Can Social Media Really Generate Good Sales for Your Business?

Many months ago, I received a call from friend who is a trainer in Facebook marketing, and he told me that he was creating a Facebook course and would require my assistance in helping him to “market” his three-hour training program, “Facebook for Business,” which was priced at $300.00.

He mentioned that he would give me a 20% commission, which would be $60.00 for every person I introduced to him. Well, I rejected the offer because, personally, I felt that nobody would really benefit from his training program, and I do not recommend anything that is perceived to be worthless. I do have a high integrity, and because of this, my existing clients appreciate it and continue to be with me for many years.

Another reason why I rejected his offer was because of the ironic situation of this trainer. He is supposed to be a professional who trains people on how to use Facebook for their business to generate leads, so I would assume he would be very good in Facebook marketing; and IF he is so good, he should be able to use the same platform to sell his training program. Right?

If he was really using his own Facebook marketing strategies to market his training program, he should be getting a very good response and should not need my assistance to find clients for him. As far as he told me, there were only five people registered for the training program. Wow…that is a very interesting figure. An expert using Facebook to market a Facebook training program and ONLY five people registered for it? Something is not right...

Apparently, this friend did not know that I have been in digital marketing for over 20 years, and that the things that he mentioned were things that I learned long ago. These are basic things like creating a Facebook account, creating a page or group, and then promoting them using invitation, tagging, and other available platforms on Facebook.

I really wanted to shout in his face and tell him, Don’t CHEAT your customers, please!…Do you really believe that Facebook can bring you new leads and clients? Deep down inside, I really wanted to whack him, but I kept my cool…. J

But hey, back to the question: Can social media really generate good sales for your business?

The answer is YES. But there are certain conditions to ensure the marketing will be very successful….and the conditions are the following:

1. You ought to have a dynamic website.
2. Your brand must be trustworthy.
3. You must target the right group of people.
4. You must have huge numbers of followers and fans.
5. There must be something unique about your offering.
6. You must know why people have to buy from you rather than anyone else.
7. You cannot use only one social media platform; you must use multiple platforms. As a rule of thumb, you should at least use three or more popular social media sites to create some “noise.”
8. It takes time to build a good network, branding, and positioning.

You see, social media is a platform. You need a good marketing strategy to generate good leads and great sales. Hence, a platform is only a platform; it is the good strategy with the right platform that makes the difference! Focusing on only using the platform to create leads and sales will lead to very low response if you do not have a good marketing strategy.