Social media is a massive part of our digital lives. Most of us use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube to communicate, entertain ourselves, find information and to shop online.

Marketers are wise to this. In a recent survey, 351 leading executives were asked about social media. On average social media spending accounted for 9% of their overall budgets, which is projected to rise to nearly 22% in the next five years. Improvements in advertising platforms and analytics will likely drive even more spending.

However, despite an increase in budgets, many online businesses still struggle to translate social followers into revenue. This is often due to a lack of clear strategy for each social channel. To help, we’ve compiled a short list of tips to build brand awareness, improve customer engagement and increase customer insight.

Focusing on these areas should inevitably drive sales.

1.     Planning for Success

Outline your goals for social media. Be realistic and conscious of the time it takes to generate success on certain channels. Is your goal increasing the number of followers to drive website traffic or generating genuine user reviews?

Is it building a community of loyal repeat buyers? Keep your plan flexible and tweak it as you gather more information on customers and potential buyers.

2.     Look where your customers are

Try to understand your customers as much as possible. Who are they? What is the average age? What are their likes and dislikes? What is their social media channel of choice? You can find this information by asking them with cleverly positioned questions on your website, email or using tools such as trackur, socialmention, and Google Analytics.

Once you have a clear picture of your customers’ social media preferences, focus your attention on the relevant channels.

Understanding customer preferences helps to optimise your sales

3.     Be where your competitors are

Competitive intelligence is vital at this stage. Research what your main competitors are doing well on social media to find out: Who are their followers? What are they posting? What type of content gains likes and shares? How do they promote each channel? Try not to copy your competitors, but do take inspiration from them.

4.     Incentives

Entice people with something they cannot get elsewhere. Create competitions, offer free shipping or discounts. Publish “breaking news” about products that doesn’t appear anywhere else, like pre-product release announcements or developments only your business knows about. Customers want to feel special on social media - cultivate a culture of togetherness.

5.     Engage at every possible opportunity

Your primary goal may be selling products, but don’t think of social media as only a way to generate sales and drive traffic. Keep in mind that social media is also great for customer service and to show a human side of the business.

The social web lets businesses quickly respond to customer inquiries or tackle any potential issues. Be sure you’re monitoring what people are saying about your brand and respond if appropriate.

6.     Images and videos say a thousand words

People want to be dazzled. Without imagery social media falls flat. Use tools like Canva for a free, easy way to create professional quality visual content. Videos are also powerful. People like seeing a product in action, so video can increase sales by providing clarity on difficult to understand products.

Vibrant colours make all the difference

7.     Track everything

Use a publishing tool that provides metrics into who clicked an update, what was shared, where people are coming from and the impact on your business. You should quickly learn what works by keeping a close eye on any analytics available to you.

While there is no silver bullet to success on social media, it is important that social media is well integrated into your marketing toolkit. With these easy-to-execute tips in mind you should be able to significantly improve your brand’s presence and increase sales.

This article was created by Volo Commerce.