Innovate and Integrate Your Sales with Social Media

For years, businesses have muddled over whether or not to enter into social media as part of their marketing strategy.  Sure, it’s easy for huge recognized brands.  But what about the small business who’s struggling to get consumer attention?  Can social media still work as a marketing tool?

The good news is that social media can work for your business whether large or small.  As a marketing tool, social media has evolved alongside other internet marketing methods and is finally starting to hit its stride with businesses.  For years, returns on investment were intangible, but now, businesses can track their social media marketing in dollars and cents, brand loyalty, customer engagement, and website traffic.  With metrics that show measurable results, businesses can adjust their social media marketing strategies to innovate and integrate their marketing. 

How Social Media Will Change Your Sales

In today’s technologically forward environment, sales will not be obtained with separate marketing streams.  Instead, they will best be obtained and supported by integrated marketing techniques.  Social media has become a huge driver of internet marketing and its evolution has changed sales altogether.  Consider the following ways in which social media has changed sales completely:

1. Consumers search socially. Today, when consumers want to research a product or find a business that can offer a service or good they require, they often search socially. This means logging onto a social media network such as Facebook or Pinterest and researching.  These social networks refer over 25% of all traffic to business’ websites now.  If your business is looking to expand its influence and marketing returns, your business should be active on social media.
2. Search engines are showing preference to social media content. Search engines return results based upon perceived value to the people using them.  As social media has grown in importance, search engines have begun to show preference for social media content.  Google and Bing have both expressed the desire to show more social media content in top rankings. 
3. Social media conversations offer sales opportunities. Sales professionals who monitor social media are often better able to reach consumers who are debating the merits of their products.  By reaching out to these individuals personally, businesses can convert these interested consumers into customers’ one lead at a time.  If your business isn’t present during this conversation, that opportunity is lost. 
4. Social media offers an opportunity for businesses to advertise their goods and services for free to millions of potential customers.  When you pursue social media sales strategies, your business opens up new revenue streams from people who could be far away from your brick and mortar store.  Nowhere else is globalization more apparent than on social media where consumers from all over the world could be buying your products.  

As social media continues to evolve, we’re going to start seeing sales take on a new integrated approach.  Marketing and sales will become more social and will become more intricately tied to your business’ social media efforts.  Innovate and integrate your marketing today with social media and see how many marketing and sales benefits your business receives. 

By Steve Mehr, CEO of WebShark360, http://webshark360.com