5 Tips for Effectively Using Social Commerce for Brands |   13 Apr, 2022

Do you want to boost your product sales through social commerce but don’t know how to do it? You’ve arrived at the right site! Because we can help you out with some most exciting tips and tricks. 

But, before getting started, let’s know about some basics:

Social media has been used to advertise and promote brands, products, and services for quite a while now. In the beginning of social media marketing, brands would just post product pictures or videos on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, hoping to get the attention of their target audiences and drive traffic to their website.  All thanks to the new and effective social commerce tools, businesses can now make sales directly on social media.

Social commerce is growing at the speed of light, and that won’t change anytime soon.

What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce is the act of selling items directly from your brand’s social media profiles using Instagram Shops, Facebook Shops, Product Pins, chatbots and AI assistants streamlined for sales, and other local social media shopping solutions.

Why should You Care about Social Commerce? 

The greatest advantage of adopting a social commerce solution is that it helps you convert sales directly on social media in a smoothed out, entirely on-platform way.

If a client finds your product or brand on social media, they no longer need to leave the platform to make their purchase. This streamlined process eliminates friction and limits the risk of certain clients dropping out mid-purchase due to a complicated or lengthy checkout process.

48% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 34 report that they have bought something through social media. 81% of customers have researched products on social media prior to purchasing. In contrast, 45% of brands in 2021 wanted to use social media to drive more sales.

What are the Top Social Commerce Platforms?

Various platforms offer local social commerce solutions. Let’s have a look at the platforms that offer the most progressive tools and how they work.

Facebook

Facebook, the mammoth social media advertising platform, was the first platform to present social commerce tools, it’s still a decent first choice (especially because you need Facebook Shop to make an Instagram Shop).

Instagram

Instagram is another great option to be reckoned with for social commerce, with a wide range of effective optimised features.

TikTok

TikTok Shopping is a social commerce solution permitting TikTok creators to advertise and sell products on the stage. With TikTok Shopping, brands and creators get the option to add a shopping tab to their TikTok profiles. The tab will pull products from their Shopify product wishlist, allowing other TikTok users to view products without leaving the application and easily explore the creators’ online stores for checkout.

Pinterest

Facebook and Instagram may be the obvious choices for a brand’s social commerce stores, yet don’t limit Pinterest too hastily. What’s extraordinary about Pinterest as a social commerce platform is the fact that brands can use Rich Pins – a free offering to all clients – to naturally sync data from a website to a user’s pins.

Social Commerce Tips for Online Businesses

By now, you’re presumably convinced of the effectiveness of social commerce for your business. However, if you need that additional push in the right direction, we have highlighted some best tips to carry out a social commerce strategy for your business.

1. Invest into great copywriting and graphic visuals for social media

Social media platforms are two core things: filled with writing and loaded up with visuals. So to gain your crowd’s attention, your strategy needs to implement solid copywriting and captivating visuals to pull clients in.

2. Build and connect with your customers

Building a network and engaging with your audience is vital to relationship building that can lead to  an expansion in the number of clients and sales. Continually check your social media handles for any mention of your brand and relevant keywords, and make sure to engage with those posts, especially if they are queries.

The more frequently you connect with customers (or potential customers), you’ll make your audience feel like they are valuable for your business. In this manner, your customers might recommend you to others.

3. Gather information and use your insights 

It’s one thing to build your connection and engage with individuals on social stages, but it means nothing if you’re not using the rich information these platforms give you free of charge! Utilizing information to make more educated selling choices based on what your clients truly need and are searching for is a winning plan while playing the social commerce game.

4. Incline toward micro-influencers to boost sales 

If your brand is on the more modest side, it means you’re likely not working with the same amount of money like major brands are, i.e., you are not using influencer marketing as a social commerce solution. But rather than feeling that help from influencers is beyond your reach, use micro-influence marketing instead.

5. Optimize your social media accounts to gain good returns

None of the other tips can help in striving an online business, if they don’t focus on one thing first: brand social media optimization. Optimizing your account for your audience is really important to reach the right individuals who may actually make a purchase or turn into a customer with your brand.

Conclusion:

Don’t let the thought of a social commerce strategy scare you. Your brand is already using social media platforms for social media marketing, then why not amplify its true capacity? Your next steps should be to enhance and optimize your accounts, run some new and exciting campaigns, and execute the tips above. Once you do this, you’ll be confident to discover greater success and attract more customers in no time.