How to take advantage of Social Media in E-commerce
Did you know that, according to Forrester research, online retail sales in 2013 are predicted to reach $262 billion — a rise of 13 percent over 2012’s $231 billion in online sales and representing 8% of the total retail pie?
Online selling is flourishing and one contributing factor that cant be missed is social media. If you are still a stranger to the ways in which social media can be a powerful tool for the betterment of your e-commerce site, then the time to get in the know is now. Let’s just start with the first part of the Social Media topic with some basic essential tips:
1. Set your goals
One of the biggest mistakes e-commerce companies make when it comes to social media is not having clear goals for what they want to accomplish using social media marketing. If you don’t set goals, how will you measure the results of your social media campaigns?
Before you spend the time building a Facebook fan base, we recommend sitting down and thinking through what exactly you hope to get out of using social media for e-commerce. The answers will differ from company to company, but most of them involve the following:
- Increase brand awareness
- Offer more responsive customer service
- Increase sales
- Encourage customer loyalty and repeat business
- Stay ahead of your competitors
- Build a network of brand advocates
- Expand your reach to new customers through existing customers
- Make sure your goals are realistic. Although increased sales is the bottom line of every e-commerce store, it’s important to understand the limitations and unique advantages of social media for e-commerce.
2. Understand your customers
Before jumping into social media, take the time to understand your customers. What type of content do they prefer? Where do they like to hang out? How often do they want to hear from you on a specific channel?
Taking the time to plan out your social media strategy prevents you from wasting time on social channels that your customers don’t use or spewing out content that your customers don’t see as valuable.
3. Offer valuable content regularly
Customers will only stay engaged with your e-commerce business on social media if you continually share valuable content. The majority of customers who befriend an e-commerce company are hoping for exclusive discounts, coupons, or special offers that you don’t offer elsewhere. They may also be interested in new product launches, special announcements, and behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of your company.
Make your social media accounts interesting and fun. Start conversations with your customers—don’t just promote yourself. Show genuine interest in your customers as real people, and they will see your brand as human rather than as just a business.
4. Combine social media with other forms of marketing
If your social media marketing is divorced from other forms of online and traditional marketing, you’re missing out. The best way to build your social media following organically is to include links to your social sites on your website, email campaigns, business cards, marketing brochures, and product pages. The more options you give customers to interact with your brand, the more social media activity you’ll see around your brand—and the closer you’ll be to reaching your social media marketing goals.
5. Assess the results
As with any marketing campaign, you need to measure the results in order to find out what worked and what did not. Are you reaching your goals? If so, set bigger ones. If not, rethink your strategy and start over, or call for reinforcements (a.k.a. hire a social media firm). The only way to know if social media marketing is worth the time and effort is to measure the data and draw conclusions from the results.
Obviously, different online stores will have different strategies in making use of social channels in creating their own competitiveness. However, above are 5 basic tips that every e-store owner should know. We hope those tips will be useful for you. Please spread your thoughts and feelings in comments and see you again in Part 2 of this topic, in which we will discuss about specific social channels.
Source: www.blog.magestore.com
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