Your social media strategy success equals your e-commerce business’ success, which yields a greater sales conversion
More brick-and-mortar stores are entering the e-commerce arena to improve their brand establishment, product visibility and sales conversion. But having an e-commerce site or Web store is not enough. You also need to have a thoughtful content creation strategy.
With the worldwide popularity of the Internet, along with portable gadgets, smartphones, tablets, and phablets, more and more people can easily and conveniently access the different social media platforms anytime and anywhere.
Social media marketing is
Social media marketing is the process of gaining web traffic, promoting brand awareness, broadening customer reach, and improving sales conversion through a strategic utilization of the different social media platforms. The most prominent social media platforms today include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest and Instagram.
Why it’s good for your business
In fishing, you go where most of the fishes are. In promoting your business online, you should go to where most of your potential customers are — social media.
Statistics prove that the number of social media users is constantly rising. According to Statista, all over the world, there are 1.79 billion social network users, 1.49 billion of which are active Facebook users. Worldwide, 38.6% of the population uses Facebook and spends 68% of their time in this social media platform via a mobile device. On Twitter, there are 307 million monthly active users. The active users of other social media platforms are growing in numbers, too.
When social media is wisely and strategically used over time, it can be the most powerful marketing tool for all kinds of businesses. But, it cannot produce a successful harvest overnight. A carefully planned social media strategy is much needed for ultimate success.
Content strategies that drive social media success
A successful social media marketing strategy doesn’t only draw fans, followers, likes and Web traffic – it also drives great sales conversion for your business. But how can you turn your fans and followers into customers through the content you post on social media? Here are what you need to know about social media content creation to lead your business to its success:
What to post
The first step in any social media content strategy is to know your audience and your market. You need to observe or discuss the issues important to all constituents.
To get to know your market and uncover the issues that affect them, there are different groups of people you could observe or engage in discussion:
- Customers. Build relationships with your customers by reaching out. Ask them about their issues, favorite products and interests. Pick customers that you can call, email, tweet or message for insights. the content they want to see.
- CSRs. Customer service representatives are on the front line to receive comments from customers about your products and services. They know weak points in your products that need improvement. These concerns can easily be translated into content.
- Followers. Observe the concerns your followers share. You can do to address them. Follow or visit both individual and corporate accounts to gain insights from different perspectives.
- Competitors. Monitor your competitors on social media. Observe their strategies and learn from them. This doesn’t mean you should copy them. You just need to observe them and use those observations to your advantage.
Use the information you’ve gathered from the people above to inform different content that you post on social media. This content can be in the form of infographics, graphics, video tutorials, blog posts, webinars, podcasts and many others. to produce content that people will love to share.
People pay more attention to eye-catching visual content, so try tools like Canva and BeFunky for photos and social media posts and Piktochart for infographics and visuals.
Make sure that your posts are relevant, interesting, engaging, consistent and beneficial to your audience
Where to post
After figuring out the content you plan to publish, you have to determine where to post it. Figure out which channels are suitable for sharing your different types of content. Failing to find the right social media channel for your contents will put your content ideas to waste.
To kick off your evaluation of the social media channels, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- Is my market and are my prospective buyers there?
- Is our content suitable for this particular platform?
- What will people benefit from our content in a given platform?
- Is the platform the best choice for the content I want to share?
- Will my posts provide value on the social media channel?
Take a look at some of the most prominent social media platforms that may be appropriate for sharing your content:
- Blog. A self-hosted blog is best to reach traffic goals and establishinformation about your brand. After you publish new blog posts, share snippets from it on social media with links to the full post.
- Twitter. This platform is best for sharing short but insightful tidbits that link to longer content.
- Facebook. Facebook currently has the largest social media reach. You can post content, run polls, contests, promos and ads that connect you with your market.
- LinkedIn. LinkedIn is best for building your network and sharing content. Share information about your products and services while connecting with other businesses and prospects.
- Google+. This platform is best for visual content posts such as photos and videos. Google+ can improve your brand’s visibility in search results.
- YouTube. Uploading YouTube videos can lead to an increased Google Search ranking. It’s good for informational videos, tutorials and more. YouTube also can be easily embedded and shared on your website, blog and other social networks.
- Tumblr. This instablogging platform creates huge opportunities for content to be spread because of its follow, favorite and reblog features.
- Pinterest. Pinterest makes use of virtual pin boards where users can pin their favorite things. These pinned objects link back to the original source of the item, creating a greater opportunity to drive traffic to your main site.
- Instagram. This mobile app is one of the most visited social platforms today due to the rise of smartphones. With Instagram, you can share lifestyle photos, run contests, celebrate seasons, promote new products and more.
When to post
Remember the adage “timing is everything?” You can experiment with scheduling your content distribution across your chosen social media platforms and see what works best for you. Figure out the best schedule for your content by observing when your followers are most active on different platforms.
Conclusion
You can maximize your e-commerce site’s full potential by utilizing the rising popularity of the different social media platforms. Build your social networks and follow the tips above to create the best social media content creation strategy for your business.
Bio: Japs Buidon is a Social Media Specialist and SEO from Always Open Commerce. He loves hiking as well as electronics.