7 Ways Your Business Can Monetize Social Media
- Monetizing on social media is crucial for any business.
- Businesses must embrace social media in terms of increasing revenue because it can be crucial for long-term financial success.
- Establishing a relationship with your customers via social media will help increase your chances of having repeat customers.
Everyone seems to be making an endless amount of money on social media, but it’s not as simple as you may think. However, if you are a business owner and want your business to stay in the game, embracing social media trends will be crucial.
Keep reading to find out how you can monetize your social media pages.
What Does Social Media Monetization Mean for a Business?
Monetization means generating revenue. This comes in the form of increasing sales or decreasing costs. You are monetizing any time you take steps to improve your profit margin. Social media monetization then uses the free social media resource to increase your profit margin.
Ways to Monetize Social Media
There are many ways to earn money or save money on social media. Below are seven ways that you can monetize your business on social media.
Generate Leads
People spend hours on social media every day, which means you are missing out on prime advertising if you aren’t using social media to generate leads. Generating leads is just raising your brand awareness. People who know about your product or service will help increase your brand awareness.
Consequently, the more people who need your product or service will increase your earnings. This is an easy way to monetize social media as a business owner.
Here are five different ways you can generate leads using your social media platforms:
- Pay for advertising
- Create helpful content
- Sponsor influencers
- Share customer testimonials
- Offer discounts or bonuses
Sell digital products
When people think of digital products, they usually sell courses or e-books. If that falls in your niche, then sell those using your social media platform. Small businesses with a niche in selling online products can financially thrive on the right social media marketing tools.
Digital products like online calendars, templates, e-books, and courses can be lucrative since there is no overhead after the product is made. As a result, small business owners typically sell these digital products online and receive great engagement from their followers, especially if the product is in high demand.
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Sell physical products directly
If you’re a local business, it might be time to expand your business by selling your physical product directly online. Business owners can set up stores directly from their social media platforms using Facebook and Instagram. If you decide to set up an online store using an external site like Wix or Shopify, add the link to your online store on your profile page.
Brand Partnerships
While sponsorships mean paying for advertising space on an influencer’s page, partnering with tangential brands can be a great way to grow your business and your partner’s business without paying for advertising.
A tangential brand is a company that would have similar customers to you but is not a direct competitor. For example, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) would have a tangential relationship with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). They both manage finances, but the roles of a CPA and a CFP are different enough that you need both. So if a CPA and a CFP teamed up, they could help each other gain clients by working together on social media.
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Every business has tangential brands, which means this is a great way to get more customers if you can find brands you can trust.
Promote Events
These days, it seems that, unless you receive an invite on social media, an event isn’t happening. Business owners can leverage this to their advantage. Whether it is a conference your business is hosting, an event that you’ll have a booth at, an upcoming sale, or a free hotdog day for customers, putting your event on social media will almost certainly increase attendance.
Answer Questions
People can be lazy when looking for answers, especially if the answer is buried in a long list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). So instead, people tend to ask questions through direct messaging on the respective platform.
By being quick to reply with a helpful answer, you will build a strong foundation of trust with your prospective customers. Chatbots are a lifesaver when it comes to social media users having general questions about your business, products, or services.
Most chatbots are programmed to answer your FAQs in apps like messenger, so you don’t have to take the time out of your day to answer them. However, if the chatbot can’t answer a certain question, you can take the liberty to answer it. Answering questions in a timely manner is a great way to win customers.
Save Money on Research
Data is the bread and butter of any successful business. However, gathering data can be expensive. So instead of paying large data firms to get data of a dubious nature, why not just ask your customers on social media?
Most social media platforms have poll options that will allow customers to give you immediate feedback to a question you may have about their desires and needs. This option helps business owners because you don’t waste money on research, and the customer gets exactly what they want.
The Money-Wrap Up
Social media is a great way for businesses of any size, location, or niche to increase income. Monetizing your business’s social media ranges from direct sales to talking to your customers. Businesses that want to thrive financially must start monetizing their social media presence.
Main Image Credit: Shutterstock.com / Antlii