5 Smart Ways to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business

By Aimee Tariq

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Confused about whether to go with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram? A video? A blog? Here are suggested strategies on how to cull that list.

According to Statistica, the number of worldwide users on social media is projected to hit a whopping 3.02 billion active users per month by 2021. That's one-third of the world’s entire population! So, it’s obvious that social media, more and more, is engaging the majority of the world's citizenry.

Related: The 4 Essentials to Building Your Brand on Social Media

That means if you own a business and you’re not focused on building a strong brand presence on social media this year, your customers already are or soon will be choosing your competitors.

That fact is intriguing to me, as a modern-day business owner. I've never questioned the value of having a social media presence, but I wanted to dive deeper into that realm to see what other views entrepreneurs might voice about  the evolution of social media.

Along the way, I found that the problem most brands face with social media isn’t whether or not to take advantage of it, but how to take advantage of it. I’ve certainly fallen into the “information overload” trap myself. I too have become overwhelmed with the plethora of tips, tricks, secrets and strategies being preached left and right.

With Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and other platforms -- plus videos, blogs, etc. -- as options for online marketing these days, an obvious observation is that brands are struggling to identify the most profitable social media strategy to use for their business. So, I singled out several eminently successful entrepreneurs to talk to about their recommendations for effective online marketing.

Here are the five strategies they suggested for using social media to fuel business growth this year:

1. Use social media to drive traffic to your ecommerce stores.

In a phone interview, Cody Neer, the CEO of several multimillion dollar ecommerce brands, highlighted how powerful social media can be for ecommerce entrepreneurs like himself. “We use social media to drive traffic to over 300 of our ecommerce stores," he told me. And most of his success has come, he said, from funneling his brands' social media followers to those brands' stores through paid Facebook advertising.

"Our brands are expected to cross $60 million in sales by the end of 2019 [with] much of that success thanks to social media," Neer told me.

Takeaway: If you too have an ecommerce business, scale your business quickly by using targeted Facebook advertising to drive more traffic to your store. With over 1.4 billion active Facebook users every day, the problem isn’t whether or not your customers are scrolling. They are, but that doesn’t mean they'll find your Facebook page or convert to paying customers. You have to market to them in a way that makes them want to buy, and that’s achieved by targeting the right kind of people with the right kind of offer.

2. Use plenty of videos on social media to keep your audience engaged and growing.

Open your favorite social media platform; you’ll notice your feed is replete with video content instead of text and images. In fact, algorithms have changed, evolving to prefer video content over other content formats. And that's something the leading brands have noticed: A whopping 86 percent of businesses already use video on their website, and 77 percent use video on social media, according to Vidyard statistics.

As Tai Lopez, investor and advisor to multimillion-dollar businesses, told Entrepreneur, “Follow one simple formula for social media success: live a fascinating, authentic, adventurous life and share it through vlogging [video blogging]." Added Lopez: "I’ve made more money with my iPhone than most people have made in their lives with high-tech equipment.”

Takeaway: There are dozens of ways you can use videos to keep your audience engaged and growing. Consider sharing an authentic behind-the-scenes look at your life. Document your company’s next product launch. Show your followers what it’s like to work for your company, etc. The bottom line: If you’re not using videos on social media, your customers are becoming unengaged -- fast.

3. Build brand awareness by using targeted influencers on social media to market your products for you.

Josh Forti, social media influencer marketing expert, explained to me by phone how he’s used social media to organically grow over five million followers online for both his clients and himself.“I’ve primarily used social media to build online audiences that serve as assets to brands," Forti said. "If you can get your product or service publicly vouched [for] by a trusted authority in your niche, your sales can skyrocket overnight.”

What he was talking about, of course, was the growing use of influencer marketing: One study showed that 22 percent of marketers surveyed already considered influencer marketing the most cost-effective way of obtaining new customers.

Takeaway: Partnering with influencers on social media can be one of the most profitable decisions you make for your business this year. Influencers are now widely considered more relatable than celebrities. That's why consumers turn to their favorite models and gurus for advice on what to buy.

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