The Social Advantages Consumers Need

Consumers are constantly being influenced by everything around them.

Television commercials, sales aisles at the store, seeing what other people have and do, and of course, social media, all impact what consumers desire and ultimately wind up purchasing.

Specifically, we’re looking at social media and the influence it has over purchasing products.

What Networks Are You a Part Of?

Most likely, you belong to a few social networks.

Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest are four of the largest and most influential social media platforms.

Most likely, you’ve been influenced to purchase something based on what you’ve seen on social media recently. Whether it’s trying a new restaurant or purchasing a new sweater, social media has a huge impact on what you buy.

Educate Yourself on Social Media

Another example of being influenced by social media is making the decision to return to school.

As the following article looks at, whether you’re looking to completely change job fields or need information on where to find PDH online, social media can have an effect on your decision.

Perhaps you recently read on Facebook about a high school friend quitting their job to pursue self-employment. This may give you the push you need to pursue your own passions and take that leap.

How Social Media Influences Buyers

If you’re in the process of decorating your home, you’ve most likely turned to Pinterest at one point or another.

Pinterest is an image-sharing platform where you can “pin” photos that you like that lead to a link on where to purchase the product or where to get more information on the product (such as a blog).

But getting buyers isn’t as easy as posting photos of your products. While that can work, you need to actually engage with your customers if you want to maximize sales.

A few tips to use social media to influence buyers include:

• Engage with consumers – Bloggers are actually the perfect example of engaging with people who they hope will eventually purchase their product. Bloggers focus on sharing their life story and connecting with their readers, which ultimately turns them into buyers – whether the blogger is recommending a product or selling a product that he or she created. Unfortunately, you can’t expect to just post your items to your Facebook page and generate sales. Selling through social media is about forming a relationship and connecting with your buyers.

• Use multiple social media platforms – What’s your favorite social media platform? Chances are your favorite platform is different from the person sitting next to you. In business, you must use many forms of social media in order to reach a wider audience. At the very least, you should be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus and LinkedIn, as those are the top five platforms and are generally used by the largest number of consumers.

• Host giveaways and contests – A great way to get more followers is by hosting giveaways and contests on your social media pages. You can have people gain extra entries by sharing your status with friends and family. This gets more people to enter your giveaway and it gets more people exposed to your business. Ultimately, the more people you can reach via social media the better chances you’ll have at increasing your sales.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/1hyfSa2 via transformational marketing
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