How Businesses Generate Revenue through Social Media Promotion
Business owners are always looking for new ways to generate revenue and increase traffic to their websites, blogs, and other online advertising platforms. The latest trend is the increase in businesses participating in social media.
Small, mid-size, and large companies are all taking advantage of the large number of social media users across the world.
There is no company that shouldn’t be on at least one of the “big three” of social media: Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. Investing time into social media marketing will result in more traffic to your site.
Why get on social media as a business?
There is a great return on investment (ROI) when your business is on social media. Social media ROI measures the efficiency and efficacy of a social media marketing campaign.
It’s been proven that social media users who follow a business on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram tend to shop at those locations.
Twitter is a good example of this. According to MediaBistro, 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from brands that they follow.
Additionally, 42% of consumers learn about the products and services they are interested in through Twitter. This type of outreach cannot be ignored.
Display and search ads, while important, are being overtaken by the social media trend that has been increasingly more popular with younger generations.
Currently, social media advertising revenue has reached over $8 billion.
Social media marketing metrics also reflect a good ROI on a consistently-maintained and updated social media site.
One of the most popular ways to see how much of an impact your business is making is by checking the amount of traffic you receive.
Whether or not that is an accurate indicator of performance is something that has been hotly debated in the internet marketing world, but for now, it serves at least some sort of indicator.
And, according to Forbes writer Jayson DeMers, “social media drives 31% of all referral traffic,” meaning that people are finding websites through social media as opposed to using search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo!. This statistic is up from the previous 22.7%, showing a massive jump, and the trend is expected to continue.
Influencer Marketing for Businesses
One common type of marketing that businesses should be taking advantage of is influencer marketing, which uses “social media influencers” to advertise products and services.
Social media influencers are popular people on social media sites.
These people have a lot of followers, and their audience base tends to be very broad.
Whether influencers’ talent is singing, acting, or telling jokes, they attract a large following and, if they partner with a business, that is sure to increase traffic.
Why does influencer marketing work?
Influencer marketing works because it expands on benefits already present in social media marketing, i.e. exposure and traffic.
Using social media helps your business as it increases your audience and presence, whether you are looking to expand your current consumer base or attract a new demographic.
Social media influencers, depending on their audience, can direct traffic to your site because their word is held in high esteem by their fans.
Being recommended a product or service from someone you have no connection to is not as effective as being recommended one by someone who you are a fan of, and whose videos and pictures you observe weekly.
The social media influencer has already built up a base of trust with their fans. And if you can build a relationship with him or her, that can be used to your mutual benefit.
The influencer is able to show a product to his or her fans that they believe they’ll like, and you’ll be able to increase revenue to your business.
An example of this is the deal between LeBron James, a basketball player for the Cavaliers, and Nike, an athletic company.
James recently signed a lifetime deal with Nike that amounts to $1 billion. This is a huge amount of money, and in the long run, both parties will benefit.
LeBron has his own athletic line with the company, and his fans have given Nike a lot of business as a result. Both James and Nike have increased revenue because of this partnership, combining James’ fan base with Nike’s clientele and consumers.
Businesses can increase their revenue through the use of social media influencers and social media in general.
Influencers have a social media presence that can be used to promote your business’ products and get the word out about how great they are.
This type of marketing, as well as online marketing in general, has been proven to increase traffic and provide an ROI. Social media marketing is not as expensive as more traditional forms of advertising, and the exposure your brand gets is worth it.