E-commerce Social Media Trends to Follow
The average person spends 142 minutes per day on social media according to the Global World Index.
That’s over two hours (!!!) of time. Every. Single. Day. Small businesses that sell online can take advantage of our ongoing reliance on social media. With social media, your e-commerce store can be building loyal customer relationships, gaining brand recognition, and increasing sales. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Here are the best ways to utilize your social media presence to boost your e-commerce shop.
Use Video to Capture More Attention
Video marketing is becoming an increasingly popular way for businesses to get a message across to consumers. With long-form content, you can capture your customer’s interests and keep them engaged in your brand for longer periods of time than scrolling through a few photos.
Give consumers a better understanding of how your new product works or looks in real life with a video. Videos can also increase the potential buyer’s confidence in making a purchase. A still image of a bag only gives you so much information, whereas a video can show how much the bag holds, how it looks on someone, and what different compartments it has.
Whether it’s live streaming, 360-degree videos, an Instagram story, or personalized video messaging, video marketing gives e-commerce more outlets to reach customers with concise and informative clips.
Increase Sales with Shopping Tags
Tap into impulse buying with shopping tags. Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest include shopping features that give customers product information and links where users can purchase the product themselves without leaving the platform. This means your e-commerce shop now has the ability to add shopping tags and create shopping posts to encourage consumers to buy immediately.
For Instagram feed posts, you can tag up to 5 products per image or up to 20 products in a carousel image post. In Instagram stories, you can add a product sticker. On Facebook, you can tag products from your shop or catalog in both pictures and videos. You can tag up to 30 items! With these features, it’s easier for loyal consumers and potential buyers to follow that path to purchase! Pinterest allows you to create shopping ads as well as product tags on images.
Build Trust With Micro-Influencer Marketing
Consumers buy from people and brands they trust. This is why influencers continue to take over a large percentage of marketing spend! They bring in thousands of views and followers that brands need. People tend to trust micro-influencers more than they trust businesses because they’re not tied directly to the brand. It makes sense, right? We know that the business has an invested interest in making sales, but an Instagram influencer doesn’t necessarily have the same interest.
For small businesses and niche markets, partnering with micro-influencers is a great way to gain trust, increase sales, and drive traffic for your e-commerce site. A micro-influencer is someone with 1,000 to 10,000 engaged followers. Getting your product posted by locally known and trusted sources in your industry can help your e-commerce site build awareness and sales. You can reach out to offer these influencers free products in exchange for photos on their accounts, sometimes paying them a small advertising fee.
User-Generated Content
Want to spend less on getting influencers to post about your brand? User-generated content is the way to go! This trend helps to grow sales while building a loyal customer base that trusts your business.
Using User-generated content is when brands showcase posts from their consumers. You can round up user-generated content by looking at your tagged images, just make sure to ask for permission before posting! Repost the picture or video to show how your customers use your products. Also, make sure to tag the person who took the picture, giving them credit for their work.
Marketing via Facebook Messenger
With over one billion active monthly users, Facebook Messenger is becoming a major outlet for social media e-commerce business marketing. It gives you the ability to market your business while saving time and automating sales!
With Messenger’s Sponsored Messages, your business has the ability to send messages to consumers that include one link and photo. Unlike email marketing, advertising using Messenger doesn’t require an opt-in process or the installation of an app to reach users. This feature allows you to end up directly in a potential customers inbox and in the pocket of prospects.
Also, Facebook Messenger has a “Chatbots” feature to help brands automatically increase engagement by communicating with consumers. Messenger Chatbots allow you to automate conversations, have faster response times, create a sales funnel to increase online sales, and push out product announcements.
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