How Social Media Influences Buying Decisions

Initially, most people saw social media mostly as a platform to share funny pictures and videos with friends, family, and new acquaintances. Little did we know that it was going to turn into something so powerful on such a large scale that it affects our daily life, including business and marketing.

It should not be surprising to us that social media is a major avenue that companies and businesses use for their marketing strategies. According to Sprout Social, 74% of people that shop make their buying decisions based on social media. And this does not only apply to big companies.

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What Exactly Do Social Influencers Do?

First of all, this term refers to people that have a huge following on social media. These people called social influencers usually have a large digital audience. So, anything that is posted by this set of influencers gets viewed by an incredible number of people. This is why business owners and promoters seek out social influencers to help them post content that can promote their businesses.

While these social influencers can get paid to promote a business, not all their content is paid for. Most things they post will have to do with a certain product. For instance, when a social influencer posts about a fitness product that has been helping her lose a ton of weight, her followers are sure to want to know more about the product.

A study conducted in 2016 by PwC total retail in 2016 showed that 45% of respondents globally agreed that reading feedback, comments, and reviews influenced their decision to buy a product or not.

A social influencer can write or talk about a product that he or she has personally used without making it look like he or she was sponsored. They usually share a coupon or deal,leave a link to the product or tag the company which is another way they encourage patronage of the product among their followers.

How You Can Leverage Social Media Influencers

As a business owner, now that you know the power that these social media influencers wield, you should at least consider reaching out to them to promote your business. You could reach out and ask if they will be willing to try out your product and give an honest review. Or you could actually agree to pay them for indirect promotion of your product.

However, this does not mean that you should reach out to just about any social influencer out there. You should aim for those whose followers are your target audience. If you sell hair extension products and seek out a social media influencer with a large male following to help you promote the product, you are not going to get very far.

What you should do is consciously follow any social media influencer you are interested in working with. Observe their posts and comments. But most importantly, observe the gender and demographics of those who are commenting. If the majority are women and your product is for women, go ahead and reach out to the influencer with the aim of also capturing her female followers.

How Business Owners Can Influence Buyers Through Social Media

Reaching out to social media influencers alone may not do the job. It is equally important that as a business owner, you should have an active social media presence. Even if the social media influencer directs people to your business page, they may need a little more convincing before parting with their money. If your business already has videos and pictures of people who have made use of your products and gotten results, it will reinforce the visitors’ decision to try out your product or service.

Don’t just set up a social media page for your business and abandon it, or depend on influencers to do all the work for you. You need to keep your page active and current by engaging directly with your customers and visitors.

Take some time out and observe what your competitors are doing on social media that is helping them gain more followers.  Some of them give out free products to their followers that tagged the most friends to their commercial posts.

A great way to get videos of customers using your product is to ask for various entries that show how creative they can get with your product. For instance, a pasta company can ask for video entries of people cooking their pasta in their own unique recipes for a handsome cash reward, or a trip to another country.

Final Thoughts

There is no doubt that social media influences buying decisions, but businesses can do a lot in this area. There are a lot of people that make use of social media and huge sales have been made by businesses taking advantage of these media.

Being active and seeking out various ways (including advertising) to reach out to more people on social media will not only increase your number of followers but also increase your chances of closing out on more sales.

If you are interested in even more social media-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.

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