Everyday, people tweet, post, “like”, “friend”, follow and engage  in various social media outlets. The question is… why? Is it to get to know more people? Is it to stay in touch with old friends? Is to help your business?

If you’re being social in the online world, it’s likely you are doing so that you can make money. Am I right? In order to do this, there are various elements of tweeting and posting that need to happen in order for you to actually reach this goal. To start, you need a purpose.

What’s Your Goal?

Want to increase your e-commerce sales? Hope to get more store foot traffic? Looking to gain new clientele? Whatever your goal – or goals – are, support them responsibly through your social media actions. Check out our five point guide to being social with a purpose:

1. Know what you want. This means identifying why you tweet or why you post. This also means identifying what you don’t want from social media.

2. Stay focused. Don’t get lost in the clutter social media can bring to your world. Stay focused on what it is you want to gain from it. Remind yourself everyday if you have to, or give yourself a time limit to tweeting or posting on Facebook or LinkedIn. Don’t waste time by clicking on every post or pop up you see just because you can.

3. Identify ideal posts & tweets. This means getting rid of all the extra tweets, etc. that don’t relate to your goals. And  I’m not talking about other people’s tweets. I’m talking about yours! Be known for business, not your personal life, if that’s what you want.

4. Engage with others. No matter what, engaging is a part of social media. That’s why it’s called social. So just because you want things from people – such as them buying something from you – you must engage with your social media world in order to build relationships. Think of it as online customer service.

5. Be consistent. There is nothing worse than being lazy when it comes to social media. If you choose to make this a part of your marketing and sales plan for your business, then step up to the plate and do it regularly. Think of it as weight loss… if you eat a giant pizza then only lettuce the next day then pizza again the third day… will it work? Nope. It’s the same thing as social media. Consistency is key.

Finally, be realistic. If you know social media isn’t for you, consider hiring someone to do this for you. Some of you may even be okay eliminating it entirely from your business – though this isn’t ideal since we are living in a world where social media is only growing, not going away. Baby steps first, though. What’s your goal?

Share This

• 
• Tweet

About the author

Retail Minded

Related Posts

Twitter & Facebook… Retail Style

Social media can be so confusing. Yet so exciting. Yet so time intense. Yet so… well, you get the idea. The reality is, depending on the shoes you wear, you either love social media or hate it. A good handful of you probably...

Creating Sales Through Social Media

For many of you, the opportunity to sell your business via e-commerce is great. Which is why social media is great. But in order for it to really be effective, you need to make sales from it. Otherwise, it’s a lot of time...

Social Media… In Your Store?

Millions of conversations... and purchases... are taking place online everyday. Whether you are a smart phone addict who has Facebook at your fingertips or a retail pro who prefers out loud chit chat, the reality is social...

5 Comments for Social Media For Social… Sales?

Tara

What are your thoughts on how a company should best handle it when they do decide to hire someone to reach out to potential customers via social media? If it is an employee and not a firm sometimes it is awkward to keep the social part going when the person is tweeting as “XYZ Company” and is not the owner.

Reply

Nicole Reyhle

Tara – this is great question. I think that having an internal employee is always a more personalized option, and even if it’s not the owner tweeting or posting, it can still directly link to the business. If it’s an employee, let he or she speak as that (vs. the owner). But it would be nice to see him or her directly identify what the store / owner / customers / merchandise and more are up to. I hope this answers your question a bit more.

Reply

Brenda

Hi Nicole,
I feel like a babe in the woods, just started an online business. If you were to recommend the top 5 things I should do to market my business what would they be? I have someone working on SEO, I’ve printed up cards and brochures, will be attending my first gift basket convention, created a FB page and have made an appointment with the SBA.
Any other thoughts.
Thanks for all the insight you’ve already provided.
Brenda

Reply

Nicole Reyhle

Hi Brenda – It’s impossible for me to give a complete response to this without knowing your brand & business more, however generally speaking I think you need to concentrate on the following:

1. Special Events – Identify a budget (even if minimal), determine location/s, determine target audiences, determine special event calendar, gain press for these events and then execute
2. Press – Press is free… except for your time soliciting it. If your product / business / story is exciting / newsworthy / etc. then reach out to the press in a professional fashion in an effort to gain free publicity.
3. Social Media – the power of social media continues to evolve. You can reach people worldwide. Focus on your immediate community on social media, then reach out to grow your awareness beyond this. Use videos, tweets, posts, etc.
4. Networking – the best customers often come from referrals and other business leads!
5. Persistence – if you do any of this half *&% then your response will be the same. Stay focused and dedicated… the return is not always fast, but it’s necessary to get there!

Finally – have fun with it all! Wishing you much success!

Reply

brýle

Brenda first 5 things to do is to read about SEO and online business. in case you dorn understand the basics it is very hard to move on. Small online business is about doing 95 procent of the thing on your own. Adwords, online discussions, blog etc..

Reply