One of the things that you’re going to have to do if you want your store to succeed is use social media to promote your business and communicate with your customers. These days, a business without a social media connection is as dead-in-the-water as a company in the 1970’s or 1980’s would have been without a telephone. Social media is just one of the earmarks of a professional company and it is one of the best ways to advertise, offer customer support and let customers know that there are real people behind your organization.
The Basics of Social Media
You know that social media can be a great way to get traffic to your eCommerce website but that doesn’t mean that getting that traffic is going to be easy. It especially is going to take work if you want to have sustained success throughout your store’s lifetime. That means that you aren’t just looking for short-term social media tactics, you actually need a strategy. That begins with goal-setting.
Setting goals is important no matter what you are trying to achieve, because unless you know where you are going you have very little chance of getting there. You want to set goals like: traffic increases from social media, number of followers/fans/other vernacular of your social media platform, your conversion rate, post engagement numbers and growth goals.
You also need to know what your customers need. This was discussed a little bit in the chapter on niche marketing. You definitely want to know what kind of content they desire before you start posting and then monitor and stay in the loop using social media, comments and other methods to track reactions. The analytics that come with your website also can provide you with a great deal of information on what your customers are looking for and what kind of posts would bring in the most traffic. The keywords that people use when they reach your site are particularly telling and can be an unlimited source of topics to write about.
Finally, one of the most basic things about social media that anyone just coming in should understand is that social media isn’t for selling. While you can make sales using social media, and it can be a great selling tool, your primary purpose should be sharing with your followers or fans. If you try to make your social media platform a podium from which to hawk your products, you are going to lose your followers very quickly.
However, if you can keep followers interested in your feed – whatever platform you are using – you will find that new followers will always come and your regular followers will not be offended by the occasional product recommendation from your store, particularly if it is something that solves a problem that someone was introducing on social media. Just remember to keep track of your progress and that your social media efforts are showing improvement.
Ten Social Media Strategies for Ecommerce
Here are some social media strategies that have been shown to be particularly effective in ecommerce. These are definitely things that you should strive for, but if you aren’t performing up to 100% on everything ( or anything for that matter) don’t worry – because as long as you are improving – your income from social media will be improving as well.
- Make sure you are thinking carefully about what words you use in your social media posts. You don’t want to write just anything. For one thing, it is going to live on the internet forever, so if you are giving advice, triple-check to make sure it is accurate. However, what is probably more important is that you use keyword research when you create social media posts. You’ll be able to get your social media posts higher in search and as a result, attract more followers.
- Share images whenever possible. Your followers and anyone else who views your posts are going to be scanning the web like everyone does and you need to be able to grab their attention and get them to actually read your content.
- Sharing your reviews can be one of the most effective sales tools that you have. When someone leaves a positive review share it on social media and then sit back and watch the sales roll in. People trust online reviews almost as much as they do the recommendation of a trusted friend.
- Make it easy for someone to share your content with others. Make sure that you are following a strategy and creating buttons that are in a location most likely to be used by your readers. The easier that you make it for people to share your content the more likely it is that they will. If you find something that is working, stick with it and be consistent so that people know where to look for it.
- You are on social media to create a human face behind your business so make sure that you actually interact with your followers. Read their posts, and comment on them when appropriate and do everything that you would do for a friend that you are following on a personal social media account. Of course, the more followers you have the more limited your personal interactions have to be, but the point is to make sure that your followers know that you actually care about them and don’t just see them as dollar signs.
- Join any groups that are related to your niche or industry. If your social media platform offers groups, make sure you join them, and use this the same way that you would a forum related to your chosen topic – post great content that will be viewed as “expert” content.
- Find out who the influencers are in your niche and build relationships with those people. Every niche has people that have a lot of weight behind them on certain topics. Obviously, the ideal situation would be for you to be that influencer, but even if that is the case, building relationships with other influencers can do nothing but help you.
- Post consistently. This is probably the number one touted social media tip on the web and for good reason. People that post consistently get the most followers, the most interaction from the followers that they have and they build the best brand image. If you don’t have time for this, consider outsourcing or using social media automation tools to provide consistency.
- Use hashtags but don’t be ridiculous. You don’t need to create a hashtag with every single post that you make and you definitely don’t want to use multiple “cute” hashtags on every post but if you can use hashtags that don’t make people want to unfollow you you’ll get a big boost in traffic from the people searching for those hashtags.
- Brevity is the key to interaction. If you want people to check out your content create engaging post titles and make your posts as short and concise as possible. While you should definitely make your blog posts and advice comprehensive enough to provide valuable information, always be thinking of ways that you can shorten things to create more engagement.
