Likes over long talks. Follows over meeting up at cafes. Emojis over the real pat on the back. Virtual life has overtaken many such real-life experiences. Purely because it is instantaneous, easy, frequent and so densely connected. Social media has become an integral part of our lives. It connects family and friends. It opens up avenues for people to acquire new skills. It lets shoppers meet buyers and so much more.
Let us define social media: It is any digital tool that enables electronic communication (via websites for social networking and microblogging) to create online communities for sharing information, ideas, personal messages, and other content formats like videos.
Social media has evolved to become a powerful tool for eCommerce websites. It has the unmatched power to attract shoppers’ attention, engage with them, and create a sense of community.
Social media empowers eCommerce websites to flourish.
Read on to know how it can help you connect with your audience in a powerful way.
1. Helps you reach consumers in the places that matter
Globally, the average time a person spends on social media a day is 2 hours 24 minutes. Hence, your presence here enables you to connect with a highly engaged audience.
2. Allows you to engage with your target audience in a casual way
Unlike other advertising channels, here, you can connect with your potential customers more casually and speak to them in their language.
3. You become more 'likable' and 'shareable'
Creating immersive, brand-relevant content captivates your audience and excites them to share it further. It also becomes a convenient platform for your customers to share positive feedback.
4. Makes buying as easy as clicking, right from where your audience is
With enticing placement of product purchase links on your social content, you make online purchase as simple as a click.
Top social media channels recommended for eCommerce websites:
How to harness social media for the success of eCommerce websites?
Social media is a mighty medium for businesses to boost their sales and enhance the brand value. To achieve the best results, social marketing must be propelled by a well-thought-out strategy. Essential guidelines to keep in mind:
1. Determine what you wish to accomplish
Before you set out to generate more sales leveraging social media, you must define your goals. The effort you put in towards publishing awesome content and engaging with your followers would be futile if your social media activity can't be monitored and measured.
The goals for you to consider would be:
a. Traffic to be generated (grow the eCommerce website traffic by 20% through social media in the next 3 months)
b. Follower counts (increase the number of followers by 25% every month)
c. Engagement rates (double social media engagement rate by conducting a contest)
d. Conversions (achieve 15% of the monthly sales through social media)
2. Provide value
Go the extra mile to publish content that benefits your audience. You can consider topics that interest your shoppers' or solve their issues.
3. Support with a blog
A blog plays a critical part in the success of your eCommerce content marketing strategy. If the blog content informs, inspires, educates and entertains your audience, it will convert consumers into customers via social media.
4. Optimize your content
You must incorporate relevant keywords and hashtags in your social content to increase your visibility for users searching for relevant information.
5. When your customers show love, you show off.
If your customers love your brand and express it through user-generated content, then you must share it on social media to move prospects from consideration to purchase.
6. Say it with powerful pictures.
85% of millennials bought a product after watching a video about it. So, based on the platform, you must design a good mix of images, blogs and videos that inspire and engage and ultimately convert.
7. Engage with your audience to establish a rapport with them
Create content that initiates a conversation with your followers. Once your followers begin to interact, they are more likely to respond to your more sales-driven content and speak positively about you.
8. Be consistent and concise
Keep your messages short and crisp. You must maintain a consistent content stream to ensure that you show up in your followers' feed.
9. Get the hashtags right
Hashtags enhance your chances of organic discovery by people searching for business-relevant terms. One must be mindful of the hashtag etiquette for each platform.
10. Make the most of paid advertising
Social media platforms offer a multitude of ad formats and targeting options for you to engage your audience. e.g. Retargeting ads on Facebook and shoppable posts on Instagram. These can help you reach out to an extremely refined niche audience (likely to convert).
Social media connects eCommerce businesses with an audience waiting to be tapped. Businesses must invest wisely to take advantage of this immense potential to grow their brand’s popularity, increase purchases and turn customers into loyal fans
eCommerce platforms such as Graas provide end-to-end D2C channels that enable you to integrate your social media channels as well. So, the market is yours to explore. Equip your eCommerce website with the latest technology to offer richer digital experiences, from your website to various social media platforms.