Social Media In Simple English

Pinterest vs Facebook vs Twitter

WHY DO YOU EVEN NEED SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

As a business owner, you typically rely on direct sales. You believe that you have products that people want to buy. You pay Google, eBay, and Amazon to spread the word and bring visitors to your website who are ready to make a purchase.

Seth Godin wrote the following on his blog:

Most small businesses believe that theyre too small to have an impact on the whole market, so they resort to picking the fruit thats already grown instead of planting their own seeds. Its far easier to wait until someone is ready to buy than it is to persuade them to buy. Except the answer isnt to poach demand at the last minute. The answer is to redefine the market into something much smaller and more manageable. You dont need to persuade everyone that you have a great idea; you merely need to persuade one person, and then make it easy for that person to share.

Here, is a quote from a Mercedes Benz Executive, If the only time I show you a Mercedes ad is just before youre about to buy a fancy car, Ive lost. Advertising to build brand and recognition and demand is a very long-term proposition, not something you measure with clicks. A last-minute swipe of purchase intent is a tactical win. Its not, however, a long-term way to build your organization.
Social Media can play a big role in getting you that one person that will love your idea, and then help you bring hundreds of hungry customers.

HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Let me give you a story to show you an example of Social Media in action.

A website selling Adult Products has an engagement rate on their website of less than two minutes from visitors browsing around their website. This same website has a Facebook group that shows inspiring black and white art of half-naked models. They have thousands of members browsing their Facebook group daily, with a growth rate of 10% each week. The group has an engagement rate of 15 minutes per day from each group member, which totals over 4 hours per month.

This website owner created a way to leverage social media to get people to visit his website. He is using a soft sale technique, where he inspires visitors by emotionally arousing them and then leading them to his adult products website using promotional product photos and sales announcements planted within his inspirational content. This store owner has created a sales funnel, that involves getting his visitors to the Facebook group first, then he gets them in the mood to buy his products and only then does he engage them. Why would you want to see an email about specials for a bunch of Dildos after work on a Monday evening? You probably wouldnt spend a second on that promotional email.

But, I am sure if you got an email that was telling you to visit this cool Facebook group where you can see half naked models in black and white you probably would (if no one was around). So at the end of the day, social media should be your medium, to engage your customers. Instead of sending out cold emails via email marketing about your specials, you should create a social media group and send people there to get inspired to buy your products. You will always get a chance to do a hard sell, but you will rarely get a chance to build a relationship with your customers.

WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA SHOULD YOU USE FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

Twitter is known for delivering news faster than any other news source. It is powered by people in real time. Personally the only time I would use Twitter for eCommerce is when people are going to Twitter to buy products. For example on Cyber Monday people will visit Twitter to find good deals that others are finding that same day. This would be a great opportunity to create an automated campaign to keep posting your specials every five minutes using the Cyber Monday hashtag, especially if your products cater to the mass market.

Facebook is known to be a great communication channel, similar to email. It is not designed for eCommerce because people visiting Facebook are not in the mood to buy. Spamming Facebook with your deals is equivalent to spamming emails that never signed up to see your specials. Facebook should only be used to communicate with your customers, and not sell to them.

Pinterest is known to be the first eCommerce friendly platform that has proven to generate direct website sales. This is the social media that you should be using to post inspirational photos that will lead people back to your website to make their purchase. You should send everyone to your Pinterest page who is not yet ready to buy your products. You should slowly build a relationship with them, by posting new photos on pinterest and announcing them via all marketing channels including Email Marketing, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Then when the time is right, you should plant your specials within Pinterest by creating links to your products on your website, and that is how you will make more sales.
By: Shopping Cart Elite