How to Turn Social Media into a Business

Have you got a growing social media following? Or are you just starting out on social media and want to know how to build a following in the first place? This could be an opportunity to make money and even start a business.
Most people between the ages of 18-35 are somewhat to very active on social media; including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Social media is one of the most powerful platforms at current with 2.3 billion active social media users spanning across the globe. Therefore, the audience reach is endless.
In reality, what you probably already do on an active social media account is not that much different from a commercial one. You are likely to be posting what a full-fledged social media marketing team would be posting, but the only difference is the direction, scale and your intentions behind your personal posts.
It is crazy to think what you could achieve from simply scaling up your efforts on social media – there is a lot of money to be made on online, particularly as an influencer. Something which is very attractive to those who want to start turning their social media into a business is that it is very manageable to do alongside their current job. Many people have two forms of decent income this way.
But how do you even begin to get started on this journey? It is important to note that not everything can be a business, you need to offer something unique or valuable to be able to make a profit. It may be wise to start off with a business plan.

A Business Account

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If you have already gained a following, small or large, you should think about switching your personal account to a business profile. On Instagram, you can quickly switch to and from a personal and a business account. Having a business account firstly will show people that you are not just an Instagram user but have a purpose. Such an account will also provide with information about your audience, engagement and general insights. Having this information can help you to focus on what is working and getting the most engagement and what it is you should be improving on.

Get Following Others

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You should aim to follow as many like-minded social media personalities as possible. If you are wanting to move into fashion blogging, follow and like other fashion bloggers and comment on their posts. From this interaction, you may gain yourself a follow back and other aspiring fashion bloggers may follow you too. The same goes for if you are wanting to become a social-media foodie, simply seek out similar accounts and regularly interact with them.

Become an Affiliate

Affiliate Marketing is a huge thing at the moment, and you can make the most of this to make money as well as gain exposure on social media. It is actually one of the oldest concepts, but because of the rise in social media in recent years, it has been revolutionised.
The key is not to spam links, this will turn people off reading or interacting with your posts. Talk about products which you like and provide affiliate links to them on your socials and watch the money come in. You should mention that you are an affiliate and that you make a little bit of money from each click – this is so you gain the trust of your audience and also avoid any legal issues.

Focus on Visuals

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One of the most powerful types of content is the use of images. Selling products visually is a sure way to make sales and gain interaction from your audience over just simply text-based content. Images or even audio-visual content get straight to the point and allow the audience to see the product for themselves. This is one of the reasons that Instagram is so popular and influencers tend to focus their work on there over Facebook or Twitter.

Buy Followers

If you are desperate to get started but simply do not have time or are just generally struggling to build up an audience, consider buying followers online. It is advisable to only buy a small number of followers and try and build the rest up organically from there – this should only be used as a starting point.
Your follower count on a business profile indicates a certain amount of legitimacy, so boosting this inorganically in the initial stages is common practice. From this, you should see your follower count go up as long as you keep posting. However, companies favour those who get a large engagement rate, which is why it is important to not buy too many followers if your likes and comments are not going to reflect this. Companies that may be interested in working with influencers would rather work with someone who has 900 followers and an average of 250 likes on a post over someone with 10,000 followers who will average 90 likes.