It's no secret that businesses want to find better, cheaper ways of getting their messages out to potential consumers. The challenge lies in getting these solutions to actually work. When attempting to boost employee sales figures or create more leads, it's important to realize that, like with any online tool, companies can't just place these ads there and allow them to languish. They need to establish meaningful use of these tools using sales coaching methods to generate a return on this investment.

A recent study by Manta showed that many small businesses are failing to make this conversion. The source found that more than half of all responding entities were spending more time on social media outlets than ever before, diversifying the sites they choose to frequent in order to boost the signal on their operations. Despite that, the results of the research showed that nearly two-thirds of all organizations failed to make any meaningful revenue from all the effort they put in, making it seem like a defunct system.

The trouble with media outlets
The problem here may not be so much in what kinds of sites companies use, but how they use them. As Manta found, while 61 percent of companies failed to get any money out their activities on Facebook, Pinterest and other popular sites, one-fifth of these entities were not devoting any personnel to managing their social presences. Instead of educating staff members on how to best use social media platforms, companies assumed that personnel already knew how to access and update accounts, but no formal sales onboarding for the integration of social platforms took place. The study proved that just because an individual knows the basic premises of a corporate resource doesn't mean they grasp the intricacies of how to put these tools to best use.

The Huffington Post reassured small business owners that online resources such as LinkedIn really can draw in revenue and generate sales leads, but only if companies can use them properly. The source stated that having an online profile for an organization reassures potential customers, draws job candidates and delivers an air of authority and legitimacy to a business. This can push more people in the direction of a certain company, but businesses should be mindful that telling and selling are not the same thing. There needs to be some sort of impetus to drive people toward completing a transaction, something that proper sales coaching on the finer points of social media can help businesses get their associates to create.