Building a thriving business using social media

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We have all heard it many times: “you should not sell on social media platforms”. And this is definitely how social media got started. But as with the entire interned social media is in a constant flux. One of the changes that I see is that it is ok to use social media for your business. It is ok to use Facebook, Twitter and all the other social media sites to make money. As long as you do it in a ‘legal’ way. In other words, as long as you provide valuable content along the way and as long as your customers find you instead of you pushing your products in their face I believe that the general public has accepted the fact that social media has become an integral part of the business world. As a matter of fact there are more and more people who buy products through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.

So let’s take a closer look at the reasons businesses should use social media to improve their bottom line. There are 4 main reason, in my opinion. Here they are:

1. The first one is how it all started: growing an audience who likes and trusts you and your business. I can get very passionate about this topic, because I believe that the majority of social media ‘experts’ is taking advantage of this part of social media. So often the part where is says “who likes and trust you” is left out. Even though that is the critical part of this particular area of social media. Take Twitter. If you add more followers what does that do? Most important thing is that it makes your Twitter stream go by faster than you can read it. So much so that Twitter now has ‘lists’. So you put that part of your followers that means anything to you in lists. And that is exactly my point. Why do you have the other group? If you know the answer to that question I would love to hear it.

2. Social media makes it much easier to establish yourself as an authority in your market. By being a source of good content people will follow you, so they can stay up on the latest developments in their area without having to put the effort in. That content does not have to be yours. You just have to be the one syndicating it. Anything that can save others time and/or money is a value added activity. This one clearly qualifies.

3. With the massive amounts of people that are present on the social media platforms, there is obviously a great opportunity to guide social traffic your way. This is another strong point of social media. It is (still) easier to get social traffic than it is to get search engine traffic in most niches. This will change over the next few years (I suspect), for the simple reason that the competition on the social media platforms is already starting to become tough. It is still a good time to get in. Just like in the earlier days of SEO, when people did not know how to do keyword research and page optimization. People on the social media platform don’t have a strategy in place. They try random things, hoping that it will help.

4. Last, but certainly not least, you have the option to advertise on the social media platforms. This is only possible if you can monetize the social traffic that you generate by paying for it. So, this is a dead giveaway that you can make money with social media. As a matter of fact, there is a whole discussion going on about the value of a follower. I refer back to the first of these 4 points, when I say that it is going to be extremely difficult to give a general number. It all depends on how the follower was found and how invested this person is in your niche.

So, there you have it. The 4 most important aspects of social media for your business. At least in my opinion. I would love to hear your view on this. Do you have another point that I overlooked? Leave a comment below and share your views.

To your success,