Social media marketing is still one of the fastest-growing places to advertise your eCommerce endeavors. But social media is only as effective as it is influential; if you haven’t found a way to stand out during your social media marketing efforts, then you aren’t getting the social returns that eCommerce businesses need.
The following 10 ways will ensure that your social media presence stands out among your competition and drives real results for your eCommerce business.
1. Engage with your audience
A social media presence is nothing if it doesn’t have engagement. You can have the fanciest social media account with the most followers, but without engagement, your social media content isn’t doing much for you.
Remember that social media is a dialogue, not just a monologue, so you have to respond and engage with your audience as well.
Not only will your audience feel included and appreciate your responses to their engagements, but engagement actually makes your content more likely to appear in searches and on feeds since they’ll be considered popular.
And social media engagement is not just about likes and comments – social sharing is an equally important aspect of social media marketing that can’t be ignored. On Instagram, a simple save of a post boosts views, too!
You can’t truly engage with your social media audiences if you aren’t social yourself! You can share other people’s content, ask for feedback on social media, and share social media content from your social channels as well as other social channels.
By this we mean that social media is not just about sharing social posts; you need to be social on social media! This is especially important since social consumers follow brands that they like and engage with them regularly. Social sharing and social conversations will help your social media presence stand out.
Make sure you’re answering questions, comments, and any messages that your followers are sending. Interaction is the best and easiest way to make your audience happy and willing to purchase from your eCommerce store. (Well, other than making sure the products you’re selling are of good quality and shipped on time, but we’re talking social media specifically.)
Being social with other businesses will also help you gain followers and buyers. Engage with other companies’ social media! It’s a good thing to do! Your competition isn’t always your enemy- heck, they might even consider collaborating with you at some point in order to share followers and customers.
Asking questions are a social media marketing tactic that can be used to gain insight into your social followers, connect with them on social channels, and increase your social influence.
People love filling out short questionnaires and making sure their opinions are heard. Use this to your advantage!
A social question can be anything from “What do you think?” or “Do you have any suggestions?”, all the way to “What social networks do you use?” or “Which social network is your favorite?”. If you’re in the hobby eCommerce business, ask your followers to show off what they’ve made with supplies they purchased from you on their own social media profiles!
You can drop social questions into your social media content that encourages social sharing, such as blog posts and social updates. You can also ask social questions in real-time during a special social media event – this works great for eCommerce businesses that are social eCommerce-oriented.
Every tag and share allows for their followers to see how you and your customer interact, and if you’re interacting in positive ways that show off your amazing products as well as that you value your customers you’ll find that more people are willing to follow and engage with your social media!
Facts and figures are social media marketing gold; social proof can be very influential to social media audiences, especially social shoppers. Social proof comes in many forms, such as testimonials, social shares, social mentions, social ratings, and more – all of which you should display on your social media profiles.
These social statistics are especially important if you have social commerce-specific social media accounts since social consumers are much more likely to buy from eCommerce businesses that have social proof.
It doesn’t hurt that keeping this information around also helps you to decide what works and doesn’t work for your social media presence. Since social media is social, social proof can be a social factor that you rely on.
The more social proofs you have the better- which means it’s time to start asking for testimonials and mentions! It’s an easy task; ask your fans and followers to share how much they love your eCommerce store by putting your social information as a social status update on their social profiles. If you’re looking for proof from social media influencers, use social analytics tools to find where the power is and approach them with an offer that drives social traffic your way!
Doing the social rounds goes hand in hand with being social on social media! By doing the social rounds, eCommerce businesses can social media market their social media presence and social identities at the same time.
Broadly speaking, social rounds involve regularly visiting social accounts from your competitors as well as social accounts from related businesses. For social shoppers, regularly checking out what your social competition is up to will give you great insight into how to improve your social media marketing.
It’s market research, to put it simply. Knowing what’s working or not working for your competition will help you decide what you can and should try for your own social media presence. You can use some of their ideas to create your own or completely avoid doing what they’re doing.
We’ve talked about social proof in social media marketing in previous points, but social proof can also be very effective on your eCommerce website.
Adding social sharing widgets and social icons to product pages will encourage social shoppers to share your products with their social networks. Social media badges and social widgets can also be added to eCommerce website footers and sidebars, as well as social media profiles.
Being able to direct your followers to and from your social media presence and website will 1- make your website and social media recognizable as belonging to one another and 2- drive traffic to and from both places to gain followers and purchases!
Social sharing is another social media marketing tactic that can help your social shares stand out against the competition.
Social sharing takes time and effort on the part of social shoppers – social media marketing that requires social shoppers to take action tends to have a higher social impact. By encouraging social sharing on social media, you can increase social shares and social engagement for your eCommerce business.
There are several ways you can encourage social sharing: through social widgets, providing share incentives such as discounts or exclusive offers via Share It buttons, social media contests, and social media contests as social media marketing tactics. It doesn’t always take a lot of incentive for your customers to share your content.
8. Don’t be afraid to get creative!
Sometimes standing out against your competition is as simple as trying something new with the content you’re putting out into the world. Whether you’re social media marketing your social profiles or social media sharing content, social creativity is another social media marketing tactic that can help you stand out.
Creativity can translate into any aspect of social media marketing. You can change up your graphics, make gifs and videos, or even use new, fun music in your media. Creativity is social media marketing gold, so don’t be afraid to jazz it up a bit and try new things!
Piggybacking a social media tactic onto another social media tactic is a wonderful way to increase social shares when social sharing is concerned!
Since social shoppers are just as likely to engage with social videos as they are with social posts,
10. Try collaboration
Collaborating with your competition can do wonders for your social media following.
More social media marketing knowledge is more social media marketing power. Collaborating with your competition can help you increase social shares, gain social followers, and make social impact on social media like no other social media marketing tactic can!
It’s common for eCommerce businesses to go up against each other – even the same products are usually sold by multiple competing social media profiles. Collaborating with your social media competition can help you gain social presence, social shares, social followers, social engagement, and social impact – but collaborating doesn’t have to end there!
There are also ways to collaborate with complementary businesses – businesses that provide social media marketing services or products that compliment yours. Businesses who compliment yours will social media marketing your social media presence while social media marketing their own social media presence through social sharing and social engagement.
Collaborating with complementary businesses can help both businesses improve social impact and social reach on social media, while providing the opportunity to increase brand awareness and promote each other’s social assets! Collaboration is a wonderful way to social media marketing social impact and social shares to increase social followers, social engagement, and social presence, so don’t forget to collaborate with your social media competition or complementary businesses!
Social media marketing will make or break an eCommerce company. It’s important that you make your presence on social media loud and proud, really make it stand out against the noise of every other eCommerce business on the same platforms as your business.
If you’re in need of help especially in creating new and creative content that your followers will love to interact with, C&I Studios is able to help! We love producing videos, photoshoots, and so much more that will boost your social media presence! We can’t wait to create amazing content with you!