Direct sellers truly have a lot of things at their disposal nowadays. They don’t have to be confined to interactions done in person anymore. They can now use the power of social media to their advantage, enabling them to reach their consumers on a whole new level.
Among the many social media platforms available to direct sellers, Facebook remains one of the most powerful tools with over 750 million users in its database, and continues to be the one of the most popular sites for brands to reach out to their audience.
Though the correlation between sales and social media still remains murky, there remain many benefits for brands to use Facebook to their advantage. As a direct seller interested in promoting your personal brand, a Facebook profile or page may not be a necessity, but it can definitely help you in building a better relationship with your customers.
Facebook has this incredible viral effect among its users, and the main reason for this is the Facebook like button. Whenever a user likes a page or post on Facebook, it is broadcast in their newsfeed, and their friends can see what pages they choose to like. This can possibly incur the interest of the user’s friends who may end up visiting your page, and if they like what they see, may begin following you as well.
And it doesn’t stop there. The user’s friends who end up liking your page will end up broadcasting this on their own newsfeeds, effectively reaching their hundreds of friends as well. So you can see the potential and value of what one Facebook like can be.
This is why you can’t just put up a Facebook page and leave it at that. You have to understand how the platform works so you can effectively utilize it in engaging your audience. You want them to like your page, to like your updates and posts, so this activity can be shared with their friends. What you don’t want is a page that is static and bland, that doesn’t really do anything for your personal brand.
So what can you do to get your audience to use the Facebook like button? The answer is actually pretty simple – you need to offer content that is relevant to them, that gives them useful and helpful information that they can apply in their lives. You want to get likes, and you want to encourage discussion, comments and reposts among your audience.
This is why you can’t use Facebook to merely promote your brand – too much self-promotion will make you start losing your followers, as no one wants to interact with someone who’s all me, me, me. The conversation needs to be a two-way street. In addition to getting relevant content out there, you should use your page to really interact with your audience in real-time conversations. Let your audience express their opinions and feedback, and make sure never to ignore any positive or negative comments about your brand.
The true value of a Facebook like is the number of people you can effectively reach by making sure to engage your current audience. Because once these users click the like button, there is the possibility of doubling or even tripling your reach. Though this may not immediately constitute into sales, just the fact that you can potentially engage with more people can result in conversations about a possible sale. And as a direct seller, that’s all you really need – to build relationships and get the conversation going.