A quick question for you; On the scale of 1-10, how much is your business leveraging social media? Can you get a five?
Maybe we should have some quick assessment.
- Do you have a Facebook page?
- Do you run Facebook ads?
- Do you use Instagram Influencers to promote your business?
- Do you have a Facebook shop?
- Do you even know that you can have a WhatsApp store?
Many businesses are already utilizing the first two, but only a few know or have considered the last three. Therefore, I have decided to use this article to teach business owners how they can make more sales on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Open a shop on Facebook and Instagram
Facebook shopping is a new feature added in 2020, during the pandemic. It was created to help small businesses sell during the lockdown while offices and stores were forced closed.
Facebook shop is a free* online store where you upload your products catalogue and choose a product to feature. Businesses can also customize their shops with beautiful colors and use awesome graphics to communicate your brand to Facebook users.
Before this feature, Facebook users could only relate with your business and demand a link to purchase your product. With Facebook shop, they can access your store, make payment, and buy from your business without leaving the social media platform.
This online store is something you would like to consider if your business already has a huge number of followers on Facebook. Also, it’s handy for all businesses, irrespective of the size of their followers. Having an online store on the social media platform with the highest number of users is a massive marketing opportunity. One that no business should ignore.
You don’t need to be tech savvy to open your Facebook shop. All you need is a Facebook account and a Facebook page to begin with. Also, your business must only deal in physical products. Read this article to see the steps involved in creating a Facebook shop.
Since Instagram acquisition by Facebook, both social media platforms have been sharing lots of features in common. An update in one will cause an update in the other. In the same manner, Instagram also has a new shopping feature.
*The Facebook store is evolving and there may be a commission paid to Facebook. Please check with the latest agreement when setting up your store.
Using social media influencers to promote your business
While you are still struggling to build a community of online followers on Facebook or Instagram, you could use influencers to advertise your products and promote your business. Influencers are famous and trusted individuals in a particular business niche or area of life. An influencer could be a musician, celebrity, model, gamer, or fitness coach.
They usually have a large number of followers on their social media pages. Christiano Ronaldo, the present top influencer in the world has over 300 million followers on Instagram. Another one like him is Dwayne Johnson, popularly known as The Rock. He’s trusted for giving out valuable workout tips and has been featured on gyms and workout wear advertisements.
You don’t have to go for the expensive and most-followed influencers. A person with 5,000 – 100,000 followers is good for small and medium scale business. You just must ensure that the influencer is well-known for the niche that you want him/her to promote.
As a matter of fact, influencers with small numbers of followers have better engagement. They have an engagement rate of about 8.8%, while those with millions of followers have about 3.6%. Influencer marketing will greatly promote your business to the world. Many new people will come to know your brand. Moreover, an Influencer’s endorsement will fetch you more sales.
Selling on Facebook marketplace
Facebook marketplace is another selling platform that can be utilized by businesses. For businesses, the marketplace is where they can list their products, sell, and meet new customers. This selling platform was introduced in 2016 to foster localized trading between Facebook users. That’s, they want people to find and purchase items from businesses that are very close to them.
Facebook marketplace is quite different from the likes of Amazon, eBay, and Shopify. In the sense that, a buyer cannot purchase an item directly from a business on the platform. They would have to message you through messenger, and then you give them directions on how to pay and where to receive the purchased item.
This feature could be used by anybody, irrespective of your profile, either personal or business. It’s designed for anyone to list and sell products. It’s simple and straightforward to use. Besides, it’s free!
As a social media-based marketplace, people find it easier to explore and find items on it. And as a result, businesses are recording some amazing success on the platform. The marketplace is visited by all kinds of people, hence making it the right place to sell different kinds of items.
Aside from making more sales, Facebook marketplace will help a business to identify the attributes and personality of their customers. With Facebook, a business can know the categories of people that are looking for their product and why they are looking for their product. Consequently, assisting them to create optimized Facebook ads to capture the perfect target audience.
Facebook marketplace also helps to make brand awareness, generate new leads, and test out people’s reactions to new products and promotions from your business.
Opening a WhatsApp store
Are you looking for a new way to sell your products to friends and relatives? Having a WhatsApp store can make that desire come through. WhatsApp is a social media network where we interact and relate with our friends and families. It is not bad to make some money from those relationships.
To launch a WhatsApp store, you need the WhatsApp business app. It’s available on Play store and Apple store. One of its incredible features is the catalog. With this platform, you can add your business catalog to your profile. People will be able to buy and add products to their carts.
The app also comes with amazing features such as preset messaging tools for providing quick answers and assuring your chats that you will reply to their messages very soon. There’s also a short link maker for creating and sharing attractive links.
Conclusion
A relevant business is one that follows trends. Be that business that’s constantly flowing with technology and is leveraging the great marketing power of social media, and success will be yours. Above are four new ways to promote your business on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Make sure to utilize that now!
