How can social media help you stand out in e-commerce?

Today, we can affirm that social media stands as the primary channel for all e-commerce, especially when running a customer-centric business. You might have noticed that even without a dedicated website for your brand, you can still make sales solely through social media. Thus, it stands as one of the best strategic investments for any business.

This was actually a principal focus for an ecommerce manager I recently placed. You need to develop a consistent and visually appealing brand presence across platforms. Leverage targeted advertising to reach specific demographics, driving traffic to your site. Encourage user-generated content and reviews to build trust. Run promotions or exclusive offers to incentivize purchases. Actively engage with your audience through comments and messages, humanizing your brand. Utilize platforms like Instagram and Pinterest for visually-driven products. By cultivating an interactive and dynamic social media strategy, your e-commerce business can stand out, connecting authentically with customers and staying top-of-mind in a competitive market.

Setting the Table with Clear Goals: Before diving into the social media feast, pinpoint what you're hungry for. Is it more brand awareness? Higher sales? Knowing your goals helps you serve up the right content.

How do consumers FIRST experience your brand and what's the impression they're left with? Often times it's your website, but don't forget your social channels. These are just as important as your website. I've often argued that your social channels, website, Amazon presence (for consumer product brands), and the Google SERP for brand searches are all equally important to properly reflect your brand's value proposition. You may not find that social channels drive directly attributable revenue, but that doesn't mean they're not responsible for a large amount of "influenced" revenue.

I believe that businesses shouldn't strive to be on every social media platform. Yes, you heard me right. Instead, focus on the ones where your target audience is most active and engaged. It's about quality, not quantity. Being everywhere might dilute your efforts, and it's better to excel on a few platforms than to merely exist on all.

Picking the Right Ingredients (Platforms): Not every social media platform suits every brand. If your brand were a dish, where would it fit best? Instagram's visual flair? LinkedIn's professional touch? Choose platforms where your audience likes to dine.

Cooking Up a Stellar Content Plan: Planning content is like prepping your ingredients. You need a mix of promotional, educational, and entertaining content – think of these as your herbs and spices. They should vary but always complement the main dish – your brand.

Seasoning Your Posts Just Right: Your posts need to be seasoned with creativity. Use eye-catching visuals, engaging captions, and sprinkle in some hashtags. It’s about making your brand as appealing as a gourmet meal.

Taste Testing (Measuring Performance): You wouldn’t serve a dish without tasting it first, right? The same goes for social media content. Use tools to measure how your audience is responding. Are they asking for seconds or leaving it untouched?

Remember, more than half of the world’s population is social media users so social media is not only for contacting new audiences, brand awareness,image ,seo,social listening,PR or collecting data it"s directly related with sales.

Ensure posts are uniform across each platform - this is obviously easier with sister platforms like Facebook & Instagram, but expanding the alignment to TikTok, Youtube, and any other platforms as formatting allows is ideal. Users tend to only remember the content or an element of the post, but not the platform they engaged with it on. For the sake of recall ease into engagement conversion, aim to keep posts universal as much as possible.