You might have been spending a ton of time growing your following on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, or other social media platforms like Trip Advisor. But, now what? How do you turn those into record sales or new customers?

Some companies are able to hire a full-time staffer to manage social media. Other’s have a marketing division. But not everyone can enjoy that luxury. 

Smaller companies that typically manage social media accounts themselves, may find it difficult to keep up with the demand for content. But in order to get any kind of measurable results you have to actually use it. That means there needs to be a plan in place for whoever is managing social accounts.

To maximize results focus on a couple of platforms that you know your audience uses. There are also tools out there like https://buffer.com/ to help distribute content to multiple outlets.

Or if you’re not really that into it and want to focus on your business, hire out the work.

But having a social media user aware of your product is only part of the equation. How do you convert them into a customer? You need them to order your product or hire you for your services. This is why it’s important to make it easy for them to do so.

It’s important to make sure that social media post let them know where to go. They need something actionable.

This means you can add a link to your content that leads to a landing page or blog post that gives more detailed, useful information to the customer to help educate them on a purchasing decision or a special offer.

Links significantly increase your chances of converting a prospect into a client. If you’d like more information on Click Through Rates (CTR) here’s a helpful blog post on how to increase yours http://www.outbrain.com/blog/how-to-increase-ctr-in-7-easy-steps.

Buffer says engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays and 32% higher in general on the weekends compared to weekdays. They also mention that in general, posts sent at 1:00 p.m. tend to get the most shares while those sent at 3:00 p.m. get more clicks.

Content type also plays a role in when the best time is to post. Videos get more views in the late afternoon or at night. People don’t typically watch videos while they’re at work, but they’ll scroll through their feed on occasion. Using visual content like infographics are pretty consistent on views almost any time.

To speak in a general sense the organic approach is a sort of shotgun approach while paid posts are laser sighted. You need both to really capitalize and turn social media followers into customers willing to pay for your product or services.

You can use paid advertising to target a specific audience based on interest, likes, location, and more. If used correctly it will line up with people who are already looking for what you are offering.

It’s not necessarily better to use one approach over the other, these are best used in combination.

Be sure to track your results and take note of what is working better than the rest. What strategy is working best for bringing customers in?

Take note that if you are generating a lot of traffic but you’re not seeing any sales, this could be an issue with your marketing strategy. Your site may be poorly optimized or it may be difficult for clients to find what they’re looking for.

If you have any questions or comments or think there’s an opportunity to team up, please reach out. If you would like to learn more about turning followers into customers you can read the article that inspired this one here.