channel are long gone. A robust sales strategy involves a range of different channels. Social media may be part of your marketing strategy but it should be included into your sales planning also.
In this article we will:
- Discuss why social media is important for sales
- Explore how social communities can drive sales
- Look at some tools that can help
- Look at the stats and players in social commerce
Why is social media important for sales?
Creating a sales strategy is involves planning how you will get your products in front of the right people and encourage them to buy. Having your goods and services sitting in your online shop isn’t going to draw enough of the crowd – often you need to go to where the crowd is to get its attention. Social media is a wonderful vehicle for this.
Social media has long been used as a marketing tool but it is becoming an increasingly important sales tool also. Rather than just informing shoppers about their brand, retailers are putting products and their prices out there for users to see. These leads can either bring shoppers straight to your site to make the sale or sell within the platforms.
Take Twitter for example. A study by Deloitte released in April found that tweets not only generate valuable word-of-mouth effects impacting customer demand but positive tweets about a brand directly drives sales.
The advice for brands using networks like Facebook and Twitter has often been to avoid direct sales on the platforms, using a softly softly approach when engaging with customers.
But the emergence of visual social platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram has made selling a more overt activity on social media. Social commerce is also getting a boost from a number of start-ups which are facilitating actual sales within the platforms.
How can social communities drive sales?
When a brand wants to drive sales for its site, targeting social media platforms is a must. By creating profiles which strongly represent their brand, they can engage in communities and encourage positive feedback.
A good way to start is to follow users that could potentially have a similar target audience as you. Follow who they follow and see who is following them. By getting involved in the conversations that are happening, liking other products and responding to comments you can start to build up a relevant community within which ever platform you are targeting.
Once you are part of a genuine community you can start to tell it about your products. If they are already familiar with your brand on that channel they will probably take more interest in your posts about products. A secret here is not to push it too hard. Give people genuine value in your posts, a nice Instagramed image of your latest product or a video showing how to use it.
What tools can help?
Creating sales from social media isn’t easy. It takes cultivation of customer relationships and encouraging trust. Being aware of your most active followers and engaging them is essential. There’s are tools out there which can really help you to keep on top of these relationships across all platforms – making your life a lot easier.
Nimble is a particularly strong contender. A social relationship manager, it helps businesses to effectively manage their most important relationships on social media which will enable sales. It has a lead management function which allows you to track business opportunities.
NeedTagger is another tool which is good for increasing sales. The tool allows you to conduct searches which highlight users that might need your product or service.
Social commerce
The phrase social commerce has been used for a number of years now since brands started creating profiles for themselves on the various platforms. But it has been argued by some that this practice should be referred to as social marketing – the act of actually buying on social media platforms has only just become a reality.
According to the FT, social commerce is to become a $30bn sector by 2015. There are swathes of start-ups rushing to become to go to place for brands to enable social commerce in their communities. We interviewed Chirpify back in April – its platform lets users buy products by replying to comments or tweeting.
There’s BuyReply which allows users to buy via QR Codes in social platforms and Twitter itself has even partnered with Visa to allow sales through the platform.
These services are turing social media into points of sale for online retailers and while the trend might be in its infancy – it is sure to grow.
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