Whether
you are a social media expert or a newcomer to the party, you can still use
social media to grow your business.
In
this guide you will understand why social media is important for your success
and how to use it to drive traffic and increase sales.
Below
you will understand how to choose the right social media channels and how to
measure your income on social media investment, to ensure that your efforts are
paying off.
Why are social media important for
e-commerce?
Although
search traffic is increasing, social media is still an important traffic factor
for websites.
Social shares have decreased, because users now spend less time on Facebook and more on videos and live streaming content: this type of content is less likely to link to other pages.
So,
even if the number of shares seems to be decreasing, it does not mean that
social media are becoming less popular, indeed, their use continues to grow,
and consequently the opportunity to generate traffic is increasingly valid.
According
to current projections, 90% of companies will use these channels for customer
service over the next two years. This means that if you are in the remaining
10% you will risk losing customers, as they spend 20-40% more with the
companies with which they have a social interaction.
Last
year there were 2.46 billion social users; this year the number will rise to
2.62 billion; in three years there will be over 3 billion people using social
media!
In
the past, companies took it for granted that if their target market had not
been teenagers or twenty something’s, they could have ignored social media:
today these attract users of all age groups, ignoring them means delivering
customers to competitors.
Consumers
don't just have a social account; in fact they use them on average for 2 hours
and 15 minutes a day, equivalent to a third of their total online time! This
means that your ideal customer spends more than twice as much time on social
media instead of browsing other websites.
Why don't you target them there?
How to drive traffic through social media?
- You can use social media for e-commerce in two different ways: to simply drive traffic to your website or to make sales.
- Social media covers three aspects: connections, relationships and involvement.
- Research shows that customers who have positive interactions with your company on social media are almost three times more likely to recommend your brand.
- When someone says something about your social business, it has a much wider reach than the offline world.
So
to get positive interactions on social networks it is useful to publish content
that resonates with your target market.
People
crave human interaction: 78% of customers believe that social media marketing is the future of customer service.
Not
only that: 88% of customers are less likely to buy from you if you leave their
complaints on social media unanswered.
If
you have a social presence and respond to a complaint, you can turn it into a
success. In fact, 77% of customers improved their perception of a company after
talking to them online.
Others
will see that communication and resolution, which means you can improve their
perception of you as well.
To
be engaging you need to share images, written content and links to your
website. Sharing video content will also be increasingly important: 85% of
companies plan to increase it on social networks this year.
Organic
content can be successful, but it also requires a lot of time and effort:
that's why 94% of companies that use social networks pay for advertising and
sponsored messages on Facebook.
All
of these companies are already paying for social media ads and two thirds of
them plan to increase their spending this year.
This
should tell you two things: the first is that social advertising works, while
the second is that you will have to pay to play.
But
this is not the only way to attract traffic through social media.
Facebook content
Articles between 2,000 and 2,500 words receive
multiple Facebook shares of articles of any other length.
Videos between 4 minutes and 4 minutes and 20 seconds
in duration get more shares than other videos.
Of course, length isn't everything. You must produce
high quality content that will capture your audience.
Live
Streaming
video Live streaming is a huge and growing medium on social media. Users are
currently uploading over 300 hours of video to YouTube every minute! People
love videos, but there is something even more exciting: live video.
Almost
all age categories, from teenagers to adults, create and watch live videos.
These
are good for something more than just advertising. Often they will also lead to
conversations: viewers respond positively because of the immediacy and the bond
they create.
Most
social platforms now have native live streaming features such as Facebook Live, YouTube
Live, Periscope, Twitter, Snap chat, Twitch and Instagram Live. Always make
sure your followers know that your live streaming will always be around the
corner and make your videos authentic and informative. If you connect and create
a relationship with your audience, they will not only become simple loyal fans,
but they will be true supporters of your name.
Instant
messaging: Here are the three main platforms and the number of monthly active
users for each:
- WhatsApp: 1.3 billion;
- Facebook Messenger: 1.2 billion;
- WeChat: 963 million.
Artificial
intelligence and chatbots can be used to automatically increase engagement
using messaging channels. 54.5% of those who use social media in the United
States prefer to use messaging channels rather than email, phone and online
chat. 89% of consumers say they would like to use it to communicate with
businesses. You can get an 88% open rate and a 56% click-through rate using
Facebook Messenger. You can use messaging for the following types of
communication:
- Automation of basic conversations;
- Creation of a sales funnel;
- Passing of advertisements;
- Display of resources;
- Sharing new content.
- chatbot can automate sales, the help desk, the complaints department, and more.
- Stories of Instagram
- Instagram Stories has over 250 million active users every day. The growth and popularity far exceed that of its competitor, Snapchat.
50%
of companies on Instagram publish at least one story per month: 20% of these
generate at least one direct message. You can also use the Story function to
create simple surveys, in order to collect valuable data about your customers.
How do you sell via social media?
Are
you looking to use social media to sell rather than simply increase popularity
or loyalty to your brand? There are several methods of selling on social
networks. Success depends in part on your target customer and the platform you
use. Companies know that social networks are exclusively about being social. It
makes sense to use it for traffic creation, to increase brand engagement and
loyalty, but it can also be used to sell.
Once
you get traffic, you can incorporate some of the following strategies to
convert traffic into sales.
Paid advertisements
Social
networks like Facebook and Instagram have updated their algorithms to
personalize content. This means that your visible products will increasingly
require the use of paid advertisements.
Remarketing
Remarketing
is the continuous targeting process of a customer across multiple platforms. You
may think this might bother the consumer, but it's actually the opposite! For
now it is possible to follow this strategy only on Facebook and Twitter.
Remarketing ads receive three times as many clicks and are four times more
likely to get new customers.
In-app purchases
There
are in-app ads that allow you to buy without ever leaving the social platform.
You can set up shopping carts on your Facebook page offering the user the
opportunity to check out without the hassle of leaving the site. They can even
choose to save their credit card information so that all future transactions
are done with just one click. This can be a great tactic to increase sales
because it makes the shopping experience mobile and fluid. It is particularly
interesting to catch so-called impulsive buyers.
Influencer
marketing
Influencer marketing produces an average return of
around $ 7.65 for every $ 1 spent. Influencers created 86% of the most viewed
beauty videos on YouTube. This means that beauty brands themselves created only
14% of them: 70% of teen YouTube users trust influencers more than traditional
celebrities. But the effectiveness of influencer marketing goes beyond videos.
On Twitter, there is a 5.2-fold increase in purchase intent when consumers see
tweets from both, brands and influencers.
Influencer marketing is the fastest growing method of
obtaining customers.
User-generated content
It
is important that you make your followers special and focus on engaging them.
One way to do this is to use user-generated content. For example, you can
announce that you will include your customers in your profile description.
Instagram
68%
of users interact regularly with brands on Instagram.
According
to Track Maven research, the ratio of interactions per Instagram post is eight
times greater, on average, than any other platform. In addition, the followers
you have are much more likely to see your unpaid posts than the followers on
Facebook. Instagram windows are perfect for incentivizing sales directly from
social networks without spending money on advertising. Keep in mind that you
must never post too many product photos in your Instagram feed, it may seem too
commercial and ruin your integrity and public trust.
Tips and advice to improve your social
media
Automation
is essential because customers expect an answer within an hour and this is
impossible to do without specific chatbots.
Another
tip is to keep mobile devices in mind: a huge percentage of people watch videos,
ads and more on their phones. By 2020, 75% of mobile data traffic will be
video!
Spend
80% of your time sharing industry news or interesting things. You should only
use 20% of your time on your product.
Finally,
carefully choose the social platform to use for your business, create a
detailed strategy to follow and make sure at all times that your efforts are
rewarded.
Conclusion