With the onset of New Year, it is a good time to analyse what worked well and what did not with social media. Your customers regardless of their age, economic status and gender are always active on social media sharing sites. If you look at the following statistics from social media monitoring you will actually realise the need for optimising your social media strategy for your eCommerce success:
- 47% of male and 53% of female almost equally uses social sites.
- With the average age being 37, 61% of Facebook users are middle aged or older.
- People between 18-24 years of age are all scattered over different social sites.
So if you aren't discovering what best can be done with social networking channels this year, you are probably missing out on building a strong bond with your customers and ways to maximise new customer acquisition through online word of mouth.
Here are some of the best practices to optimise social media for taking your eCommerce business marketing on the right path:
Think beyond:
When we talk about social networks, Facebook is the first site that comes to our mind. Undoubtedly, it is the largest and most talked about with social commerce value. However, you need to think beyond. Do not limit your imagination to one channel. Put your focus on other sites such as Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter. These should also be a part of your brand's social identity. In addition, expand your presence to social content networks including Vine, Instagram, YouTube and SlideShare. The more you put your footprints on social media, the better your chances to be on the top of the purchase funnel with the prospects.
Make an impact with social ads:
When it comes to social media marketing, you focus automatically on relationship building, engagement and being helpful. Social's word-of-mouth influence becomes crucial to encourage sales. However, there is one place on social that you can approach for direct traffic and sales. It is popularly called paid promotion or paid social. For instance, Facebook has seen its click-through rates for its ads rise upto 275% over a year. Moreover, the platform can also offer you pay-per-click model, thus giving you the opportunity to optimise your product selling strategies.
Build original content:
Google's algorithm focuses on original content. And blogs are the ideal place to build content base. They significantly generate brand awareness, improve search engine rankings and strengthen your bond with your existing and potential customers. Therefore, if you haven't thought about blogs yet, it's the right time. Along with using WordPress for this purpose, you can use other application including RebelMouse or Tumblr to suit your tastes and preferences.
So this new year, choose your social platform with the aim to create original content.
Video contents are compelling:
When talking about social media context, create video content that can generate engagement along with the images used. Also it is an effective way to compete with your competitors as a very few competitors would use video posting on social sites. Consider posting videos that answer questions related to common concerns such as shipping policies during the holiday season or you can also post videos showing Christmas or new year gifts for s specific age group or demographic.
Manage your social media community:
Interacting with your fans and followers is an important aspect of social media marketing. However, you need to follow certain approaches to manage your online community.
Go where your customers are:
Sending a few formal surveys to customers or polling them on your website can provide a wealth of knowledge. When a customer asks questions or leaves a comment it is important that you respond on a timely basis. Also it is equally important to compliment those who like or share your content that you have posted. On the contrary, when a customer voices a complaint it is also important to respond courteously.
Maximise customer engagement with additional content:
An effective social media engagement demands daily fresh content. Therefore, you can update twitter several times on a day. In addition, supplement your posts with micro content in the form of polls, photos, status updates, videos and questions. So don't just push products and promotions. Incorporate these ideas into your eCommerce social media marketing optimising strategies.
Use social media management and third-party application:
If you really want to maximise efficiency and minimise time investment, it is always recommended to use social media and third-party application.
Hoot Suite, SocialBro, SocialOomph and Sprout social enables syndication to the majority of the social channels. On the other hand, several third-party applications such as hashtag and user-generated content campaign for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine can enhance and enrich your social media engagement efforts.
Last but definitely not the least, no matter how much useful the content you produce or the number of social channels through which you syndicate, nothing will be important if only a few readers read and respond to it. Therefore, it is vital that you ensure every user metrics have some important business value. Social media analysis and measurement is always required to reach to your audiences.
(eCommerce / shutterstock)