How to use social media to sell your products

New Delhi: Social media has emerged to be a revolutionary tool in the contemporary times. From connecting long lost friends to linking professionals seeking employment; social media offers one the best prospects for socializing with the world from the comfort of one's couch.

However, the benefits of social media are not limited to just networking. Today, it has become a significant channel for brands, e-commerce platforms, and even independent sellers to connect with their target audience and conduct sales online.

Over a billion active users on Facebook, 700+ million Twitteratis' and more than 800 million active Instagrammers provide lucrative business opportunities to the enterprises and independent sellers today.

In turn, these enterprises and sellers are also adapting to this dynamic route for marketing and sales to re-examine their strategies to draw higher revenues.

Here is a list of six hacks offered by Kraftly which one can use to sell their products using social media:

1. Pick the right platform

With the number of social media platforms growing tremendously, it can be cumbersome for any business to ensure optimum presence across multiple channels. This is where adoption of a focused approach towards social media selling by discovering a platform which fits perfectly with the business, comes in.

Analyse the social networks that are most conducive to social selling and offer the best conversion rates. Shortlist upto three social media channels to target, and optimize the content for each of these channels.

2. Simplify the purchasing process

An average user's attention span is lesser than eight seconds. Therefore, strictly avoid information which is complicated. Also, ensure optimal loading speed, weed out any broken links, and provide an easy experience for the buyers.

Small-scale sellers and homepreneurs can also set up shops at digital C2C marketplaces and direct the social media traffic to the same for an easy and smooth online selling experience.

3. Ensure optimum experience for mobile users

Mobile internet users have crossed the tipping point and hence, it is crucial to ensure an optimum mobile presence for mobile visitors.

Ensure that the website loads quickly on mobile and the content is more visual, and easy to read. In addition to using aesthetically pleasant images, ensure that the same are optimized for viewing via smaller screens.

4. Grow your network

There are no shortcuts to social selling and hence, sellers need to be dedicated to growing their network on social media platforms. Have a plan in place for growing your network and segregate it under daily, weekly and monthly goals, to remain focused.

Connect with influencers in your field of work, actively engage with social media audience via reshares, comments, likes, and shares. One may also ask relevant questions to boost engagement or answer questions to demonstrate thought leadership on social media.

5. Include call-to-actions in social media posts

When drafting social media posts, one has to ensure that it is fresh, engaging, and inviting. While such a copy would boost engagement including likes, shares and subscriptions, it is important to convert the same engagement into sales.

A simple way of achieving the same is by including call-to-action phrases in the posts. Call-to-action posts provide a direction to users and lead them to the next stop, such as dropping a direct message or clicking the link.

6. Leverage customer reviews

Social media users put implicit and explicit trust in peer recommendations. To capitalize on the same, brands and independent sellers must encourage customer reviews on social media channels.

Connect with your past customers and request reviews and ratings. Ensure that these reviews are available on every social media channel. Additionally, pay close attention to negative reviews.