Three Social Media Strategies to Start Generating Immediate Revenue

I was approached the other day by a consumer oriented start-up firm.  They have a website, and are successful using listings on multiple affiliate sites to find customers.  They have an interest in going after a more affluent market and were wondering how they might be able to do this using social media.  I’ll outline three strategies that would work for them, and could also work if you are a franchise with 300 locations, a start-up, homebuilder, or even a restaurant chain.

Before you begin, you need to narrow your target.  In the case above it was tech-savvy, young professionals that aspire to own luxury goods.  If you’re a pizza franchise your niche may be busy Moms, college students, or teens in a certain radius of your locations.  Whatever it is make sure you develop a focused target.

1) Start Blogging and/or Twitter. I don’t recommend that everyone blog. There is sometimes just not enough content to keep the blog engaging. However, I can’t think of anyone who shouldn’t be on Twitter. You don’t need to be a novelist to tweet either.

• a. Why Blog? Here are just a couple of reasons: 1) Gain visibility as a resource, not just someone trying to sell something, 2) Develop a new dialogue with prospects and customers, 3) Every blog entry is a SEO opportunity, 4) It humanizes your brand, 5) Google likes blogs and your blog links to your website.
• b. Every blogger should be on Twitter. A great resource is TweetLater which allows you to schedule all your tweets for the week in a queue. I’ll often use my blog posts as fodder for my tweets. Just make sure you are not overly promotional on Twitter, remember your goal is to become a resource and develop a dialogue. A good practice is to promote your Twitter page in your traditional advertising and link on your website. Once you have a following on Twitter start making occasional special VIP offers to this group to generate traffic and buzz. They’ll love that you are reaching out on this level.

2) Develop Facebook Fan Page. Facebook is growing at 5 million users per week. One of the fastest growing segments is women 35-44. Facebook has recently gone through some changes which makes it better for developing fan pages. Developing a fan base on Facebook can be more difficult than Twitter, but use some of the same strategies that you use for Twitter. Such as a RSS feed from your blog posts, add photos of customers, “Ping” your Twitter updates to Facebook, and add your video content. Also, don’t forget to promote your Facebook page on your traditional advertising and website. When you’ve got a following on Facebook start to engage your fan base by making special offers to them like you do on Twitter. Facebook is also great to test ideas, get insights and ideas to improve your business.

3) To further build your fan base on Twitter and Facebook don’t rule out doing a PR stunt with your followers. If you’re a restaurant or franchise company send out a Tweet that says “free pizza (or coffee) with college ID today from 1-2 PM” and see how your followers begin to spread like wildfire. If your followers all have a similar interest (such as cars, fashion, or cooking) use social media to promote a special event onsite where you and your sales team can develop a deeper one-to-one relationship.

OK, you busted me.  You won’t be able generate immediate revenue off these strategies unless you already have a following, but you’ll be amazed how quickly you can generate a fan base if you do it correctly.  If you don’t do it your competitors may already be filling your void.  Once you have a fan base you can start priming the revenue machine called social media.