We can all agree that social media has dramatically changed how we do business online as well as how we interact with our prospects and customers. Consumers are sharing more data than ever on what they are doing online and the things they love and adore. Indeed, if you run an eCommerce business and are targeting to bring in more traffic and grow your market reach, social networks have to be a core part of your digital marketing strategy.
So, Where Do You Start?
Like anything else, being able to attract and retain consumers to your online store through social media calls for a well-thought-out strategy. Below are some of the best practices and tactics to use when leveraging social media for your Shopify store’s success.
- Set up Facebook and Twitter profiles (https://www.facebook.com & https://twitter.com)
Facebook and Twitter are still regarded as the two biggest “guns” with the most traction for any webmaster’s social media efforts. As such, the two services make the best places to start for anyone looking to attract consumers to their eCommerce stores.
Reasons to Use Facebook for Your eCommerce Marketing
- Compared to Twitter, Facebook posts lasts a lot longer and thus reach wider audiences. This takes us to the second point.
- The platform is relatively more passive than Twitter yet attracts more user engagement.
- You can target specific audiences and demographics for your Facebook ads.
- Facebook allows users to post long blog posts and videos which make it easy to bring out your true personality.
How to Use Twitter for Your eCommerce Marketing Strategy
- Tweet/post severally for more effective marketing. Typically, posts on Twitter only last a few minutes.
- Actively take part in discussions on content that’s relevant to your business.
- Be creative, fun, and give value to your audience. Limit your advertising.
- Be prompt in responding to messages and comments from users.
- Learn how to choose and use appropriate hashtags.
Other social media platforms to consider include;
- Instagram (https://www.instagram.com)
Electric Confetti instagramThis is a fast-growing social platform that mainly supports visual (pictures and video) content. As such, if you can get creative enough to produce attractive images and videos of your products or services, then Instagram can be a very effective marketing tool for you. For example, numerous digital marketers have been wildly successful on this platform after posting professional infographics that relay valuable information.
- YouTube (https://www.youtube.com)
Franklin Art Studio YouTube page
Regarded as the world’s largest video sharing platform, YouTube offers an excellent option to share knowledge and tutorials in a visual manner. For better marketing outcomes with YouTube, it’s crucial that you get creative and engage your viewers using comments.
- LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com)
Looking to reach a more professional and management level audience? LinkedIn may be your best bet here.
- Google+ (https://plus.google.com)
Franklin Art Studio Google+ page
While Google+ may not be as huge as the other platforms discussed in this section, posting on this social site may help you rank much quicker on Google. This is because content posted on this platform is automatically indexed by Google.
Integrating these social media platforms on Shopify is quite easy, and so it shouldn’t be something to bother you. All you need is to use one of the several social media apps available on Shopify to market your business and engage with your consumers.
- Interact with followers
Social media offers a perfect platform where you can freely interact and understand your prospects and customers. While at it, be sure to monitor your posts for engagement patterns which may help you figure out what works and what doesn’t. Ask questions, respond to queries, participate in discussions, and even thank those that share your content. By showing a genuine interest and care for your followers, you can quickly build trust with them and possibly shorten the sales cycle.
Some of the most effective ways to enhance interactions with other social media users include;
- Hosting live chats
- Joining relevant groups that comprise prospects and customers.
- Building relationships with social media influencers to give your brand a boost in terms of reach and trust.
- Be consistent
If you’re serious about driving more traffic to your Shopify online store through social media, it’s important that you post content on a regular basis. Doing so helps to improve customer engagement and ultimately boosts conversions. To make this process easier, consider using various automation tools available today such as Hootsuite, Buffer, and Social Flow among others.
That concludes part 2 of our 4 part expert series of Shopify tips to build your eCommerce store customer base. So far we've covered top SEO tips and in this edition we focused on how to generate and nurture a social media following.
Be sure to check us out next week when we dive into part 3, - Shopify Content Marketing & Blogging Tips.