CC101: How to use social media to achieve your goals

Hi everyone! Today's episode of CC101 is a guide to understanding what we want from our social media to grow or upgrade our business. I saw a video on TikTok that inspired me to write this guide because no one talks about the different chances we can take from social media. 

So, there are three different paths we can follow for our social media. But the good news is that we can create a mix of these or pick just one or two. For each one, I'll show you how you can monetize and what it means. 

If you want to be an influencer

The first option is being an influencer. It could also be the most common and known option. Being an influencer means you base your content around your life and yourself. So, you create content and show products based on your life routine and how you integrate the products into your daily activities. 

So, the best way to monetize being an influencer is through affiliate marketing and brand partnerships. This means you want to build an engagement with your followers strong enough to convert your views into clicks. The most crucial KPI of being an influencer is the engagement rate. You can monitor it by calculating the average number of likes and comments for your last 12 posts and dividing it by the number of followers. You have a reasonable engagement rate if: 

• <=1.000 followers with an 8% engagement rate

• 1.000 - 5.000 followers with a 5,7% engagement rate

• 5.000 - 10.000 followers with a 4% engagement rate

• 10.000 - 100.000 followers with a 2,4% engagement rate

• >=100.000 followers with a 1,7% engagement rate. 

You can use these data as a reference point. Still, they are super helpful when building your media kit for brand partnerships. 

There are several affiliate programs, but check also your favorite brand's websites because there is a chance they have an affiliate program to apply. 

If you want to be a content creator

The second way to use social media to grow your business is to be a content creator. In this case, the focus is on your audience, not yourself. You will base your content around tutorials, advice, and guides to solve your audience's problems. 

Affiliate marketing is a monetization option in this case, too. Another way to monetize is through UGC. UGC stands for User Generated Content, which means you create content for other brands for their social media or websites. 

The tool you want to use for these deals is a portfolio, not a media kit. Contra is the best place to create a portfolio and find brand partnerships as a content creator. 

If you want to be an entrepreneur

The third and less usual option to use social media to grow your business is being an entrepreneur. In this case, you want to use social media to grow something else, like your website. In this case, your monetization comes from something other than social media. So, your website, mailing list, or something you want to grow from social media is your primary source of income. 

In this case, Squarespace is your favorite way to build a website or a mailing list. 

The good news

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, you don't have to pick one of these options. But you can create the right mix based on your goals or personality. For example, if you're shy and dislike being on camera, content creator and entrepreneur are a great mix to build your business. 

If you want to build your business exclusively through social media, being an influencer and content creator are your best options. 

Catch up with previous episodes of CC101