Social marketing is getting huge. It’s become so popular, in fact, that it has nearly replaced word-of-mouth as the primary means of advertising products and services to consumers. Consumers trust the opinions of their peers more than the opinions of advertisers or companies, so social marketing has quickly become one of the most important forms of marketing available. But with so many people jumping on the social marketing bandwagon, there are some concerns about whether or not it’s possible to make money from social marketing, especially when you don’t have as large an audience as some of your competition does.
Is it really possible to make money with social media?
What most people don’t understand is that social media isn’t just a place to have fun. It can be an incredibly valuable business asset, and if you know how to use it properly, you can make money from social marketing. Let’s take a look at some of these techniques.
Choosing Your Niche
Your business idea doesn’t have to be revolutionary to succeed. In fact, sticking with a digital social marketing niche that’s already proven can save you time, effort and expense while ensuring your social marketing consultancy is on track. That’s because existing demand means there are ready-made customers out there in waiting—and if you do a good job of providing an essential service or product, they may even start paying you more than is required.
Decide Which Platforms to Use
Before you can get to digital social marketing, you need to decide which social platforms and channels make sense for your brand. On a macro level, I suggest choosing from one of two approaches: either go big or go digital. If you’re going big, then focus on using one platform really well—choose Facebook as your platform if that makes sense for your brand or target audience. If it doesn’t make sense for them, then choose Twitter instead.
Research How the Algorithm Works for Each Platform
There are five major social platforms—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest—and all of them work differently. It’s best to learn how each platform works. For example, Facebook has a lot of paid advertising options while Twitter doesn’t (although it is testing out an option that uses promoted tweets). Understand how each platform works and what kind of opportunities they provide you. [Read: How to Create an Effective Social Media Strategy]
Build an Email List
If you can gather a list of people who are interested in your product, service or content and then market to them over time (that is, if you have created an opt-in list) then email marketing is an effective digital social marketing strategy. It’s important to note that you must be 100% opt-in—meaning that all users agree they want to receive emails from you—to avoid falling into spam territory.
Creating Engaging Content on a Regular Basis
Start by searching for social trends. Social marketing is all about delivering content that people are interested in—and that’s what it comes down to: engaging, relevant content. Just as traditional businesses have customer personas that they tailor their services and communications toward, social marketers should have user personas they match their content to. Create some posts based on your persona’s interests. Doing so will help you generate more revenue and build a loyal audience. (Source)
Encourage Sharing
Social media has ushered in a new era of marketing, one where social engagement is king. In fact, content that prompts our friends to like or share it will engage our audiences more than even more traditional forms of marketing. For example, if you simply post a link on your Facebook page to an interesting news story from CNN, your audience might enjoy it—but what does that really do for you?
Optimize Every Piece of Content That Is Created
The beauty of digital social marketing is that every piece of content can be optimized for sharing, so don’t underestimate it. If you have 10,000 followers on Facebook, for example, send each piece of content to each group rather than sending one message to all. Segmentation is key in making sure your brand has a steady and consistent social presence.