The Business Millennials Podcast

Mini Episode - Using Social Media for Sales

• Ashley Dreager

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This mini-episode focuses on the significant shift in how social media is used for marketing and sales, highlighting that traditional sales-driven tactics are becoming less effective. The conversation delves into social media's transition from a community and connection platform to a space crowded with advertisements and sales pitches, leading to consumer exhaustion. The episode underscores the importance of businesses adapting their social media strategies to prioritize community building and genuine interactions over direct sales. The hosts discuss the initial social nature of platforms like TikTok and their subsequent monetization challenges, suggesting that businesses should realign their focus towards fostering conversations and connections. The overarching message is that in order to remain effective in the current marketing landscape, businesses must shift their social media use from a sales platform back to a social platform, where sales occur naturally within the context of community and dialogue.

Key Topics

00:00 Introduction to Social Media's Evolution
00:38 The Shift from Social to Sales
03:14 The Rise and Challenges of TikTok
04:27 Creating Community Over Commerce
05:13 Adjusting Your Social Media Strategy
06:29 Rethinking Sales and Social Media
07:29 Conclusion: The Future of Social Media Marketing

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Welcome to the business millennials podcast. This show brings you strategic insights through raw and unfiltered real world advice to accelerate your business growth for longterm success. I'm Safa Harris and I'm Ashley Drager. We're the founders of scale and thrive co a full service marketing and business development firm, helping visionary companies scale sustainably. Expect us to have the uncomfortable conversations that no one else is having. We'll break down what it really takes to grow and scale your business beyond six. Seven or even eight figures, as well as inspiring interviews with diverse leaders across marketing, product development, sales, and more via fly on the wall as we conduct strategy sessions with business owners, experiencing issues such as plateaued income, burnout, and generally dropping the ball, giving you the tools and resources to break through your own roadblocks, but also personal development methods to grow you as a balanced conscious leader amidst business growth. Let's jump into this week's episode.

Track 1:

So we wanted to just jump in and do a little mini episode on social media. We've been talking about social media a lot this month, and I think that this is something. That a lot of business owners need to be aware of when it comes to their marketing strategy. Because of the way that social media has evolved over the years and in the online business space, social media has been seen as the sales tactic. In a lot of ways to get the conversions and it's just not working that way anymore. People are want, they feel like they're constantly getting sold to on every, every platform, every channel, and that was something that I think I. Really started to drive the success of social media when it started to take off years ago, before it became the place for business, right? Like social media wasn't a place that you were getting ads every other post. It wasn't a place where you were constantly getting business communications from. It was just a place for you to connect with friends and family. And I had heard it described recently as almost like an online journal where you were posting about. You know what? What foods you were eating, what you were doing that day, how you were feeling, the music that you were listening to. It was a very social interaction that people were having when it first started. And then businesses realized that that's where everybody was spending their time and that that could be a really easy way for them to connect in a free way as well.'cause they weren't having to spend money on ads., In radio, on tv on potentially, I don't, I don't remember when YouTube ads started to become a thing, but even before watching videos on YouTube you know, you just, you could just create a post and put it out there and everybody would see it.'cause algorithms were also really great

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

Yeah.

Track 1:

and easy.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

Yeah. Social media used to be social, and then it became this platform where it was really, really great for marketing. You were able to get visibility quickly. You were able to convert them into sales quickly. It was where you went for quick cash. Quickly

Track 1:

Mm-Hmm.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

easily at low cost. And the noise got really, really loud. Everybody was there. Everybody wanted to do this tactic, everybody wanted that, and it has exhausted the consumer. the content and the consumer of the product and all of that. And it's like I just always being sold to. And then influencers, it's like constantly, like it's all product placement. Like how annoying is product placement in a TV show? And you're like, they're clearly eating that bag of Doritos. Or driving that car and talking about its features. It's like clearly a plug, and that is what all of social media is and people are over it. They don't it. They want to be having conversations and connecting and creating community and doing all of these things and like having real, genuine human interactions again. And that's having an impact on how people are doing their marketing and how they're. their sales process, and it all has to be refined and changed of how a consumer wants to be on social media now versus how they to be there and. I think a big thing that shows this as an example is how TikTok took off.

Track 1:

Mm-Hmm.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

TikTok took off quickly'cause it was the new social platform that was literally just being social and then they went into. They, TikTok was not making money because it was not monetized. They had a monetization issue and they were like, well, how are we gonna monetize this? We're really popular, but they're clearly not making any money off of it. Like, how do we solve that problem? And then they went into, oh, now we're doing ads, we're doing sponsored posts, we're doing TikTok shop. And that's their monetization strategy, which is. Yeah, I think it's doing all right. It's doing great. And like people have had great business success then, but people are also very at the, in the same vein, also complaining about the monetization of TikTok because that is not what got it popular.

Track 1:

Mm-Hmm

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

And people were like, yeah, tiktoks not where it's at anymore. I'm not, the algorithm's not doing what it needs to do. Like I keep getting these sponsored us. This is not why I came here

Track 1:

mm-Hmm.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

what I'm getting. They had a monetization problem and that's. Shows they had a monetization problem, they monetized it. Now they have an engagement problem people don't want that monetization. And what you see on where people are, people are doing on social media is like now they're creating community in the comments. They're talking to each other. It's kind of like what the Facebook groups used to be is now, oh, you started a topic. Now people are going into the comments and they're having conversation, and you see this a lot more on TikTok than you see it on Instagram, because Instagram people, I don't, they don't talk to each other either anymore. Like nobody engages nobody. You don't get. Like, like it's just the conversation's not there. But literally you post something on TikTok and everybody is talking to you and they're talking to each other. People are responding to each other and talking about it, and it's just growing and growing because people are looking for that connection and real conversations

Track 1:

Mm-Hmm.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

what they used to, and they're just tired of constantly being sold to which. That should inform your social media strategy, how you're using social media, and then how it fits into your bigger marketing plan and into your sales process,

Track 1:

Mm-Hmm.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

you need to be adjusting all of that to make it fit with the current trends and your business goals.

Track 1:

Yeah. So as a business owner, this is something that you need to be aware of because if, unless you change your social media strategy, I. You're going to see the numbers continue to decline. You're going to see the rest of your sales funnel continue to decline if you're still using social media as the main source for sales. It's very important to shift that strategy for the majority of businesses. I'm sure there's gonna be exceptions to this. But to shift it to be, to bring back the social elements of social media instead of using it as a sales platform, really pulling back on the hard sales content and just bringing back the community, the socialization, the conversation, and within that sales will naturally occur. I think that that's exactly how influencer strategies have become so successful because they're built upon the community and the conversation rather than, Hey, go buy this right now.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

Yeah, and I think social media, if you are looking for sales now. Social

Track 1:

I.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

is not where you need to be pushing your efforts and energy. It's one part of your entire strategy that you're using that's creating an environment for sales. But if you're like, I need sales, I need a cash injection, going force forward with social media may not be the answer. For

Track 1:

Mm-Hmm.

safa-harris_5_02-26-2024_125100:

and I know a lot of businesses lean into their rep replicable sales process. Like, I know if I do X, Y, Z actions, I am going to get sales out of it. And in the past it has been social media and if that is not working, you need to maybe look into. Not just trying out social media tactics and making an adjustment to your marketing strategy as a whole and adjusting your replicable sales process, which is hard because it's your replicable sales process. You did the testing, you did all that. You know it works, but it might be different now it might be something that you need to change and. That's a whole bigger conversation on developing your replicable sales process for another day. But if social media was a big part of it and it's not working, it might be time to do some, go back to the beginning of before you had that and test and refine and figure it out again'cause it's different. And use what was working in the past in a different way in

Track 1:

Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Of being aware of what is working in the marketplace and why businesses are being successful, and seeing how that can be applied to your specific business and product.

And that wraps up another episode of the business millennials podcast. We hope you found this conversation, thought provoking, inspirational, and helps you make a larger impact with your business. Growth is not just about profits or revenue. It's a journey of personal development, contribution, and bettering ourselves in society. Our challenge for you take at least one key lesson from our time together today that you can apply not just to your business. But your relationships, creative expression, well being, and personal evolution too. We appreciate you tuning in. If you enjoyed this show, we invite you to pay it forward. Share it with an entrepreneur, creative, student, or community leader who needs an infusion of insight or inspiration right now. And make sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you never miss a single episode. And if you like what you heard, leave us a five star review. See you next week.