Social networking sites has in itself become a business today. With every Tom Dick and Harry trying to make money out of this new trend, there are some sites that have left their mark in our lives.

As an entrant in the industry, any it may be, one always is in need to spread the word among the target audience and get loyal customers without having to spend much. True, isn’t it?

Everyone would agree that with  social networking sites being popular amongst every age group, it has become easier to find a variety of people on a single platform. And the plus point of this is, you can boost sales either by spending much less compared to other medium or sometimes by just not spending at all.
Here, are some most effective social networking sites that will help you boost your sales, irrespective of the industry you belong to:

Facebook and Twitter

These are the top two social networking sites of today. People update status and tweet about – where they are, what their interests are, who are their peers, what they like to eat and so on. This understanding allows you to build strategies accordingly and create a strong fan-base for your brand’s fan page.

For example, as a start up you are targeting only 10 people then it’s easy to study them and understand their behavior (as a sample of target group). Let us suppose, you are selling sports products, so your target group is likely to be the ones interested in sports. But here, their interest may vary. 4 may be interested in Football while other 6 in Basketball. Now you know you have to promote only football and basketball related items so that it leads to sales. Promoting tennis products won’t give you any returns. This is, therefore the most cost effective way to generate sales without spending a penny.

One can also opt for paid advertising (both on facebook and twitter), if the target group is bigger and the company have funds to invest.

LinkedIn and Youtube
Completely different platforms from the above two, these can be used to target both – B2B, as well as B2C marketing. Considered as the  ‘strictly business’ sites, these are the best platforms to let the industry people know —
— who you are
—  what are you into and
— how good you are at what you are doing.

This, in turn builds reputation in the market.

Groups on LinkedIn and promotional videos or interviews on Youtube are the best ways to connect to the seriously interested target group. Seriously Interested? Yes. Because no one would add you on LinkedIn or search for you on Youtube, if they are not seriously interested.

Besides these major sites, Pinterest and Google Plus can also be helpful. Pinterest’s 87% of the users being female, it can be used by companies into fashion, beauty products, culinary, etc. Using google plus can help you get visibility on search engines as Google picks up people and companies having Google Plus profiles to display in search results.

Some easy ways to Promote yourself on these giant social media platforms

Facebook and Twitter Contests: As mentioned above, if you are willing to invest even a little bit of money; then let me tell you –  contests work wonders to get more ‘likes’ and ‘followers’, which means more people and more awareness.

People who are not tech freaks also ‘like’ a technology page just because they are offered something for free in the form of a contest. And you never know, this group may actually turn to be your loyal customers in the future.

Companies/Groups on LinkedIn: By creating a group or company profile on LinkedIn, you allow users to follow you or join your group and avail the updates of your company. You can provide them the information you feel should be spread amongst the peers.

This is how the information of your company will look:

A look at the company’s activities on the page:

Youtube Promotion: Whenever you are interviewed or are featured on any news channel/relevant source, update that video on Youtube and post the link on your website and every social networking profile of yours. More hits your video gets, it will help the video go viral. If anyone searches for the video of your company or uses a search term related to your company then too you can be found. This will develop a ‘reliability’ factor amongst users/customers. If you are advertising on television, then these commercials can also be posted to your Youtube profile.

Don’t know how to start marketing your brand on Social media sites? Let our Social Media Experts guide you ( http://www.ebrandz.com/social-media-optimization.htm )