The evolving role of social media in e-commerce has impacted us a lot. Social media and e-commerce are interconnected to one. These two are ideal companions for your sales strategy, but they can become your worst nightmare if you don’t consider them suitable. These days more and more internet users search for brands and shop online. According to the research stats, 76.8% of global Internet users purchased an online product in 2022, while 44.8% of users search for brand-related information. More than half of internet users between the ages of 16 to 25 use social media to search for the latest trends in the market.
What Is Social Media E-Commerce Marketing?
A social media e-commerce strategy is a set of social media tactics you can use to promote your business. Depending on your business type and ideas, your plan must focus on
- Driving traffic to your website or brand app
- Selling products directly on social media
- Communicating with customers (taking their reviews post-purchase)
- Collecting information about the industry.
How To Apply Social Media Strategies In E-Commerce?
The evolving role of social media in e-commerce can benefit your online and offline business in many ways. It can act as a platform where customers can share their experiences about your product, issues about the product, customer service, and much more. We have gathered some great benefits of social media in e-commerce that can help boost your sales and promote your business.
1) Building Brand Awareness
Social media is one of the most efficient digital marketing methods to boost your visibility. If introducing a new product or store, you should start building hype around it before launching it. In 2022, social media plays a vital role in the brand’s market, so there is always space for newbies. A unique market strategy and consistent posting will help you to build brand awareness and reach your target audience. Awareness can also be created by promoting your brand with your colleagues, sponsors, and friends and telling them to like and share your page further. It is a slow, time-consuming process, but if you wish to speed up things a little faster, paid social can help you with that.
2) Advertising
As an e-commerce business, social media advertising can likely be a better way to attract people to your store or any product. Set the right objectives for your social media ads to cover the targeted audience. Different forms of promotions or ad formats are considered for that. On Facebook or Instagram, the categories are
- Image ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads,
- Collection ads.
Collection ads are specifically designed for e-commerce businesses. They use a mix of creative copy and items from your product catalog to grab customers’ attention and guide them. You can also opt for other social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter to promote the brand.
3) Selling Products Online
The role of social media in online shopping is quite vast. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest offer quick shopping solutions for everyone. Snapchat has partnered with Shopify to work out a social commerce tool of its own, but this feature is only allowed to a few accounts. Using this platform has a lot of benefits like
- It’s entirely free to cost
- It provides a quick and easy setup of shopping for customers
- Users can easily shop just by clicking the link provided
4) Building Customer Loyalty
53% of customers who follow any online business are incredibly loyal to the brand. Therefore, loyal customers are more likely to choose you over the competition and increase your traffic. To keep your audience engaged and happy, here are some strategies you can implement to create a lasting impression of your brand
- Provide them with promo codes with discounts,
- Offer freebies and giveaways on stuff.
- Provide free delivery for a limited period.
5) Drive Website Traffic
It is essential to drive website traffic to create an impact of social media in e-commerce and boost your product. When posting about your brand, always insert its link with the main keywords. Whatever you post directly reflects your site and creates the first impression of your brand. The 80/20 rule boosts your rankings by optimizing keywords vital for SEO to drive website traffic. Similarly, you can try paid traffic. It can help take your e-commerce business to the next level. E.g.,
6) Increase Conversations
The evolving role of social media in e-commerce allows you to have a strong relationship with your brand, partners, and product. The best way to engage with the audience is to reply to their queries and comments. This way, they will feel valued and have a much better perception of the brand.
7) Create A Brand Image
Social media’s evolving role in e-commerce helps build your brand effectively. Firstly, it’s better than traditional media to use your brand in front of many people quickly and easily. Secondly, it allows your audience to think about the product if they are not in the mood to buy it. You need to focus on your profile, like the logo, pictures, and cover photo so that it doesn’t overwhelm or distract the buyers.
8) Exceptional Customer Service
Nowadays, the majority of the audience is generated through social media. Hence it would make sense to use it as a customer service tool. Social media needs immediate customer feedback and interaction with your customer. Strong communication between them ensures their satisfaction and answers all their questions. And what if the feedback is negative? So, try to find solutions and showcase how serious you are about your customers’ opinions. Tools such as Re: amaze, an integrated customer service tool, are an example.
9) Market Research
Market research is fundamental as social networks allow us to conduct and provide market insights. You can see what products appeal more through social platforms, which get more likes, comments, and recommendations or are shared more. Take the market perspective and then launch the desired product.
Some Tips To Boost Your Sales:
At this point, you will know how to use social media to promote your e-commerce and target new audiences. Here are some tips to help you boost your sales more
Collaborate With Others:
Pairing with social media influencers is a new trend these days. By collaborating with the person, the audience loves, introduce your product to a new audience and increase your reach. You can send your product to any influencer and ask them to give honest reviews about your product. Or host a Q&A on Instagram affiliated with your brand.
Use Short-Form Video:
We have talked about how your content should represent your personality. New content can be uploaded on the following, which attracts more consumers
- Instagram stories
- Instagram reels
- Instagram live
- Tiktok
Over 500 people see these stories and reels daily, adding new sales features to these platforms. How can you use this knowledge to engage your audience? It all depends on your creativity.
Post Often:
Once your social media presence starts gaining some reach and you build a following, you will want to give them updates. A regular posting schedule will help you to stay in the market and relevant.
Work Smart:
All of this can be pretty difficult if you are on a marketing team. Many marketing firms provide this service to manage your social media account and perform tasks accordingly.
- Compose, schedule, and publish posts to all the social media accounts
- Boost organically and promote as ads directly from your dashboard
- Analyzing your performance across accessible reports
- Making new strategies to enhance sales
- Managing all the messages and delivering timely responses.
Disadvantages Of Social Media In E-Commerce:
As mentioned above, the benefits of social media also have some drawbacks
- Need to stay engaged and active
- Negative feedback and a tarnish brand name can demotivate
- Difficult to measure
- Security and privacy policy issues
- Low ROI
- Not suitable for all types of brands
- Time-consuming
- Heavily rely on ads
- It does not work for all age groups
- Limited only to social media platforms
Conclusion:
The evolving role of social media in e-commerce is auspicious. You might not achieve your goals early, but with hard work, commitment and grit, you will eventually have a successful social media business. That wins, leads, drives revenue for you, and grows your business eventually.