Increasing Sales Through Social Media Marketing

Increasing Sales Through Social Media Marketing

Believe it or not its still a common belief among businesses large and small that increasing sales through social media marketing is a sham.  If you’re a subscriber to that belief I don’t mean to offend, but hopefully after reading this article you’ll reconsider your opinion on the matter.  We here at BlackBoxSocialMedia believe that you should not only be present on Facebook, but on all the social media networks that you can if you truly are interested in increasing sales through social media marketing.  Its just good for your overall online presence and SEO, here’s why.

Increasing Sales Through Social Media Marketing | Proof It Works

If you’re just not convinced that increasing sales through social media marketing is possible, take a look at some of these statistics and facts:

  • Sony announced in February that through Twitter they had earned an extra £1million in sales, Dell announced in June last year that their presence on Twitter accounted for $3 million dollars increase in sales.
  • John Fluevog Boots & Shoes Ltd, a small shoe making company in Canada, reported a 40% increase in sales in 2009, the same year it started social media marketing, this was not by chance.
With these kinds of facts, its a wonder why only 12% of brands believe that social media marketing is valuable.  The marketers recognize the value however:

A recent study by online ad agency Collective found that 90 percent of marketers want to try new things online, and 62 percent of marketers anticipate increasing social media spending in the next 6 months.

http://searchengineland.com/why-smx-social-media-marketing-is-a-must-attend-event-96762

 

Here’s why businesses don’t believe in increasing sales through social media marketing: American’s are obsessed with instant gratification.  Social media doesn’t produce results instantaneously, it takes time.  You need to nurture it, water it like a plant, and then witness it grow.  The problem is that businesses are so used to their traditional forms of advertising that they don’t know how to engage with their customers through social media.  The way to increasing sales through social media marketing is simply through making your customers part of the brand, its no longer a one-way street, yes social media does convolute PR, customer service, copywriting, and marketing, but that’s okay: it works.

Increasing Sales Through Social Media Marketing | Creative Strategies

So at this point, you’re probably asking yourself: Where do I even begin increasing sales through social media marketing?  Good question, here’s the simple end of it:

One of the most important elements of success in the area also sounds like the simplest: Create a social media strategy that spells out your company’s goals and how to achieve them.

In fact, this is a very challenging aim in a world where most companies have aspects of client engagement spread throughout a number of departments, and no clear lines of responsibility for maintaining Facebook pages or responding to messages on Twitter.

“It’s causing organizational chaos internally,” says Michael Brito, senior vice-president at communications firm Edelman Digital. “All of a sudden you have kind of a land grab for roles and responsibilities … think of marketing versus PR versus customer support, they all feel they own the customer experience.”

Mr. Brito says companies that use social media effectively have invested plenty of effort to hammer out who is responsible for each aspect of their social media plan, and the governance model used to oversee it.

But even the best-laid plans will result in failure if there’s no willingness to take risks and allow employees to embrace creativity in the world of social media.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/up-next-in-technology/time-to-adapt-to-social-media-or-face-the-consequences/article2198999/

Increasing Sales Through Social Media Marketing | We Can Help

If you feel overwhelmed, its completely normal, but don’t let it discourage you.  Let us scratch your itch, we can offer solutions for increasing sales through social media marketing.  It can be a difficult beast to tame, but once you give it some time, effort, and creative juice, increasing sales through social media marketing will be like second-nature.

Image attribution: http://blacktrike.com/2011/05/top-10-reasons-small-business-benefit-from-social-media/