How to Monetize Social Media
Why Social Media?
- Brand identity: Social media provides your brand with the opportunity to have a voice and develop an online identity that aligns with your website.
- Connecting with customers: The goal of social media has always been to connect and bring people together. Your social channels are a space where you can interact with, respond to and help your customers in an efficient and personal way.
- Reviews: Feedback is helpful for your brand. Customers can trust products with positive reviews and ratings from actual buyers which helps them feel more confident about their purchases.
Social media today:
- There are 4.2 billion internet users and 7.6 billion people in the world as of April 2018
- 72% of internet users use social media
- 91% of retail brands have 2 or more social media channels
- 78% of consumers report being influenced by brands’ social media posts
- Instagram Stories are 2x more popular than Snapchat Stories
- 86% of women will research a product on social media before buying it
Getting Started
To take advantage of the plethora of ways to grow your business using social media, it is crucial that your brand:
- Has social media accounts with complete, up-to-date and relevant information
- Posts regularly on these channels, with content specific to each channel because you will likely have customers who follow multiple of your social channels and don’t want repeat content
- Posts original and interesting content that is unique to your brand
Selling on Social Media
Why should you sell on social channels? Selling products on social media can increase brand awareness, bring new audiences to your products and integrate your company in a community of people who can interact with your brand. Uploading products to your social media channels will complement your marketing tactics because you can directly link products available for purchase. Moreover, using these social channels effectively and to their full potential let’s your customers connect with your brand on a personal and local level.
How to sell on Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest
Selling with Facebook Shop
What you need: Facebook Business Page + the shop tab you can easily add
Two options for selling on Facebook Shop:
- Directly link product details and a payment processor
- Use a third-party eCommerce site that can extend your selling options to your blog, website and social channels
Cost: The Facebook Business Page shop section is free to use, and Facebook will not take any share of your profit.
Selling with Instagram Shop
What you need: Instagram Business Profile
Two ways to sell on Instagram:
- Running ad campaigns: Promoting your brand is easy because Instagram’s algorithm serves your ad to an appropriate audience.
- Instagram Stories: tucked into users’ Stories, both video and photo ads can deliver a personal touch
Cost: Cost is dependant upon various factors, including how much you want to spend, how long you want your ad to run and where you want your ad to be seen.
Selling with Pinterest Shop
What you need: Pinterest Business Page
Buyable Pins: You are eligible for Buyable Pins if you use an eCommerce platform such as Shopify, Demandware and BigCommerce
- Learn how to set up the Pinterest Sales channel in Shopify channel in your Shopify admin
Rich Pins: Rich Pins can be added to your account as app, product, recipe and article pins. Information about product pins includes images, availability, location and real-time pricing all pulled from your eCommerce website
- Install Yoast SEO plugin in WordPress. Squarespace already has all necessary metadata to enable Rich Pins.
- Navigate to Rich Pin Validator to apply for Rich Pins
Noteworthy features of social shops
Facebook allows you to organize your products by collections. Users can also message your business about the products listed. Facebook provides Insights about how many messages, views and how much you have earned on each product listed. One added benefit is that your shop items can appear in Facebook’s Marketplace. Stripe and PayPal can be linked to your shop to make sure customers never leave Facebook when purchasing from the shop.
Instagram’s Shop now call-to-action button for sponsored posts allows users to simply click and be directed to the product online. Within Stories, the See More function lets users to swipe up to explore products mentioned. Within your feed, you can also tag the products in your photos. Instagram loads the product pages in the app, so you don’t have to worry about losing a customer traveling to a browser after clicking on a product.
Tips for Facebook and Instagram Shops
Product listings must include the following in order to drive success:
- Product title: Make sure it is descriptive and includes information like quantity. For example: Brand + Model Number + Model Name + Product Type, Color
- Product description: Text emphasizes the important features and benefits of a product using bulleted lists and comparison charts. Product size is an important aspect to include.
- Images: Good quality images of your products not only demonstrate to your customers that you have an established business, but they also help a customer making a decision. You can eliminate confusion if a customer can see what a product accurately looks like.
- Reviews: Ensure you allow customers to respond to your product and post reviews. This can be done by turning on the ‘Reviews’ tab on your Facebook Business Page.
Make sure that your Facebook Business Page is verified. Instagram currently does not have a self-selected verification process, but there are call-to-action buttons available to put on your business’s profile, including ‘buy tickets,’ ‘make reservations,’ and ‘book appointments.’
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