Social media is a staple in the majority of your consumers’ lives. Afterall, there are over 4.5 billion people who are on social.

With your consumers spending so much time on social, it’s unwise to not take advantage of it and implement ways to use social media to increase your sales numbers.

Social media is as common as ads or commercials when it comes to reaching consumers. In fact, one in three consumers report that they want to learn about brands on social instead of other outlets. Is your brand embracing this desire?

In this article we will share how social media doesn’t just build brand awareness but also can elicit actual sales. From paid to organic efforts, there are 5 ways that you can start 2022 by ramping up your social media marketing efforts with the goal of gaining more sales than ever before.

Here at Rossman Media, we don’t just execute stellar social media campaigns, but we also educate brands on how to use social better. And that is the goal with this post. So let’s dive in!

Embrace Social Commerce

Social commerce is the intersection of sales and social media. This strategy takes advantage of the selling capabilities that each social media channel has and implements a seamless process from discovering a product to paying for it.

Social commerce is huge and it’s just going to get bigger. It’s forecasted that sales via social commerce will double from $28 billion in 2020 to $56 billion in 2023. This mode of selling is already strong since 65% of consumers have made a purchase on social media.

There are a few scenarios for social selling like small virtual shops, in-app purchasing, extensive marketplaces, sales campaigns, etc. 

Because an easy buying process leads to more sales, it makes sense that consumers are responding positively to the ability to be able to purchase products on social media.

Work With Influencers

Social media influencers are abundant and offer a smart way to promote your brand on social.

The right influencer has a decent to far reach while contextually aligning with your brand. 

Equipping influencers with your products means that your brand will get in front of a brand new audience. Better yet, influencers can say things about your brand that comes across as self-promotional if you say it about your brand yourself. 

Consumers trust influencer recommendations and they have the ability to create a lot of sales for your brand.

Here at Rossman Media, we have executed a ton of influencer marketing campaigns and have some high-level strategies for you to keep in mind:

• Prioritize a contextual fit over reach as the right affinity will help you reach the right consumers
• Start with a campaign of 20 influencers and experiment with different tactics and scale off of what you observe working
• Give your influencers a theme before they post to assure engaging earned media
• Give your influencers unique discount codes that they share with their audience that their audience can use for a discount when they purchase online as this is the most effective way to track sales
• Activate influencers who have a multi-channel presence for earned media across many channels
• Be prepared to send product and pay a fee since it takes a lot of time for influencers to produce quality content and engage with their audience
• Communicate obsessively to keep your efforts going and to keep the influencers “in the know”

Curate and Feature User Generated Content

User generated content (UGC) is media you earn from consumers. Like working with influencers, user generated content is trustworthy and is a huge help in building brand awareness and the type of trust with consumers that leads to sales.

UGC offers a third party view of your brand through a consumer’s review or social post. This strategy incentivises consumers to post about their experience with your brand, curates all the content online about your brand, features UGC on social and your brand’s website, and rewards consumers for their shout outs.

To implement a strategy with UGC, it’s important to consider just how much consumers use social to learn about brands. A whopping  54% of social media users use social to research products and services before making a purchase decision. Capitalize on this statistic and ensure that UGC is easy for your target consumers to find when they are using social to research your brand.

To drill UGC down into one statement, it simply offers social proof about your brand to new consumers.

Engage and Respond

As more brands and consumers connect on social media, consumers have increasingly high expectations about brands being active on social.

Simply humanizing your social presence and getting diligent about actively posting, commenting, liking, sharing, etc. can go a long way. 72% of consumers say that if a brand engages with them on social they are more likely to become a loyal customer.

A new expectation pertaining to brands and their social presence is that consumers are asking brands questions and for support on social more than email, phone and more. Also, the average consumer expects to hear back from a brand they message on social within 1 hour. Since customer service is increasingly becoming part of a social strategy, it is wise to dedicate a member of your team to social this year!

Offer Exclusive Purchase Opportunities

Make your social media accounts enticing to new followers by offering exclusive deals on your products or services. Consumers like to feel like a part of the brands they support and exclusivity aids in this feeling of camaraderie. 

There are a few scenarios where your brand can start offering exclusive deals today.



• Create a visually appealing graphic that states that if your followers use xyz code, they can get a discount when they purchase online
• Reward consumers with coupons and gift cards through actions like following your brand, inviting their own followers to follow your brand, resharing your posts, etc.
• Promote an ambassador program on all of your social channels and offer rewards for your consumers to suggest to their followers that they purchase from your brand
• Email your list of contacts and provide them with images and copy for social posts and run a contest where the consumer who sends the most sales to your brand from their posts gets a $500 Amazon gift card

Are there more ways that social media gains sales that we didn’t explore in this post? We’d love to hear all about it in the comments below!