The Role of Social Media in Uplifting the Worth of Your Online Store
Social media has become an addiction, a necessity for people and brands alike. There are around 3.2 billion people on social media, which is 42 percent of the world’s population, which makes it the best platform to reach consumers in an effective and cost-efficient way. Hence, you can see most of the brands present on significant platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
It is relatively easier for brands with brick and mortar to establish online sales. However, for startups and newbies, it takes time and effort to build a customer base and a strong brand that customers can trust.
A global survey conducted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation showed that 49 percent of the people do not opt for online shopping because of the lack of trust and privacy concerns. This means that they will think ten times before giving out their information to a random website. A brand, on the other hand, earns the trust of customers. This is where social media comes into play.
If you have an e-commerce store and you are struggling with sales, here is how social media can help you out:
1.Increase brand awareness
The more, the merrier. The more people know about your brand, and what it stands, there are higher chances that they will recall it when the need arises. According to Sprout Index, 80 percent of the marketers’ goal is to increase brand awareness on social media.
To increase brand awareness, you need a consistent profile across all social media channels, which includes using a professional logo and defined colors. Once you have made your profiles, you can start sharing content. You can run sponsored campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. Nothing could be better than Instagram If it is a fashion brand. Instagram is the best platform to increase awareness because fashion brands need the support of visuals and the sense of belonging to a community. Moreover, 90 percent of Instagram’s population is under 35.
2.Creating engagement
Unlike traditional media, where the conversation is one way, social media is a two-way street. It allows brands to communicate directly with their customers. Hence, creating brand awareness is not your only task. You need to keep the conversation going to remain relevant to your customers.
You can create engagement by holding contests on Facebook or Instagram. Define the rules of the game and let your customers enjoy. Dove did a great branded campaign on Facebook. The brand asked consumers to share why they think their friend represents real beauty. In return, Dove let the winners be the face of Dove. Dove got a genuine face for its marketing campaigns and further associated itself with real beauty.
Going conventional shouldn’t be your thing. It is all about doing things differently. If you own an online leather jacket store, you can establish your brand image on social media platforms. It goes without any doubt that people love to watch videos. You can make some ‘How To’ videos, post it on YouTube or your Facebook page that help customers know about how to carry jackets the right way or videos that serve as helping hand in the selection process.
3.Creating Experiences
Let’s be honest, one of the reasons why people left traditional media such as TV and radio behind was because they were being bombarded with advertisements. Social media gave them a relief; they could watch videos and movies without interruption. However, it wasn’t long before brands invaded that space too.
While sponsored ads would reach to your target audience, they do have a tendency to irritate them and who knows your target audience may have an ad blocker installed. Hence, the best way is to create an experience for them.
ASOS, an online fashion retailer, came up with a very clever campaign with the user-generated campaign. The company asked its customers to share their pictures while wearing ASOS. It introduced a hashtag #asseenonme. The brand then shared these pictures on its website and Instagram.
Big fashion brands such as Chanel, Dior, and Prada also adopt a different strategy when it comes to marketing on social media. Instead of typical ads, Chanel shares live conversations between brand ambassadors, launch party pictures and backstage pictures of fashion shows.
4.Influencer Marketing
Social media has given rise to influencers. They are not celebrities rather normal people with a huge fan following. People trust them more because they can relate to them. If an influencer can convince your target market that your brand is trustworthy, your target audience is more likely to purchase it. Hence, more brands are now taking influencers on board to mitigate the trust factor.
ThredUp, a large online store for thrift and consignment did an excellent influencer marketing campaign. The objective of the campaign was to drive awareness and improve acquisitions. The brand created high-quality videos in partnership with influencers. Within four weeks, they created around 15 videos that garnered around 364,000 views and over 2 million impressions.
5. Brand loyalty
Social media does not only give brands a chance to increase their number of followers; rather, it allows brands to build a loyal customer base. By engaging with customers, creating an experience and building a bond with them, inculcates a sense of belongingness in them.
Sephora does an excellent job by engaging the community with its channel BeautyTalk. Beauty Talk is a big forum where people can ask questions to share tips and get makeup tutorials. Consumers also upload their pictures with the products, which are then linked to the Sephora page.
Conclusion
Social media is a two-edged sword because while on the one hand, it helps brands; on the other hand, it also gives a lot of power to consumers. Consumers can ruin a brand’s reputation overnight. Hence, brands have added responsibility while using social media.
However, if used in the right way, social media has a lot of potentials to generate sales. The best part is that it allows brands to be creative and stand out from the clutter. Contests, sponsored ads, user-generated content, there is a host of options that brand can choose from to create value for customers and themselves at the same time.