It’s apparent that social media is here to stay. The roots of social media are so far ingrained into our lives that brands will either grow with it or wither from lack of support. 

That’s why in this article we are here to help you build the perfect brand for selling on social media. 

To make money on social media you must have a brand identity, this allows consumers to see your company and immediately recognise it, like the polar bear from Coca-Cola. If you are on the fence about wanting to social sell or not consider checking out this article (internal link here). 

Keep scrolling to learn the best ways to start a profitable brand and start selling on social media today!

1. How to Build your Brand to Social Sell

Social selling is not a new concept, actually, big-name companies like Nike, Go pro, and even Wendy’s are masters at the art of social selling. Before social media, this type of marketing was solely done by word of mouth. 

It continues to prove to be the highest conversion rate of sales. Getting a recommendation via word of mouth, or social media are both high sales marketing techniques. But how do you get started in the world of selling on social media? 

Take a look at your brand and compare it to these three tips on how to create a brand identity for selling on social media. 

Update social media to all look the same

This can seem super boring, but let’s look at our friend’s Wendy’s, each social media platform has the same photo, bio, and voice (fact check this). 

(I would screenshot their social media and put it in as photos) 

Updating your social media to have the same photo throughout will allow customers to recognise your brand throughout. If you are branding as an influencer the above is even more true. People typically have a hard time remembering someone’s name after one encounter. But we do remember people’s faces.

So even if you can’t have the same username across the board, your profile picture will stick in the heads of potential customers.  

Your bio should be the same across the board as well. Check out top competitors profiles to see what they do and replicate it. Not word for word, but the style and general format is fine.

To have brand recognition you need to keep your colors and voice the same throughout. The best way to do this is to create a mood board for your company or influence style. 

After creating the mood board use a color picker (yes Microsoft paint has this) and choose 5-6 colors from the board. You can write down the hex codes and continue to use this as a platform for brand colors. 

Automate as much as possible 

Do you know how real estate agents say location, location, location? Well, Successful brands that social sell say automation, automation, automation. There is a way to get around this without spending a penny.

Here is a list of free apps that will help with automation:

–If this then that (IFTTT) 

-Planoly

-Scoop.it

-Tailwind

-Upfluence

Why do you need automation? Or what are you even going to automate? As much as possible. Companies plant 2-4 weeks of content with a content strategy. Automation helps with consistency and allows you to re-use the same info across multiple platforms which will save you so much time. 

Create content calendars/strategy

Speaking of content strategy, you need one. If you have no idea where to start, create a free content calendar. This will be the start of your strategy on what information you want to give your future customers and when.

The easiest way to start your content calendar is around holidays, national ones, and silly ones like Pi-day. You will be able to re-use this calendar and just tweak your strategy as you go. 

Pay attention to what gets the most views, likes, shares and any other type of interaction. This is the content you need to increase to your strategy. 

2. How to Sell on Social Media 

Now that you have a solid brand in place, let’s consider how to go about selling on social media. Selling can feel really awkward at first, but in order to continue to create quality content for your community, you need to sell.

Why social selling matters.

As previously mentioned social selling has the highest conversion rate of viewer-to-buyer ratio. Companies have been using word of mouth, the original social selling, for decades. Some companies like Tiffany co, Mercedez, and Hermes all thrive solely off of social selling and word-of-mouth. 

You never see these companies in TV ads or begging for people to come to their sales. Why? Because they make all their money from social selling and continue to thrive with that market strategy alone.   

Create SMART goals 

SMART goals are so important for business in general. But when it comes to social selling it can be difficult to measure. That makes keeping track of goals so much more important. 

What’s a SMART goal? 

S- Specific 

M- Measurable

A- Attainable

R- Relevant

T- Time-based

An example of a smart goal in social selling would be: By next Friday my TikTok views will reach 200K, last week we did 140K. This week we will post 25% more on our niche, and review our progress when we make our next SMART goal next Friday. 

Be specific, about what you want, this is like manifesting on steroids. 

Make it measurable, if you don’t like TikTok, look at click rates, feed views, something that will give you a number. 

Make it attainable. Can you increase your content by 25%? Will your quality suffer?

Make it relevant. In the world of branding and social selling, this means keeping it to your niche. As a social seller, you need to think about if it is relevant to your growth, or where you want to be in 3 months. 

Make it timed. You should have a weekly SMART goal, a monthly SMART goal, and a 3-month SMART goal. The three-month Smart goal is more of a vision but should still be updated every three months.

The best part of this? You don’t need anything fancy for this. You can open a notebook, or a new word doc, title it SMART goals and put a reminder on your phone when to update your goals.  

Teach don’t sell 

Let’s face the elephant in the room. No one wants to be THAT person. The “slimy car sales” person, the “I’m only on bumble for sales” person, the “you should buy my product for every occasion” person. 

Then don’t be that person. Continue with your authentic self and focus on teaching people how to use your product. If you offer a service, teach them how you do it. I promise you, if your final product is as good as you think it is, people will come asking you to do your magic. 

You will always have the upper hand on a beginner. You aren’t trying to make sales to someone who already knows your service or already makes your product. You are trying to make sales to the person who loves what you do but doesn’t have the time and just wants to buy it. 

You already made it this far and learned so much. You have so much to teach or give to your community, Even if you teach someone your tips and tricks, they will continue to come back for more, and you have created a re-occurring viewer, who will eventually become a customer. 

Why You Should Build Your Brand to Social Sell.

If you are still on the fence about social selling we totally get it. It can be really nerve-racking turning your social media brand into an income. But you’ve already made the first step to build your brand and start selling on social media. 

You’ve already begun the research and have already learnt so much more about social selling. And for that, congratulate yourself.