Many businesses and brands use social media to market their products and services. This can have a profound effect on the performance of a business. According to a Sprout Social study, social media consumers report engaging further with a brand after seeing it on social media.
91% of those interviewed confirmed visiting the site’s website, while 89% confirmed making a buying decision. This is proof of the power of social media for ecommerce. Another study by Hootsuite indicates that 57.7% of social media users report buying a product on social media every week. This article will guide you on how to leverage social media for e-commerce.
How Brands Use Social Media for e-Commerce
Social media e-commerce marketing is the process of using social media to promote an online store make sales, and generate brand awareness or interest in a product. Here are ways in which brands cna leverage social media for ecommerce:
Selling Directly To Consumers
Today, social selling is very easy, especially because Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest allow users to sell directly on social media sites. Snapchat and Twitter have also partnered with Shopify to enable social selling.
These social selling features are free to use and create a memorable and interactive buying experience. The social selling features even allow you to create a live selling experience and drive more engagement.
Build Brand Awareness
One of the ways in which brands use social media for e-commerce is by driving awareness about their brands, which in turn leads to conversion. They can do that by consistently posting about their brands in a consistent voice. You can use social feeds to give your followers a glimpse of your digital shop. This is on top of other tactics such as:
- Creating user-generated content
- Link funneling your followers back to your shop
- Publishing on different channels with different messages
- Engaging in discussion topics with your customers
- Using hashtags to drive conversations
Drive Brand Awareness
One of the major ways in which brands use social media for marketing is by advertising their brands. You can also advertise your brand by creating shopping ads and product collections. When advertising your brand, start by defining the kind of ads you want to create and understand how you will track your success.
Here are a few more tips on advertising on social media:
- Understand the business objective you want to achieve
- Know your target audience
- Create a compelling content strategy to deliver your message
- Choose an ad type that aligns with your goal
- Define the goals and KPI for your channels
- Keep testing ads to improve performance
Provide Better Customer Service
The sales experience doesn’t end with the purchasing decision. Brands should also provide customer support for a good relationship with customers. With many customers reaching out to brands through their social media channels, this is another area businesses can use to enhance the buying experience.
Businesses can use social commerce to:
- Answer customer queries
- Give feedback
- Provide insights
- Engage with your content
To enhance your customer experience, you should be ready to handle the incoming DMS and comments. If you cannot keep up with the incomings, you can use chatbots and other social media management tools.
Getting Customer’s Feedback
A key step in marketing is taking customer feedback. One of the best ways of doing that is by social listening. This is the process of tracking brand mentions and other conversations related to your brand. By doing that, you can get important information such as:
- How customers perceive your brand
- The most popular products in your catalogs
- Where there may be recurring issues or problems
With this information, you can handle issues before they get out of hand. At the same time, you can use this information to understand your customers and refine your message to meet their marketing needs.
Tips to Improve Your Social Media Commerce
You can use these tips to enhance the customer experience:
- Stay authentic when showcasing your brand. Customers love brands that aren’t afraid of showcasing their personality.
- Post user-generated content. This can include content such as user reviews and product unboxing.
- Collaborate with influencers and brand ambassadors. This will help expand your reach, social-proof your product, and get new followers.
- Market your products using videos. Videos are now the most popular type of content.
- Leverage on social media management tools. These can help with tasks such as post-scheduling and tracking performance metrics.
- Post regularly. The more regularly you post, the more your brand will remain in the minds of your customers.
Final Thoughts
There is no doubt that social media is a goldmine for ecommerce. For selling, engaging with customers, and tracking tiger feedback, there is no limit on how you can use social media to grow your brand. By following our guide, you can take your brand to the next level with social media marketing.
