Five easy steps to sell you or your product using Social Media

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are more than just marketing channels to help you connect with your customers. They can help you sell and here's five easy ways to make that happen. Create a Clear Call to Action Whether it's information about your company, specifics about your products or special deals, brands that are successful in selling through social media are clear in their calls to action. Give them what they want or they won't return. Also, you should use a 80/20 split between content that's relevant to your fans and promotional content. Use Time to Create Urgency Using language that gets your audience engaged quicker is what will help drive sales. Posts with "act now" and "limited time only" can encourage your audience to act now and not wait until later. Everyone Likes an Exclusive Selling is all about making your product or service important to your audience. The same goes with selling through social media. To grow your online community and inspire loyalty, offer deals that are exclusive to each network. Sharing is Caring It is a good practice to ask your online followers to share your posts on their own social networks. If you're offering a great deal and compelling offers, your audience will share and tell their networks. Stay Current The easiest way to drive your audience away is to have stale social media channels. Keeping your pages current with all the latest deals, information, news and the like, will help create an experience that is suitable for sales. Don Martelli is a vice president and director of digital integration for Schneider Associates, Boston. He can be reached at dmartelli@schneiderpr.com or via Twitter, @BigGuyD.