More and more internet users are making purchases online with each passing year. And in the new normal, they are not only buying from ecommerce websites more than before but also spending a lot more time on social media. Consumers are using social media to look at products on business pages, check their reviews, and also make purchases with the introduction of the “Shop” features.
In order to be successful, you must stay ahead of the pack and ensure customer satisfaction by meeting them where they are. This makes having a social media presence very important for your business.
If you are considering creating social media accounts for your ecommerce business, here we have listed a few websites which you can consider using, along with tips to create your accounts and ideas for content:
Facebook is the most used social media platform, the second most downloaded app, and the third most visited website overall in the world. It boasts 2.74 billion users who spend a whopping average of 34 minutes on the platform.
There are two rules that you must follow while using Facebook to promote your business – the 80-20 rule and the rule of thirds. According to the 80-20 rule, 80% of your posts should educate, entertain, and inform your followers, while the remaining 20% should be about your company. And the rule of thirds says that one-third each of your content should share ideas, be interactive, and promote your business respectively. You must make sure to include videos in your content strategy as they receive the highest engagement on this platform.
To create a Facebook Shop for your business, you need to create a page, add a product catalogue that contains their details and pictures, and tag pictures with products to enable users to click to shop them. Your products will be approved by Facebook and made visible to users only when they meet the website’s Merchant Terms and Policies.
Twitter’s posts are called “tweets”. The character limit for a tweet is 280 characters. In order to make your tweets shareable or “retweetable”, you must avoid using up all of the characters. This gives you very little space and time to convey your messages to your followers, so you must make them short and catchy.
Videos and images must be a part of your Twitter marketing strategy, as they receive the highest retweets. You should optimize your tweets for mobile, as a whopping 80% of Twitter users use its app. Ensure that your tweets don’t run into multiple lines on mobile devices and that your users don’t need to scroll too much to read them. Use hashtags within your tweets instead of putting them at the end. Make the platform engaging – use polls and do Twitter chats to get customer feedback, and do live tweets during events like product launches.
Instagram is a photo-sharing platform. People are automatically drawn to visual content – Instagram’s user base of one billion spends an average of 29 minutes on this platform, which is proof of this. This makes Instagram a great platform for you to be on.
You can use Instagram for your business irrespective of your niche. You can share behind-the-scenes photos of your business, like a day in the life of your employees or the making of your product. This humanizes your brand and makes it relatable, which helps you to earn the trust of your customers.
Like Facebook, Instagram also has a “Shop” feature. And the process of setting up the shop is also similar. You must first confirm your eligibility by confirming that your shop is located in a supported market, has an eligible product, complies with Instagram’s Merchant Agreement and Commerce Policies, and has a website domain from which you shall sell. Then, you need to convert your account into a business account, connect to a Facebook page, and add a product catalogue. Finally, you should submit your account for approval. Once you get the approval, you can turn on the shopping features of the account from the Settings, select the product catalogue, and tag your products in your pictures.
Pinterest, like Instagram, is also an image-specific platform. 459 million people use Pinterest per month around the world. They spend an average of 14.2 minutes on Pinterest, collectively pinning more than 14 million articles per day. 82% of the overall weekly active users and 47% of the millennial users make purchases based on the Pins.
Posts on Pinterest are called “Pins”. Through Pins, you can provide your followers inspiration for home décor, recipes, fashion, etc., which they can share and save. After users try the ideas, they can share their experience through photos and videos and attach notes, which can be seen in the “Tries” section of their profiles.
Pinterest features buyable Pins in its “Shop” tab. Users can click on the photo in a Pin, and they will be redirected to the brand’s website to purchase products. Pinterest’s Rich Pins feature updates the price, the description, and the purchase link of products in real-time when they are changed in the product’s link.
