This blog post is for those businesses that see great engagement on their social media platforms and posts but struggle to convert that activity into sales.

With social media a great tool for not just engagement but also brand and product discovery, giving prospective customers a window into your brand or business offering as well as the products you sell, knowing how to turn that engagement into sales can be great for business.

Here’s why - and how to harness social engagement into sales.

Why social media is so good for business

Social media is one of the leading platforms on which customers research and discover brands, services, and products that they want to try.

It provides a platform on which brands and businesses can enjoy full control over how they interact with their customers, building entire communities and creating trends within their market or industry through a mix of posts, engaging stories, and viral reels.

One thing which has become increasingly prominent in recent years is the rise in static and very corporate businesses redefining their brand personality through social media. With a blend of advice and tips for followers, and engaging content, even these incredibly corporate brands can attract a whole new audience and add life to their strategy.

But let’s be real for a minute - most brands only have time to invest in their social media strategy if it leads to tangible results elsewhere in the business. High engagement and an increase in brand awareness needs to translate into more sales and a higher rate of enquiries if this kind of social activity is to become a sustainable tool for growth

Which is where the next section of this blog comes in…

The best ways to convert 'likes' into leads

If you want your social media engagement to turn into leads, you need to focus on building relationships and encouraging the next step of the customer journey - whether that be filling in a contact form or clicking through to a website to complete a purchase.

Here are some of the best ways to do this, including small changes that you can make to your social media profile to facilitate and optimise your conversion rate:

• Optimise your profile so that it communicates exactly what your brand is all about
• Know your audience, what they use social media for, and how they like to engage with brands so that you can harness and nurture the right activity
• Schedule posts so that you are always connecting with your audience at the optimum time for them
• Create content that makes followers want to learn more about you - clicking through to your profile, following you, and eventually transitioning onto your website or other platforms
• Make content easy to share across other platforms to widen your reach
• Use reviews and other UGC (user generated content) to show followers and potential customers that your products and services are high in quality and reputable
• Make sure that any landing page you link to is consistent with the content and design of your social media copy and posts
• Use social listening to understand what followers want to see and hear about from you, then generate posts which meet that need or desire
• Offer incentives to users who take the next step, for example offering a download for those who provide their email address

There is so much you can do on your social media to nurture followers and convert them into tangible leads - using data and insight from the platform to finesse and fine-tune your content in line with your target audience.

The right tips for you will depend on your business and industry, as well as which social media platforms you use. But as a general rule, and if you take just one thing from this entire blog, we urge you to get to know your audience first and foremost and determine what it is that they are looking for from you.

Build your social media strategy with the support of Social Loop

Using social media to its full effect requires a balance of reactive and ad hoc posts, and strategic marketing activity.

While behind-the-scenes stories, reactive videos, and engaging insights into business activity are all great for engagement, a comprehensive strategy will look to balance this type of content against advertising and more structured marketing content. Which is where Social Loop comes in.

Working within the parameters of your business goals, we work with you to create a social media plan which maximises conversion and promotes the action that you want users to take - whether that’s continuing their journey on your website, getting in touch, or following your account for future updates.

As social media management experts, we know how different social platforms work within a wider strategy and can help to embed social posts and engagement into a broader plan for growth and sustainable success. Get in touch with us for a tailored breakdown of services that we can help with.