e-Commerce Approach to Social Media

It is not a mystery that social media sites are excellent marketing tools for all types of businesses, but e-commerce sites have an advantage when it comes to using the different networks. For one, consider the e-commerce target market: online shoppers. People who spend their time on the Internet searching for products to buy are more than likely spending time on social media sites as well. This is just one reason why social media cannot be overlooked as a marketing tool within the e-commerce industry.

Applications like product reviews, recommendations and ratings are years old, and emerged as the most popular social media tools way before the term “social media” was actually coined. They enabled customers to find out what their peers were thinking, and provided valuable user data and feedback to the retailer which could be reviewed in “real-time. Retailers today continue to have a great opportunity to leverage social media in a way that’s both beneficial and effective for consumers and for themselves. And while it’s known that retailers are true pioneers in social media, the fact is that many still struggle with ways to fully integrate it with their e-commerce platforms.

Promoting products and services on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs are a great way to drive consumers to your site and make sales. Social media outlets are good tools for link building and therefore by posting URLs that link back to your site, you are more likely to see an increase in traffic. Social media gives businesses the means to direct traffic to whichever site they want, whether it is a product giveaway on a blog site or a link to a coupon. E-commerce sites have an advantage over brick-and-mortar businesses because their consumers are just a click away from their products and do not have to travel into a store.

By creating and maintaining a social media following, your business has the ability to offer exclusive discounts and contests that are only available to your social fans. This helps give incentive to your customers to follow your brand online, and will get them more involved with your products or services. Blogs are a great outlet to do this type of promotion, and additionally give your company a voice and a personality. Consumers who can relate to a business on a personal level are more likely to be brand loyal to that company.