Social media is funny, at least for me, because there are so many shades to it. I get to be on social media daily, and it is a mixed bag. Some go on social media to kill time. Some go on there to research and study. Some are on social media exclusively to make money. The truth, though, is, and many are oblivious to it, that anyone can profit from social media. The key is building a substantial following, and you are good to go. Ironically, many have huge followings or at least go viral but don’t know how to make money. That is the centre of our discussion today.

From Attention To Consideration – Where The Money Is

Essentially you want to generate leads that culminate in conversions. The moment someone follows you on social media, you have got their attention. The moment someone engages with your content (e.g. liking, commenting, and so on), you have got their attention. Having their attention is the starting point, but it is not enough. You need to be able to take them from mere attention to them considering what you are offering. To better understand, you must appreciate what is called the Sales Funnel.

Breaking Down The Sales Funnel

The sales funnel made up of 6 core stages:

Awareness

This starts off with building your audience online. How you build that following is up to your discretion. Remember, you must not start by hard selling. Post regular and engaging content; that is what congregates and camps people around you. Most take ages to build their audience organically. Some can benefit from sudden virality that can skyrocket their following almost instantly. Once you have built a sufficiently big audience, you can start making people aware of what you are selling.

What you are selling can be what you make or source. Alternatively, it could be what other people are selling, i.e. ad placements. The key takeaway here is that anyone can sell something to their audience. You step into the awareness aspect because you leverage people’s trust in you. Their following and engaging with you is a testament to their trust in you. They pay attention to what you say.

Interest (Or Discovery)

Once you have made them aware, there will be some who will get interested. Often, people would have discovered that they might need what you are offering. It is important to notice those people and engage them immediately and quickly. Taking too long can diminish their interest, so be highly proactive.

Evaluation (Or Consideration)

As you engage the prospect, they will be trying to see if what you have is what they need. It is wise to approach this conversation with the aim of understanding their needs. Most people make the mistake of hammering them to buy. Making hard sales is a common mistake. Seek to understand their needs and see whether or not your offerings meet them. It does not hurt to refer them elsewhere if your offerings fall short, kindly.

Negotiation (Or Intent)

This is where there is now an apparent serious intent to buy. You can discuss their prices, terms and conditions, and other dynamics. The culmination of this discussion will be their agreeing to make a purchase.

Closing (Or Purchase)

If they agree, you then facilitate and finalize their making the purchase. There will often be logistical issues pertaining to delivering the product or service. This all gets dealt with here as you close the deal.

Renewal (Loyalty)

This is focused on building customer loyalty through customer retention. It is a present continuous effort and requires input almost daily.

Starts Wide And Shrinks Further Down

The funnel shape illustrates an important aspect you need to appreciate. Not everything that starts at the top of the funnel comes out at the bottom. That is the ordinary course of things, so it should not disturb you. For instance, you might grab the attention of 10 people. You might be left with just 4 people when it comes to consideration. Then when it comes to closing a sale, it might be just 1 person out of the initial 10. This means that you should push to grab the attention of as many people as possible. That way, you increase your chances of getting conversions. For instance, starting with 100 can end up with 10 conversions. It is a game of numbers.

Interesting Twitter Trend – An Example

I have been noticing a trend on Twitter. For example, someone does a thread, i.e. a tweet comprising several tweets. The tweet is often about something engaging, e.g. a list of the top 10 Sci-Fi movies released in 2022. So it will be a movie and a brief description per tweet. They can tweet 1 through 5; then, on the 6th tweet, they advertise something. Then they proceed with the rest of the movies from the following tweet. It is a creative example of striving to convert people whose attention you would have caught.

The subject of how to get attention on social media is a universe on its own. It is somewhat annoying for me to discuss because the reality of it is mainly twisted. Most trends on social media entail contentions, controversial issues, sexual issues, and conspiracy theories, amongst others. It is best summarized by a portion in the Bible (The Message Translation) which says: “Immaturity is given a place of prominence, while maturity is made to take a backseat”. That aptly describes most of what happens on social media nowadays. However, there are many noble ways through which you can get attention online. For example, funny content, informative content, inspirational content, and so on. If you ever get widely popular on social media, make the most of it; profit!