Social media was initially meant to allow individuals to connect with each other. Ecommerce businesses began to engage as the platforms increased in popularity and the number of users grew, and they found a new way of interacting with customers. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a new business opening up without a social media presence. If you combine social networking with ecommerce, you’ve got the perfect recipe for success.

For some time now, marketers have used social media channels to connect with customers of ecommerce sites, and now 31% brands say that they preferred selling through social media. Online shopping and brand research on social media are becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason.

Nearly half of genZ and millennial consumers prefer social media to search engines when looking for new products. In addition, 70% of people use Instagram and Facebook to search for things they wish to buy.

Creating and implementing a successful strategy, on the other hand, can be difficult. That is why we are here to assist you.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use social media to boost your ecommerce business. The good news is that this is the place to be if you’re just getting started on social media or looking for new ideas for your marketing strategy.

Ecommerce Social Media Marketing

A set of social media techniques you can employ in the marketing of your ecommerce business is called a Social Media ecommerce Strategy. For example, Instagram and Facebook Shops can sell straight from their platforms, which means fewer clicks to complete the sale and a more convenient shopping experience for customers who are already doing their research and finding things they’re interested in on these platforms.

There are mainly two types of strategies:

Organic Social Media Strategies for Ecommerce

1. Your social media profiles’ inclusion and reliance on user-generated product reviews
2. Increasing your brand’s visibility by using relevant hashtags
3. Delivering exceptional social customer service
4. Using social listening to promote your product and identify new customers

Strategies for E-Commerce Using Paid Social Media

1. Running advertising to boost any of the above-mentioned organic tactics
2. Through collaborations among brands
3. Campaigns involving influencer marketing
4. Developing a program for brand ambassadors

How to Build Your Ecommerce Company’s Social Media Strategy

There’s no shortage of platforms for developing a presence for your brand, from Facebook to Instagram and TikTok to Pinterest. When you’re first getting started on social media, it’s pretty standard to get carried away and make these two mistakes:

1. Maintaining a presence on too many networks.
2. Using all channels in the same way and failing to take advantage of their individual capabilities.

You must first prioritize what you will be focusing on, which begins with understanding each channel’s strengths and weaknesses.

Social Media Marketing Platform for Ecommerce

1. Instagram

As a marketing platform, Instagram allows you to establish a following through several visual mediums.

Strength

Unlike Facebook, you can achieve decent results without paying to play; however, Instagram advertising or influencer marketing are viable options if you have the means.

Images and videos can be shared on Instagram and found using hashtags. For a 24-hour lifespan, there’s Insta Stories and Insta Live. With Stories, you can experiment with concepts and share behind-the-scenes shots that are more spontaneous and personable.

Product labels and stickers can also be added. Visitors can tap on a product in the post or article to get more information and buy it using these tags.

Weakness

Millennial and Gen Z make up about half of the Instagram’s user base instead of Facebook’s larger demographic.

2. Facebook

When it comes to advertising on social media, Facebook is a great option. Make sure to think about the expense of advertising when you’re promoting content.

Strength

Customers can leave reviews, and Facebook has a Facebook Messenger feature that can be used for customer support.

Ads can be targeted to specific clients based on information in the database.

Weakness

Even if someone has opted in by liking your page, you won’t be able to reach them until you pay to advertise your postings.

3. Tiktok

When it comes to TikTok, authentic content is the way to go for marketers. Audiences prefer videos that are less edited than those on other social networks. Creators can connect authentically with their audience because of this disparity.

Strength

Customers can leave reviews, and Facebook has a Facebook Messenger feature that can be used for customer support.

Ads can be targeted to specific clients based on information in the database.

Weakness

Even if someone has opted in by liking your page, you won’t be able to reach them until you pay to advertise your postings.

4. YouTube

In addition to Facebook, YouTube is a popular method of gaining new customers for your e-commerce business. In terms of monthly traffic, YouTube is visited by 42.9% of all internet users, making it the second most popular platform in the world.

Strength

You can produce YouTube videos that attract potential clients, whether you’re a creator or an ecommerce firm.

Weakness

A YouTube account can be created at no cost. To compete with your rivals, you’ll need to spend a lot of money on high-quality videos.

5. Pinterest

Even though Pinterest isn’t technically a “social media site,” many e-commerce companies use it as part of their social media marketing strategy. This is because Pinterest users are more likely to actually purchase something than they are on any other social media network that they visit.

Strength

Success on Pinterest is all about creating visually appealing material. Photograph your products in a way that draws attention to their unique features. Customers will be more likely to complete a purchase if you include Buyable Pins in your product catalogue.

Weakness

Most Pinterest’s users (71%) are middle-class women with income to spend. Because of this, it isn’t suitable for all people.

Content Planning Is a Must

Your social media presence is only as good as the quality of your content. You want your feeds to be eye-catching, relevant, and appealing for your followers to view as they scroll down.

Make sure you’re paying attention as we lead you through choosing the ideal content for your business.

We recommend utilizing Trello for planning content and Later, Hootsuite, or Buffer for scheduling because they all have free plans to get you started with social media management. That said, everyone is doing content calendars; here are a few tips to stand apart:

Tip 1: Go Live

On Facebook Live, a new ecommerce tool has been added that allows Pages to feature products in their streams. Stop scheduled and promoted posts and put your content calendars away for a while.

Tip 2: Use Facebook Ads

A famous phrase states that “you’ve got to pay to play.” Facebook is an excellent example of that. Good news: Ecommerce firms have many options to advertise on Facebook, which is a good thing.

Tip 3: Make Use of Shoppable Posts

Social media postings with shoppable features allow firms to showcase their storefronts. Businesses can incorporate shoppable content within their regular image posts and Stories.

Tip 4: Grow Your Followers

While it may seem like basic sense for any business to increase their Instagram following, there are additional benefits. In Insta Stories, direct links can be added when an account has more than 10,000 followers. With a single swipe, a user will be taken to your website.

The Stories of e-commerce brands can also be organized into various folders.

Tip 5: IGTV for Ecommerce

IGTV’s e-commerce options are now available worldwide, and tests on Reels will begin later this year, according to the company.

 IGTV’s direct checkout function or the seller’s website can be used by viewers to purchase things they see in videos, according to the release.

Tip 6: Carousel Ads Should Have a Dedicated Budget

Before spending all of your ad funds on Facebook and Instagram, try out Pinterest’s Promoted Carousel advertisements.

Tip 7: Go for Snapchats Dynamic Ads Collections

The new ad tool announced in the fall allows marketers to automatically create advertising in real-time, leveraging the brand’s substantial product catalogues. Advertisers can choose from mobile-ready designs, and Snap then distributes the ads to Snapchat’s 229 million users worldwide, depending on their preferences.

Create a Posting Strategy

Even if it should go without saying, using social media as a business owner or marketer is vastly different from doing so on a personal level.

Your current goal is to see a return on the resources you’ve invested in terms of time, money, and effort. That necessitates careful planning.

Being overly promotional on social media is the biggest blunder ecommerce companies make. The best thing to do would be to avoid creating and distributing entirely promotional content.

A better approach is to find a happy medium between all four of your content’s primary goals. Here’s an example of a social media posting plan to help you find the right mix for each network.

Your goal in social media marketing is to attract new customers by engaging, educating, and entertaining them regularly.

Social Listening for Ecommerce

All of your company’s departments can benefit from social listening. While social listening can be used to find out what your competitors are doing wrong and what your industry’s customers are talking about, it can also be used for sales purposes. These discussions may lead to new goods, initiatives, and improved customer service.

Your online-only business depends heavily on online interactions and activities to influence your strategy; thus, social listening is essential. As a result, standing out in an increasingly crowded social sphere is becoming increasingly important.

We’ve already talked about the benefits of social listening, but there are more metrics you can use to improve your social selling strategy. Consistently using data from social media to guide your sales strategy will enhance your return on investment.

Many ecommerce-related data can be gleaned from social media analytics:

1. Visitors to a website or a profile are referred to as “clicks
2. Your website’s social media shares
3. Customers’ comments
4. The advertisement offers and clicks trough’s
5. Advertisements for products or campaigns that have recently been introduced

Analyze your social media networks’ performance with a platform like Sprout Social’s. A single channel can be studied in depth if you choose, or you can quickly compare several channels at once. Sprout Social also provides you with:

1. Participation and analysis of trends
2. Reports from social listening
3. Creating client profiles using CRM connectors

Case Study

Blibli.com was launched in the year 2011 and it is one of Indonesia’s most popular ecommerce site. Customers can shop for everything from electronics to grocery items and lifestyle goods on the site, which has partnered with thousands of sellers.

The Goal

Bibli.com used Automated Facebook App Ads to test whether it could achieve all three of its objectives with a single campaign. By combining the most effective images from the product catalogue with copy, format, and placement options, Automated App Ads use machine learning to optimize campaign performance. This helps advertisers reach the people who are most likely to download the app and make a purchase.

The Solution

The Blibli.com mobile app was promoted to a large Indonesian audience through the ecommerce marketplace’s ads, including a call to action. Moreover, It conducted an initial Facebook conversion lift study to see how the results correlated.

The Results

The always-on strategy test conducted by Blibli.com showed that their Automated App Ads increased both app installations and sales. From August 31 to September 11, 2021, the conversion lift study yielded the following results:

1. App downloads increased by 34%.
2. Return on ad spend increased 32.4X
3. Lift in purchases increased by 2.4X

Conclusion

An ecommerce business can use a variety of strategies on social media. However, most people feel that a social media presence is essential for marketing success. Customers may learn about your brand, read reviews, get recommendations from reliable sources, and purchase social media.

To stay on top of the ever-evolving social selling scene, it’s critical to periodically review your approach and consider the latest industry statistics. More and more businesses and shops are taking advantage of COVID–19, and those adjusting to these changes will be most successful online.

What are the most common social media promotional strategies used by businesses today?

1. User-generated content
2. Product lifestyle shots
3. Livestream
4. Video marketing
5. Influencer marketing

How can you build a successful social media strategy?

1. Focus on what’s essential to your company’s mission
2. Determine who your audience is
3. Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and the metrics that matter most
4. Put together a selection of different types of information
5. Identify the social media channels you intend to utilize
6. Make a list of everything you want to write about
7. Track your progress

What is Ecommerce Social Media Marketing?

A set of social media techniques you can employ in the marketing of your ecommerce business is called a Social Media ecommerce Strategy. For example, Instagram and Facebook Shops can sell straight from their platforms, which means fewer clicks to complete the sale and a more convenient shopping experience for customers who are already doing their research and finding things they’re interested in on these platforms.

How to build your Ecommerce Company's Social Media Strategy?

There’s no shortage of platforms for developing a presence for your brand, from Facebook to Instagram and TikTok to Pinterest. When you’re first getting started on social media, it’s pretty standard to get carried away and make these two mistakes:

1. Maintaining a presence on too many networks.
2. Using all channels in the same way and failing to take advantage of their individual capabilities.