5 Social Media Tips for Ecommerce Marketing

If you run an ecommerce business, chances are your customers are active on social networks regardless of their gender, age, or economic status.  If you aren’t learning which social networking channels your customers spend their time visiting, you’re probably missing out on increasing your customer base through online word of mouth.  Leverage these 5 social media marketing tips to get the most out of your ecommerce marketing.

1.  Go Where You’ll Find YOUR Customers

Digital and social media marketing offer endless options.  From Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter to YouTube to GooglePlus which is known for Hangouts, there are an endless number of social networking channels available that your business can leverage.  The key to winning social media ecommerce marketing is to choose the right channels in your “niche” so your reach customers.

You can learn where your customers gather by:

• Asking them.  While it sounds simple, it’s often overlooked.  Just send out a formal survey (SurveyMonkey.com is a good one to use) to customers or do an informal polling on your website, which can provide a wealth of knowledge.
• Monitoring social sites.  There are a number of free tools such as Trackur or GoogleAnalytics to learn how and where customers are talking about your competitors, your brand, or your target keywords.  There are also paid programs as well such as MarketSamari which I use that are a bit more robust.
• Leveraging the stats.   When it comes to stats some sites like Facebook are transparent or you can leverage third-party research.
• Review job postings, backlinks, keyword rankings of competitors, and news announcements regularly to get a quick look into your online marketing health.

2.  Use Social Media to Promote Exclusive Offers

In order for your ecommerce business to build followers on the social channel you choose, you must entice customers with something they aren’t able to get anywhere else.  Offer an exclusive item to social media followers or fans, such as that irresistible “Free Offer”.  You might also offer “breaking news” that they can’t find somewhere else.

3.  Monitor What Your Competitors Are Doing

Whether your ecommerce business is new to social media marketing, or you just want to take it up a notch, competitive intelligence can be very helpful. Conduct a competitive audit of your top five competitors on the social web and then answer the following questions.

• What social sites are they active on?
• What type of content do they publish?
• How many followers/views/fans do they have on their site?
• How do they promote their products, events, or programs using social media?

4.  Don’t Just Promote Products/Services

The main focus of your ecommerce site is to sell products, but your social media marketing strategy should include a wide range of strategies that go beyond promotional offerings. Here are a few ideas to try incorporation into your social media marketing.

• Share news stories or messages from external sources
• Ask questions, poll your customers, or participate in discussions via social media
• Post pictures from company events or videos especially when the CEO speaks

5.  Sell Products Through Social Networks

Many ecommerce sites use social channels to make it easier for customers to purchase their products. For example, 1?800?Flowers was the first ecommerce site to launch a Facebook store, which allowed customers to browse, and purchase its products directly through Facebook.

These five ideas are a good start when it comes to  YOUR successful ecommerce social media marketing.