Many business owners believe that social media is doing its job merely by increasing their web traffic. The reality is that driving website traffic is only a fraction of the impact social media can have on a business.

As many businesses become increasingly digital, so do consumers and their transactions. It’s more often that sales occur online than in person. In fact, online sales accounted for almost 9% of the $3.2 trillion total retail market in 2013 and will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 10% through 2018, according to a new Forrester Research report.

So while it’s important to increase traffic, you should really focus the laying the groundwork to seize the social media opportunities your business is truly after — sales. With that said, I’ve outlined four approaches below to help you maximize your social media efforts and ultimately boost sales.

3 Ways to Help Boost Sales with Social Media:

Strengthen Connections with Your Audience

One of the major keys to sales and networking is a strong relationship. Being personal and engaging with your audience on the networks they’re on can result in major success in terms of long-term relationships. One example is CJ Pony Parts, a Mustang parts and accessories retailer. This small business has built a strong foundation by Tweeting customers’ accomplished restorations using their products, and involving followers into product development and improvement processes.

CJ Customer Mark Johnson has produced a perfect replica of the ’68 #Mustang from #Bullitt…check out his hard work pic.twitter.com/tvmSa5KZCT

— CJ Pony Parts (@cjponyparts) September 22, 2014

CJ Pony Parts stays authentic and personable in their interactions. They connect with their audience through a meaningful mutual interest that stays far away from seeming too promotional, which in turn makes customers more comfortable and increases their likelihood to do business with your company, not your competitor.

There are a variety of channels to use for nurturing relationships, you just have to identify the most appropriate one(s) and implement your engagement strategy.

Create Relevant Viral Content

Creating interesting and relevant content that people want to share is a great way to broaden the awareness of your company. But what’s the point if it’s not enlightening and compelling enough to make people do business with you afterward? Well, the point is that they WERE compelled AND enlightened enough to share your content, which plays a huge role in increasing word-of-mouth — online and off.

Remember that creating viral content isn’t exactly about the number of loops on Vine or views on YouTube, it’s about that feeling your content evokes that gets people talking about your business. When that feeling gets your audience talking offline, then your efforts are getting others to do your marketing for you. This word-of-mouth marketing is what expands your potential customer base.

Use Hashtags

Although small businesses are unlikely to trump the top ten most searchable keywords, employing hashtags will certainly increase exposure. (A hashtag is a pound sign (#), followed by a word or sentence that is clickable, making it easier to locate all the content shared about a particular topic.)

The right hashtag, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram can attract potential customers from all corners of the world. For instance, a small business in Whistler, B.C., creates and sells maple syrup infused lip balms. Although they have a small presence online, there are many people who are huge fans of the taste and creative uses of #maplesyrup. Because of this simple hashtag, their first international order was requested, and many more began to trickle in!

Using a hashtag keeps your business involved in conversations related to a specific topic, helps you advertise your products and services for free, and as mentioned above can expand your customer base further than where your brick and mortar location exists.

About the author

Courtney Gordner, founder of talkviral.com and contributing blogger for socialfresh.com graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in Communications. Her two favorite people in the world are her niece and nephew, Raegan and Lucas. When she’s not playing World’s Greatest Aunt, you can find her watching her favorite shows, sometimes on DVD if they’ve been canceled, (Homeland, SOA, The OC, One Tree Hill, Friends and many more).

Twitter | Pinterest | Google + | Flickr