How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Store

Online merchants depend on social media to survive in today’s virtual world. With 74 percent of adults using social networking sites, it’s important to communicate with your customers, and potential customers, to develop a relationship and strengthen your customer base. It’s the simple things can make all of the difference in growing your leads and conversion to sales — here are few ways to boost your visibility on social media.

Benefit from Trending Topics

The majority of social media sites offer a list of trending topics. Incorporate the trending topics into your content strategy to give customers the information they crave. In addition to the hot topics, find industry influencers to also use in your content strategy to boost the buzz surrounding your content. It’s a win/win as you’ll give customers what they want while increasing your visibility.

Use Hashtags

Too often e-commerce sites underestimate the power of hashtags. Hashtags are an incredibly important tool — particularly when it comes to trending topics — to increase exposure, organize content, and set your posts apart from others. Make full use of hashtags, but don’t overdo it. Limit your posts to include two or three hashtags each.

Example: at Ecwid we use different hashtags, for instance #ecwid_store to see all our merchant’s shops.

Stay Engaged and Responsive

Consumers turn to social media to provide reviews, feedback, and seek advice; therefore, a constant presence on social platforms to quickly address customer issues is vital. All queries must be quickly addressed to maintain positive customer service and brand image. Simply being there for your customers is a game changer for e-commerce sites.

Social Media Ads

Social media ads produce high conversion rates as you’re able to increase your visibility to relevant customers by creating content that targets a specific audience. A number of social platforms now allow for social media ads, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Use the ads in your favor to turn more leads into conversions.

Utilize Social Data

Analyze your social data to leverage the information you gather in your favor. You’ll learn a lot about your customers and their interests. You’ll also find weak points in your marketing campaign, as well as strong suits to make necessary adjustments to create a more effective strategy.

For example, Facebook Insights lets you see what type of content works best for your audience. Once you have determined what your followers find most engaging, you can share more of that content. Another interesting report is “All Posts Published.” Go to FB stats → Insights → Posts → All Posts Published and you can see which posts got the most reach and engagement. With this valuable information better manage your content calendar.

Sell From Your Social Channels

You can optimize your online reach even further by adding a shopping cart directly onto your Facebook page, so your customers are able to shop and purchase without ever leaving Facebook. You also can add a store to your WordPress blog or any other online site where you promote products.

Example: See how Royal Bakery takes advantage of this feature below.

Events and Promotions

Social media is the perfect option for highlighting special events, promotions, discounts, and giveaways. Not only will you benefit from an increase in sales, but your customers love great deals. Customers are more inclined to share your information with others and it will build loyalty to attract and maintain repeat customers.

Tip: Use a unique promo code just for your Facebook fans to encourage more shares and to promote your page as not only fun and interesting, but also practical and money-saving.

There is no better time to embrace new ways to use social media for reaching new and targeted buyers and selling your products online. As the fastest growing segment within the retail industry, your e-commerce business will thrive like never before when incorporating social media into your marketing strategy. With Ecwid and social media, you’re able to sell virtually anywhere to create a lucrative business.