What do you think when you hear the word SOCIAL MEDIA?
Definitely, your thoughts revolved around chatting with your friends and colleagues while making new connections.
But this was relevant till the platforms were developed and the businesses found opportunities to reach the customers in various ways.
In fact, you may have thought of using social media for your ecommerce business but don’t know how to use it to fuel your business.
This blog will show how to strengthen your social media ecommerce strategy to help you address the needs of your target audience.
Ready to delve deeper?
Here you go!
Why Social Media Ecommerce is Relevant in 2024?
According to Statista, there are nearly 5 billion social media users across the globe. Therefore, effective social media strategies for your ecommerce business can help you to grow. All you need is the tools in your arsenal to maximize sales. Here is why you should try social media for eCommerce to stand out from the crowd:
1. Popular Medium
Since its inception, social media has been a reliable, effective, and quick way to connect with people. In fact, most of the users spend 2 hours and 29 minutes on average on social media. This motivates the sellers to use this medium to sell their products/services. According to a study, 305 internet users in the USA purchase through social media. However, China is in the first place as half of the Chinese internet users purchase through social media.
These staggering numbers establish the potentiality of creating a solid relationship between the sellers and buyers. According to TikTok, 39% of the users used the platform to discover a brand. On the other hand, 47% are buying through TikTok. Instagram is also in the limelight, with an ad reach of 1.44 billion. This influences the sellers to sell their products/services through these social media handles.
2. Removes Friction
From awareness to purchase, social media helps to remove friction from the consumer journey. The product is already there, and the buyer doesn’t need to go anywhere except the checkout process. Effective social media ecommerce strategies play a pivotal role as potential customers can change their minds anytime.
3. Changes Shopping Experience
Do you know that shopping through social media makes the user's experience more interactive than the stages of typical ecommerce purchasing? Yes, you heard that right! Consumers feel more confident about the product quality when they buy through social media. Be it ankle-high jeans or a fascinating t-shirt, buying through social media ecommerce is a cakewalk for consumers.
4. Helps to Sell Highly Targeted Audience
With a plethora of customer data available at the seller’s disposal, it will be a prime opportunity for them to target the audience. Social media offers a chance to offer specific and ready-to-buy products in front of the target audience. Moving forward, it helps the sellers develop their marketing strategies that resonate with the needs of the target audience.
5. Favorite Destination of Shopping
Most of the Gen Z and millennials like to shop through social media. A study shows that 48% of internet users around this age group purchased social media in 2019. This is because of the availability and seamless buying experience through social media ecommerce channels.
7 Ways to Supercharge Your Social Media Strategy
You already know the reasons for using social media ecommerce to sell your products/strategies. However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Now, you should know how to bolster your social media selling strategy. Without an effective social media strategy for your business, it will be like pizza without cheese toppings.
Here are a few proven ways to bolster your social ecommerce strategies:
1. Be Yourself
Establishing a connection with your buyers is the first step to reinforcing the social media strategy for your ecommerce business. You can do that by showcasing some brand personality. You may think about how to showcase the brand personality. Social media is the perfect toolkit to craft your brand personality engagingly. Use humor to make it more enticing. Remember, your goal is to engage with your target audience meaningfully. Your brand personality is the fundamental way to do it efficiently.
For example, if your brand is passionate about sustainability, you can share regular updates on eco-friendly initiatives. This will encourage the followers to make small changes in their daily lives.
2. Incorporate Videos
A study says that 88% of people want to see more video-based interactive content from the brands. It helps the audience know more about the services/products the brands offer. You should utilize videos' power when posting any content through social media handles. It will help to showcase your brand personality in a better way. Ensure you have incorporated high-quality video with relevant content about your product/service.
For instance, you can use video-based Instagram stories to promote products or share brand stories. This will help to create an engaging experience.
3. Post User-Generated Content
In this cutthroat competition, unique and interactive content helps a brand to stand ahead of its competitors. On that note, user-generated content plays a crucial role in creating more brand advocacy. You can incorporate user-generated content into your social media content calendar. This type of content may include product unboxing, user reviews or an item that the customer uses and shares the feedback.
Encourage your customers to share valuable feedback through pictures or videos. Once they share the content, you can reshare it from your business page. This creates more engagement, and the customers will feel connected with your brand.
4. Use Social Listening
When you’re prioritizing your social media ecommerce strategy and not giving attention to social attention, you’re leaving something. Using social listening can enable you to identify the competitor’s strategy gaps. Also, you can check what the industry is talking about. These insights will help to develop new products and related marketing strategies that align better with the target audience's needs.
5. Use the Combination of Paid and Organic Strategies
The mix of paid and organic strategies is the most preferred way to strengthen your social media ecommerce strategy. Paid social media will help you reach a wider audience, while organic content keeps them returning.
Here are a few mixed strategies-
· Add relevant hashtags to maximize the discoverability of your brand.
· Boost posts and do paid advertisements
· Utilize user-generated content as social proof
· Run influencer marketing campaigns
· Form brand partnerships
· Provide excellent customer care for your social media ecommerce business
6. Post Consistently
Posting regularly will help you to stay in touch with your customers. Moving forward, it will enable you to gain traction based on your marketing strategy. A regular posting schedule that is filled with different types of content will help you to stay afloat in this competitive market.
7. Offer Exclusive Promotions
Use various social media handles to offer your followers exclusive promotions and exciting discounts. This will incentivize them to make a purchase and build better customer loyalty. For example, if you’re selling teen t-shirts, you can offer a 30% discount on specific products for a limited time. This would create a sense of urgency among the followers to avail of the product at a discounted rate.
3 Best Social Media Ecommerce Tools for 2024
Do you feel stuck even with the best social media ecommerce strategies? That can happen anytime if you don’t have the right tools at your disposal. Here are 3 best tools that you can use for your next strategy:
1.VidyBack
Based on real-time data, VidyBack can create engaging videos for your brand. The automation algorithm fuels the working procedure of this tool so that you can promote the products/services at the right time to the targeted audience. This 100% free app takes a few minutes to understand your business. Based on that, it creates enticing videos that you can share instantly. However, PRO features are also available to unlock some special things.
This social media management tool enables your brand to manage various social media accounts in one place. Additionally, it offers ecommerce integration to sell your products directly on social media channels. You can track the social media performance, while optimizing your sales strategy.
3. Shopify
One of the renowned ecommerce platforms that allows you to sell your services/products over social media. Like Hootsuite, it also offers social media integration and other features, including order fulfillment, inventory management and payment processing.
Wrapping It Up
Does this information make you feel like a dollar-sign-eyes-green-tongue-emoji? Probably yes, as you have products/services to sell to your targeted audience through social commerce. With the above-mentioned points, you can sell without being salesy which widens your brand audience and customer reach. You’re one step away from selling!
Learn more on how to boost your marketing on social media.
