Social media is used by both consumers and businesses all over the world. Once seen as a potential side-line project, social media is fast becoming the main way businesses interact with their customers and sell their products.
Whether it’s large retailers or small independent retailers – most companies have some form of social media presence. And the beauty of social media is that there is something for everyone. Pinterest and Instagram appeals to more image-based companies, Facebook and Twitter appeal to a variety of companies and Linked In is used by professionals trying to increase their contacts list.
So if you have a reselling business, whether it’s large or small, you should be using social media too. Here are a few reasons why:
Promotion
Social media is one of the most effective ways to promote a business, promote brand awareness and spread a company message. With millions of companies using sites like Facebook and Twitter to publicise their brand, it’s something you could be doing for your reselling business too. There are a host of ways you can promote your business on social media and one of the advantages of using this platform is that it’s free. After you have set up a company profile page you can start tweeting or updating your timeline with company news and products. You can use links to your blog to promote content relevant to your products and industry, you can promote links to your website and product pages and you can upload pictures of the products you are reselling. Once you update your page with these you can share them among your community and you can also use ‘hashtags’ on sites like Twitter to further highlight your update. Although they are used on Facebook, ‘hashtags’ are mainly used on Twitter and are used before a word to promote it. If a word has a ‘hashtag’ attached to it, it will become a search term. For instance, if you post an update on Twitter about the iPhones you have to resell, you could follow the update with #iphone #iphone5 #apple #mobilephones. Doing this will ensure that anybody searching for these words or phrases will find your products and your company page.
Many businesses also use video social media sites, like You Tube, to promote their content and increase brand awareness. So if you are able to, consider creating a video channel and using videos of your products to further boost your company profile.
Customer Service
Many companies now use social media to interact with customers. Although many companies still invite customer inquiries through their website, many also use social media to deal with customer queries or complaints. This can be a very effective way of dealing with customer queries quickly and can also be good for brand awareness too. If you’re not already using social media for customer service, you should try it. You can usually respond to queries much more efficiently (especially if you set up notifications) and it can help to boost your customer service levels. Although customer complaints on social media can mean members of the public can see potentially negative publicity about your business, it does give you an opportunity to be open and honest with your customers and to build brand loyalty. It’s also cheaper than CRM software!
Sales
As well as promoting your overall brand, social media can help to drive sales to your business too. You can update your page and draw attention to it by using search terms and keywords. If a customer then engages in conversation with you, you can post links to your website home page and you never know, this customer might just go through the shopping cart process!
Tips on Using Social Media:
• Include all of your key information on your social media profiles including your website details and contact information. This makes it as easy as possible for a potential customer to visit your website or inquire about your products.
• Keep your content fresh. Followers of your social media page will not want to see the same updates over and over again so to keep your readers interested ensure you create new and interesting copy to read.
• Follow influential people. This can help you to gain tips – if someone has a lot of followers on their profile, you can use their techniques to improve your follower base.
• Update your profile! There is little point in signing up for social media if you are not planning on using it – ensure you keep your profile updated and get involved in conversation as it’s the most effective way to build your business.
