Social media may have started off as a method of communicating with friends and family members, but today it has developed into so much more. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are crucial advertising platforms for a whole range of businesses including global corporations and small, local startups. Advertising online has always been important for companies since the internet became the go-to place for information and online shopping grew in popularity. But, recent statistics show that social media marketing is taking over many other forms of online marketing and can be of significant use when it comes to making a profit for your business.
Social Media Selling
People are becoming more and more comfortable with shopping via social media. When done right, there is a lot of money to be made from advertising and selling products and services via social media platforms. Social media is often listed in top lists of ways to make money online, as there are many ways in which you can use it in order to make a profit. These could include selling products directly via Facebook pages and groups or even using the ‘sell’ function on many popular social media sites such as Instagram or Facebook. You could also use social media to sell indirectly by posting links to your e-commerce site or other selling platforms.
Social Media Marketing
Marketing on social media is becoming more important than ever. With a huge percentage of the population having an account on at least one social network platform that they use regularly, it makes perfect sense for businesses to utilise all of the social media networks available in order to reach as many existing and potential customers as possible. Social media marketing allows you to provide your customers with real-time updates about new products and services in one place which they can easily access. Users who follow your social media accounts will also be able to receive updates on their newsfeeds without the need to search for them, allowing you to increase your business’ exposure as much as possible.
Social Media for Customer Service
Along with increasing profits through marketing and direct selling on social media, you can also use social networking platforms to improve your business’ level of customer service. More and more customers are using social media to get in touch with the businesses that they purchase products and services from. Comments and direct messages on Facebook can be used to get in touch with a business and receive a speedy response. If you carefully monitor your social media accounts, you can keep track of customers who have problems or queries in order to provide them with an answer. This can help to improve your reputation as a business, which in turn can even increase profits as more customers use word-of-mouth to tell others about the great level of service which they have received.
Businesses are using social media campaigns more and more often to build good relationships with their customers, market their products, and increase profits.