Right now, your customers are visiting your ecommerce site, searching for special deals and savings. They’re also scouring your social media profiles for the same, and we all know that when it comes to social media, the more fans and followers a company has, the more exposure their social media profiles receive.
How can you develop a social media strategy that will set you apart from the crowd in 2012? Here are three quick and easy tips to help you get started.
Set Your Goals Wisely
We’d all love to have a million Facebook fans, Twitter and LinkedIn followers, and people in our circles on Google+ wouldn’t we? Of course, actually increasing social media fans and followers takes time and hard work, so before you decide that your goal is x number of new fans, take the time to reflect on how your goals mesh with the overall strategy of your online business.
For example, say that you have an ecommerce store that sells aquarium supplies and rare aquarium fish online. You know that your main demographic consists of professional hobbyists, some of whom have their own online businesses.
While focusing on Facebook and Twitter is almost always a smart social media move, in this case, it also makes sense to focus just as much on LinkedIn and Google+, since you know that your customers are mainly professionals looking to network with other professionals.
Identify Your Impact Days
What is an impact day? Simply put, it is a day (or series of days) that presents a unique opportunity to market to your target demographic.
Does your store sell Halloween costumes? Your impact days are most likely in late September to mid to late October. Does your store sell greeting cards? Your impact days are the days leading up to major holidays.
Once you identify your impact day or days, you can develop your social media marketing strategy around it. You may choose to increase your ad spend on Facebook during a key period, or tailor your social media updates to coordinate with sales and promotions going on in your ecommerce store.
Focus On Engagement
Social media is all about interaction and engagement. Are people interacting with your ecommerce store on social media sites? Are they reposting, retweeting and sharing your comments?
Whatever your current level of social media engagement, your social media strategy should include plans for improving it. Think about the types of content that you are sharing via social media. Contests, fun facts, tips, marketing videos, and asking for other’s opinions are all types of content that naturally encourage interaction.
Once someone comments, shares, or promotes the content that you have shared, be sure to engage with them. Thank them for sharing your content, respond to any questions that they have, and if they have decided to follow, friend, or otherwise add you to their social media sphere, be sure to return the favor whenever possible.
Have any more social media strategy tips for ecommerce merchants that you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Miva