On average we spend 1h30 per day on social networks! It’s time to recognise the importance of social media in the world of e-commerce and use it to boost your online business.
Before you start, you must figure out who your target customer is and which networks will work the best for your brand, depending on which emotions you wish to convey. Are you targeting youger generations? Women? Retailers? All of this must be take into account in order to define your strategy.
You’ll need to be actively present on 2 to 3 popular social networks in order to reach a considerable amount of subscribers. So how can you use social media to improve your e-reputation and boost your sales?
Which social media do you need for your e-commerce
Let’s start with Facebook, the world’s most popular social network! With 1.6 billion users for an average age of 34, Facebook reaches the largest number of people. It is therefore a good starting point to build your community and your e-reputation. As an e-merchant, having a Facebook page is essential because it is one of the first consumer reflexes. Customers will get a clearer idea of who you are from the content you publish! It should be noted, however, that Facebook is less and less popular among people under 25.
Twitter, on the other hand, is a social network that can increase visibility thanks to short & concise posts (140 characters maximum). Interesting content can then be shared and retweeted among your subscribers. This multiplier effect allows you to reach out to a larger public and benefit from the impact that social networks have on e-commerce. Despite a strong community of 325 million subscribers, the number of active Twitter users tends to stagnate…
If you wish to communicate with photos and create an close and trusting bond with your community, Instagram is the platform you need. Remember that an image is assimilated 60,000 times faster than text! With over 430 million users, Instagram is more popular with young people (the average age is 26!). Keep in mind that this platform is limited to pictures only (external links in the description are not clickable).
Is your customer base mainly female? Is your activity related to the fields of fashion, design or cooking? With a community made up of 85% women, Pinterest is the social network you need to work on! Pinterest is like a product showcase: images are pinned on boards by users . Each picture redirects to its original site, allowing Pinterest to generate more traffic to your site and thus boost your sales. In fact, 69% of users have already bought a product after seeing it on Pinterest (compared to 40% on Facebook)! Unfortunately, Pinterest does not have private messaging.
LinkedIn is the preferred social network if your customers are mostly professionals. The average age of LinkedIn users is 44 years old and its community is exclusively professional. This social network mainly allows you to establish your expertise and benefit from the B2B impact of social networks for e-commerce.
Google+
With 440 million users, Google+ is the 3rd largest community on a social network. One of the particularities of Google+ is that 67% of its users are male, however a large part of them are inactive… The interest of Google+ is mainly linked to natural referencing (SEO) and notoriety because, via the famous “+1” button, any information you publish is seen by Google and can therefore appear in Google’s results pages!
Youtube
Finally, if your main goal is to entertain and inform your community through video content, Youtube is the platform for you. Youtube videos are powerful levers to increase your notoriety and take advantage of the social network frenzy! Video content remains an effective way to reassure potential customers when they find out about your brand and products. It should be noted that an active presence on Youtube still requires a significant investment in terms of time, money, knowledge and content.
How to use social media marketing for e-commerce
There are two things that count on social networks : quality and quantity.
Quantity allows you to reach a large number of people.
A key point for your social network strategy is the frequency of your posts. An effective way to increase your community over time is to publish content regularly. But to find the optimal frequency, you will need to test several of them and analyse the impact and reactions of your fans. As a general rule, you should publish at least once a day on Facebook and 4 to 6 times a day on Twitter.
It is essential to integrate share buttons on the product pages of your online shop (mainly Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest). This is a powerful way to boost word-of-mouth because the more visitors share your products, the more you increase your visibility and brand awareness!
Quality content will allow you to build a loyal community.
Include images in your posts (especially on Facebook) to use social media successfully. This will increase subscriber engagement because a post with a photo generates 50% more likes than one without!
Are your customers satisfied with your products? Here’s an idea: use social media to encourage feedback! This will increase customer loyalty and also help you to improve your SEO (see our article on SEO). And remember to highlight the positive comments on your website!
An interesting way to maintain and increase the engagement of your fans is by organising a question-and-answer session on Twitter. For example, choose a day during which your subscribers can ask you any type of question about your products and brand. It is strongly recommended that you use a specific hashtag for this day :). Organising this type of event regularly can help build your notoriety and increase online visibility!
Finally, if you are present on Pinterest, you can also organise a treasure hunt! 1st step: redirect your fans to an image on your Pinterest account through Facebook or Twitter. This image contains a clue that points to another Pinterest page with another clue, and so on… Until your fans reach the last step where they can register and potentially win a prize! Multiple social network accounts will allow you to share your image and increase brand awareness bring to trafic to your website.
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