Selling on Social Media

Over the past decade we’ve seen social media change. Players have come and gone; who remembers Bebo and MySpace. ‘Who is Bebo? Was he on Lord of the Rings?’ my nephew asked me. Social Media is an entirely different animal to what it was a decade ago. Gone are the days of asking your friends to help you out on Farmville.

Social Media is becoming more and more part of our lives.

Not only is the amount of people using social media increasing but also the amount of time people spend on social media. In 2016 the average person spent 118 minutes on social media a day. 2 hours a day! There’s only 24 hours in a day and 2 of them are spent on social media.

Not only is that a substantial amount of time but it’s also a hell of a lot of people. Nearly 80% of adults who are online use Facebook. In March 2017 it was recorded that 1.28 billion people are daily active on Facebook. In April 2017 it was recorded there are now 700 million users on Instagram. Just take a moment to appreciate that number. Even Bill Oddie is on Twitter.

So as a business why does this matter? Well, chances are that of the 700 million people scrolling through Instagram, at least one person is going to be interested in what you have to provide. I’d even go as far to say at least 2 people. But seriously it’s a huge market of people, and they’re all there ready for the taking.

From personal experience you can be scrolling through your Instagram timeline and not even realise the picture you’ve seen is actually an advert. The best ones catch your attention. If it’s a product then make it stand out. The most recent craze has been the peel off facemasks that have made quite the social media impact; all with a simple video.

When creating your social media ad there are some simple steps that you need to take to maximise your potential.

Facebooks algorithm actually favours visual content. So not only do you want to be visual for a technical point of view but more importantly think about the people who you’re actually advertising to. What will they be doing? They will be mindlessly checking their social media. So if you create something visual and memorable to attract interest.

When creating ads you can be quite specific with whom you target; demographics, gender etc. Choose these wisely as it can make all the difference.

Similarly to Google AdWords, Facebook introduced a relevance score. With Google AdWords your ads are given a quality score. The relevance score works in a similar way. Your ad will be ranked based on the relevance of your ad image, ad copy and destination page. The better your relevant score the better your ads will perform.

Attracting a potential customer with a relevant ad is one thing but you have to give them an actual reason to click on your ad. They’ve seen your ad they like it but the next stage is getting them to your site.

Simply saying that you offer the best product or service won’t do. People hear that all the time. Offers such as 30% off may be more likely persuade people to click through to your site.

Using your own company statistics you can make the ad more enticing ‘Join the thousands of people using our service with 30% Off’

Make sure that the call-to-action button is relevant. People love to see ‘Free’ So having your call-to-action button ‘Free Trial’ is more likely to bring people tour site. Equally ‘Buy Now and save X%’ can create a sense of urgency for people to click through.

For more information on Social Media Marketing visit our website. If you have any questions don’t be afraid to contact our friendly team here at Zelst.