If your customer visited one of your social media pages for the first time, would there be enough information, credibility and social proof for them to make a purchasing decision? Social media is often one of the first touch points that customers have with a brand so it’s important that you’re putting your best foot forward.

It’s no secret that social commerce is growing which makes this first impression EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to your sales strategy. That’s why we put together 10 tips to help you master the art of selling on social media.

1. Optimize Your Profiles

In order to attract the right customers to your pages, they have to be set up correctly. Take a moment to go to one of your profiles. When looking at it, will your customers be able to easily know what it is that you do or sell? Will they be able to find your business? Here is the basic information your profile should have:

CUSTOM HANDLE: This should be your business name or your personal name — make it easy to find and share. If your desired name is taken, add in underscores or try to get as close as you can to the name you want to use.
PROFILE NAME: Use this space to include your personal name or your business/brand name. Make it easy for people to find you! Pro Tip: Using Targeted Keywords in your profile name is a great way to increase search results for your business.
PROFILE PHOTO: Add a photo that best represents your business — it could be either your brand logo or a headshot of yourself if you are the service provider.
ABOUT/BIO: It needs to explain who you are, what you do, how your customers can contact you, and what action they should take next. Make it easy to read using line breaks or emojis.
CALL TO ACTION: Tell people what action they should take after visiting your profile such as visiting your website, signing up for your newsletter, shopping now, etc.

Apply these optimizations to each of your social media profiles. Having a cohesive look and feel across pages will help your customers remember who you are.

2. Share Valuable Content

One of the best ways to increase sales with your customers is to show up consistently and provide them value. Start by creating a social media content calendar. Outline all of your announcements, promotions, events, testimonials, and content that your customers will want to know about. Remember, you’re creating content FOR your customers’ benefit. If you don’t know what they want to hear about, ask them! Then you can incorporate their specific questions into future calendars.

3. Focus on Building Relationships First, Sales Second

Any good salesman knows that it’s important to build rapport with your customers first before leading with a sale. The same approach is recommended for social media. Focus on building authentic relationships with your customers by responding to their comments, questions, and DMs. Show them that there’s a human behind the brand that cares about them, their wants, and their needs. This will help you build a stronger connection over time so that when you do have something to sell, they will be more inclined to buy from you.

4. Show Fans a Behind the Scenes Look with Stories

More people are watching stories than ever before — in fact, 500 million people are using stories every day. Stories are a chance to show fans a less curated, more authentic side of your business. Give them a behind the scenes look at who you are, how your products and services work, and what’s next for your business. This is the perfect placement to start teasing your newest product, course, or launch. It’s an opportunity to get customers excited about what you’re working on and make them feel like they are a part of the brand. When you do have something to sell, share it to your stories first so these viewers feel special being “the first to know”.

5. Nurture Leads Through Direct Messages

Direct Messages provide a unique opportunity for business owners and brands to have private conversations with their customers. You can use DMs to answer customer questions, proactively reach out to new customers, garner product feedback, and more. One way you can drive more sales with Direct Messages is to share a special discount code with new customers like 10% off your first purchase. Or, you can reward your most loyal, engaged customers by sharing a sale that you’ll be announcing soon. This makes them feel like they were the first to know and will be more inclined to buy/share with others when it goes live.

6. Leverage Shoppable Products on Facebook & Instagram

If you’re an e-commerce business, you should 100% be leveraging Instagram & Facebook’s stores. First, connect your product catalog to Facebook’s Business Manager and then start tagging products that you post in your photos. This makes it easy for fans and customers to purchase products they see on your social feeds. This will also become increasingly important with the release of Instagram Checkout.

7. Utilize Instagram Checkout

Instagram Checkout allows fans to buy products they see on Instagram without ever leaving the app. This means that customers can potentially complete their entire purchase journey, from discovery to checkout, without ever visiting your website. Instagram Checkout is rolling out to more brands in the coming months but will inevitably make selling through social easier.

8. Increase Credibility Through Branded Content Ads

If you’re already working with influencers and you’re not using branded content ads, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach more potential customers. Branded Content Ads allow you to promote an influencer’s sponsored post through Facebook Ads Manager. Therefore, that single post that would normally only appear to the influencer’s organic audience, can be strategically advertised to more people (ie: your customers). By advertising their testimonial, you can increase your business’s credibility in addition to maximizing that post’s reach, engagement and return on investment.

9. Show Your Products In Action with IGTV

Video is an extremely powerful format for showing fans and potential customers how your products and services work. It gives them an opportunity to see them in action. IGTV, specifically, is a growing video channel that can be accessed from Instagram or a standalone app. Instagram’s made it easier to share one-minute previews of videos directly to Instagram which has also aided in its growing popularity. When sharing to IGTV, consistency is important because it will keep your audience engaged and know when to expect new content. One way you can use IGTV to grow more sales is by showing and sharing tips on how to use your products. End the video with a call to action and let them know where they can purchase. You can even collaborate with influencers to take over your IGTV 1 day a week to share videos of how they use your products.

10. Dynamic Retargeting Social Ads

One of the most cost effective and easiest ways to increase sales on social media is through retargeting ads. Through Facebook advertising, you can can retarget a wide range of people who have engaged with your social media profiles, watched a video, visited your website, added a product to their carts, initiated a checkout, and so much more. These are warm audiences that have already expressed some interest in your brand so they are more likely to pay attention to your ads and offers. To close the sale, it’s important to share a personalized message that appeals to their ultimate wants & needs at the right place and time.