Marketing E commerce Business via Social Media

Social media is all the rage these days. The question has now become “Who ISN’T using social media?” If you have an e-commerce business, there’s a good chance that your customers – regardless of their age, gender or income level – are active on social networks and social media sharing sites.

Take a look at these demographic stats from social media monitoring site Pingdom:

• Males and females almost equally use social sites (47% vs. 53%)
• 61% of Facebook users are middle aged or older, with the average age being 37
• 18- to 24-year-olds don’t dominate any particular social networking site; they’re spread out all over

The take-away is this: If you aren’t discovering which social networks your customers are involved in, and include them in your overall e-commerce marketing strategy, you’re probably missing out on building relationships and increasing new customer acquisition through online word of mouth… Which we all know is the MOST powerful marketing method.

Here are a few simple tips for e-commerce businesses to take their marketing strategies to the next level:

1) Go where your target customers are

When it comes to digital and social media marketing, the available options are nearly endless. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to YouTube, there’s no limit to the number of social networking mediums available for your business to leverage. The key to successful social media marketing for e-commerce businesses is choosing the right channels to reach customers.

Find out where your customers are congregating by:

• Asking them. Sending a formal survey to customers or more informally polling them on your website can provide a wealth of knowledge.
• Regularly monitoring social websites. Discover how and where customers are talking about your brand, your competitors or target keywords.
• Reviewing backlinks, job postings, news announcements and keyword rankings of competitors on a regular basis to get a glimpse into their online marketing health.
• Leveraging the stats. Some sites like Facebook offer free user statistics. You can also leverage research conducted by third-party firms like eMarketer.

2) Monitor what your competitors are doing

Whether your e-commerce business is new to social media marketing, or just need to take your efforts up a notch, competitive intelligence can be very useful. Spend some time by researching your top five competitors on the social web.

Make sure to include:

• The social media websites in which they are active
• The type of content they post to their followers
• How they promote specific products, programs or events via social media
• The number of followers/fans/views they have on each website

3) Sell your products through social media networking

Many e-commerce websites use social media websites to make it even simpler for customers to purchase their products. Launch a Facebook store to allow customers to browse and purchase your products directly through Facebook.

Another option is to indirectly sell products through your social media profiles. For example, highlight new products or best-sellers and provide a link to the order page on your website. It may not be quite as simple as purchasing directly from the social media profile, but it can be just as effective.

4) Promote exclusive offers through social media

In order for your e-commerce business to gain a following on whichever social media network you choose, entice customers with something they can’t get anywhere else. For example, promote a contest via social media. The initiative will not only drive additional traffic to your website, but will also help increase the number of your Facebook fans.

Alternately, offer an exclusive item to social media followers or fans, such as free shipping or a weekly coupon. You can also offer “breaking news” that does not appear anywhere else, like pre-product release announcements or an inside look at your company’s inner-workings.

5) Dont Just push products and promotions

The primary goal of your e-commerce site may be to sell products, but your social media marketing strategy should encompass a wider range of tactics in addition to promoting offerings. With too much product pushing and not enough engagement, you’re unlikely to experience optimal success.

Try to Incorporate some of these ideas into your e-commerce social media marketing strategy:

• Share messages or news stories from external sources
• Create a blog on your website and feed blog content to your social media accounts
• Post pictures from company events or videos from speaking engagements
• Ask questions, participate in discussions or poll your customers via social media