According to a recent survey, almost three out of four businesses (71 percent) currently use social media in some way in an effort to help them grow their companies. Additionally, Facebook is the preferred platform, with 86 percent of users reporting that they have business pages on this site, followed by Instagram at 48 percent.
While social media is a great avenue for connecting with your target audience, the ultimate goal is to increase your business revenues. And the key to making this happen is to know three very specific things: who your audience is, your platform’s demographics and best practices, and all of your money-making options. Let’s go into each one now.
Knowing Your Audience
Before you can even begin to make money on social media, you must first know your audience. This is important because you have to know how to reach them in a way that is likely to increase their desire to buy from you.
So, what type of activities do they enjoy? What problems do they have? What solutions are they looking for? The more in-depth you know them, the more you know how they think, the easier it is to come up with a social media marketing campaign that speaks directly to them.
Knowing your audience also requires knowing their online habits. This is critical because you want to post when they’re most likely to be using their social media accounts, keeping you front and center in their news feeds. So, when are they usually online?
When considering times, it’s also helpful to know if those times are the same as yours. For instance, 80 percent of the US’s population is contained within two time zones: Central and Eastern. Therefore, posting according to their times may net you a better response than posting based on Mountain or Pacific time.
Knowing Your Platform
Second, before you can maximize your earning potential via social media, you must also know the platforms you’re on. This involves first knowing its demographics.
For example, if you’re figuring out how to get paid on Instagram, it helps to know that this particular platform has a higher number of female users (38 percent versus 26 percent male) and caters more to the 18 to 29-year age range (59 percent). Posting with this demographic in mind helps you create a campaign that is likely to get the best response.
When researching your platform, you also want to know its best practices. In other words, what types of posts get the most engagement on that site? This can increase your income potential simply by increasing the number of people who like or share your posts.
Find out whether the most engaging posts for that site are image-based, video-based, or involve written content. Are the posts long or short? Do they provide information, inspiration, or simply make the follower laugh? Find the content that works best on that site and post it most often.
Knowing Your Money-Making Options
The third thing you have to know in order to make money on social media is what options exist for boosting business revenues. While there are many, most will generally fit into one of three categories.
Selling your own products or service. This is the one most companies focus on, and rightfully so because it is your products and services that has caused people to want to follow you.
Offering sponsored posts. Another way to make money is by offering sponsored posts. These are posts that another company pays you to put on your site so they can sell direct to your followers.
Becoming an affiliate. Affiliate marketing is similar to sponsored posts, but the difference is that it typically involves you promoting someone else’s products or services in return for some type of commission.
The great thing about social media is that you don’t have to just pick one of these money-making options. You can actually incorporate all of them into your digital campaign, increasing your revenue by creating multiple streams.
Making money via social media isn’t a quick and easy option. However, as long as you follow a process—one which involves researching your audience, your platforms, and your money-making options—you can increase your cashflow with these platforms.