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From Retweets to Revenue
MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR
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My name is Steve Loates and I am very proud to call myself an entrepreneur and business owner. Currently I am the co-owner of e-Commerce Essentials, an Internet Marketing agency located in Burlington, Ontario, Canada that specializes in e-Commerce. Prior to this business I owned a multi-location “bricks and mortar” retail establishment for over 25 years. In 2004, faced with shrinking margins and increased competition I began looking to expand my business beyond my showroom walls and as a result developed a successful e-Commerce business. Over the next 8 years I grew this online venture and when it was sold in 2012 it was ranked #1 in its vertical in Canada. My goal with this e-Book is to help educate other business owners about the merits of social media and how it can help to grow your e-Commerce business. I have tried to share some basic tips and ideas to help you understand how social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram can help grow your online business and increase your sales. I believe that my career in retail, internet marketing and e-Commerce, along with my learning’s from the many mistakes I have made along the way, all contribute to my knowledge and understanding of this topic. Most, if not all, of the tips and comments in this e-Book are my own personal opinions and should certainly not be taken as the only correct solution, as in many cases there are other options available. I sincerely hope that you receive value from the time you spend reading this e-Book and I wish you much success.
@SteveLoates Connect with me on Twitter
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Overview…………...………………….………………….4
Why Use Social Media For e-Commerce..…...…........5
Facebook……......…...….…….….………....…….…….6
Marketing with Facebook.……..…......…..………….....7
Twitter….….…...……..……….…………....…….…….11
Marketing with Twitter…....……….............................12
YouTube……….………..…......…..............................14
Marketing with YouTube……..…..…...………….……15
Google+….….….….………….….….………………….17
Marketing with Google+.……...……………………….18
LinkedIn.…….…..….……….…..…….………………..21
Marketing with LinkedIn…....…….……………….…..22
Pinterest...…….…...……....…….….………………….24
Marketing with Pinterest……………………………….48
Instagram.…………..…….…………………………….28
Marketing with Instagram..…......….………………….29
Practical Suggestions……..….…...……………….….32
Hootsuite………….…...…………….………………….35
Buffer……..…..….….……………….………………….36
Feedly…..….........….……………….………………….37
Conclusion..….….…….…………….………………….38
Glossary…..…..…..…...…………….………………….39
Resources..…..….....……………….………………….42
Contact...….….…......……………….………………….43
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OVERVIEW
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First things first: thank you for downloading our free guide to social media and e-Commerce! We hope this is an interesting and helpful read for you, and that you’re able to use what you learn to further grow your business and products online. That said, you’re probably at least a little bit curious about the content of this e-Book. We’ve done our best to ensure it contains valuable and useable information relating to the booming world of social media and the growing market of e-Commerce, with a focus on the aspects of both that make them work well together. With this e-Book, you’ll learn the basics of how social media can work in conjunction with e-Commerce and help you sell more online as we break down the major players and platforms from a business perspective: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram. We also take a look at a couple of the vast array of useful social tools, Buffer and Hootsuite, as well as Feedly, an excellent tool for finding content from a wide range of sources in one place. Each of these websites and resources is focused on in its own individual chapter, featuring important statistics and information as well as a variety of marketing tips that are specific to each one. We round off the book with some added bonus tips and information for social media marketing in general, a glossary of terms related to the industry you’ll pick up along the way, and a look at further resources for reading and research that you can look at in order to continue learning about this important channel of marketing and how it can help with your e-Commerce efforts. If you’ve been looking for a resource that can help you learn about how your social media channels can help you sell more online, whether you’ve just gotten your business on Facebook or have a multi-channel strategy across every major platform, then you’ve got a good start with this e-Book. We sincerely hope you enjoy the information we’ve provided. If you have any further questions about social media and e-Commerce, feel free to get in touch through our contact information at the back of this e-Book.
Regards, Steve Loates and the e-Commerce Essentials Team
From Retweets to Revenue
WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR E-COMMERCE
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At its core, the concept of social media working to help e-Commerce may seem like an eyebrow-raiser to some business owners. Social media isn’t meant to be a direct channel to more sales. What it can do, however, if utilized properly, is offer businesses an opportunity to easily engage and interact with their customer base and give them a look at a more personal side of their company. It can be an easy way to open a dialogue between your customers and your business, whether it’s a simple question about a product or an active discussion on relevant industry or service issues. With an effective strategy in place, social media can also increase brand awareness across the web, leading to more interest in a business’ products or services from a relevant audience. The potential it offers for easily sharing compelling, creative and – above all else – valuable content can help a brand get noticed almost overnight, offering businesses an opportunity for exposure they won’t find anywhere else.
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How are ‘likes’ going to give me sales?” “Why waste my time on Facebook?
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WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR E-COMMERCE
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Let’s use a company that sells winter clothing as an example. As the weather starts to get colder, they create a post on Facebook, asking their followers how they’re getting ready for the first days of frost. There’s some back and forth about wearing layers, sitting by the fireplace, and stocking up on blankets and hot chocolate. This creates a dialogue, and, if the timing is done right, may start to get some followers thinking about what they need to do prepare for winter weather – maybe they still need to do some shopping. Next comes the sharing. A week or so after this discussion, this hypothetical company posts a picture of a brand new coat they’re now selling on their website, complete with description and price. Some customers recognize the brand and remember last week’s conversation, so they give it a click out of curiosity. Maybe it matches their needs for a new coat, so they head over to the website to learn more. They bookmark it, give it some thought, come back a few days later and make a decision. They need it. And there it is: it was a longer-term process, but it was a sale. The bottom line: every ‘like’ or follower or subscriber you get isn’t a guarantee to a boom in sales, but it is an excellent first step to creating relationships with customers from an audience that’s looking for what you sell, and could lead to a successful purchase in the long-run – with the added bonus of a customer that’s now got eyeballs on your brand. The same concept works with Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and all of the other platforms we’ll be covering in this e-Book.
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Ready to learn how? Turn that virtual page and let’s get started.
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Statistics (March 2014) • 20% of all internet page views come from Facebook
• Roughly 48% of all Facebook users sign in every day
• There are 1,230,000,000 active Facebook users, of these,
680,000,000 are active on mobile
• User engagement is extremely high: there are 350,000,000 photos uploaded per day and 4.75 billion pieces of content shared per day (May 2013)
• 42% of marketers report that Facebook is a critical aspect of their business
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Facebook’s ability to help businesses connect with their customers, keep them up-to-date on the latest news and products from their company, engage with them in an active dialogue and share content in any form – from a simple status update to a full video – makes it an almost one-size-fits-all platform for many businesses. The beauty of it is that if you’re small and new to the social media scene, you can utilize Facebook to grow an audience. If you’re a big name that’s been around a while and you accumulate followers quickly, you’ve got another channel you can use to connect with your customers.
Demographics (March 2014) • 47% of Facebook users are male and 53% are female
• The largest user group by age on Facebook is the 25 – 34 age group, which makes up 29.7% of
users
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MARKETING WITH FACEBOOK
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What to Post Since you’ll have a practically blank slate for what you can post on your Facebook page, utilizing it for e-Commerce means you should be focusing on certain types of content. Here are some suggestions to generate interest in your products and get your customers to visit your online store.
Inventory Updates: Posting about new items you’ve got in stock is a great way to pique the interest of your customers. Make sure you include relevant information, such as description and price, to give them as much as they need to start shopping.
Product Pictures: Posting photos of your products – especially if you sell seasonal items – is a great way to send simple reminders of what you offer without being overly aggressive. Customers may be intrigued by what they see and will head over to your online store to see more.
Sales, Specials and Other Deals: Running a sale? Offering discounts on certain items? Got a buy one, get one going? Tell your Facebook audience! Post regular updates and reminders about what you’re offering at a reduced price for customers that shop at your website.
New Products or Services Announcements: Similar to the “new inventory” suggestion, Facebook is an ideal place to announce brand new products and/or services your business is now offering with any level of detail you desire. Posting this on Facebook is also a great way to give those customers that follow you the inside track and let them learn about it first.
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MARKETING WITH FACEBOOK
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User Participation: Once a month or so, offer something fun and unique for your followers to participate in, such as a contest, with something like a percentage discount off their next purchase from your online store as the top prizes. Make whatever you run relevant to your industry as well (for example, our hypothetical winter clothing company could run a contest asking users to submit a snow storm horror story).
Relevant Content: Using our hypothetical winter clothing store again, relevant content can be a way to generate interest by starting a conversation with your customers that’s directly related to the products you sell. This tactic, done with the right amount of frequency, can lead customers to be more likely to click through to your website the next time they see something you share that’s relevant to their interests. Customer Support: One of the best features of social media, especially Facebook, is that it allows customers to have their questions and concerns addressed quickly and directly by a business. If individuals are posting queries to your Facebook page, make sure you provide them with well-written, detailed answers – they’ll remember you for the service.
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The Facebook Store App Several companies have created shopping apps for Facebook, capitalizing on the fact that consumers are so active on Facebook and creating the exception to the rule that social generally doesn’t help you sell directly. These apps allow businesses to directly integrate their products into their Facebook profiles, from which customers can purchase directly. There are more than a handful available for download – some for free, some for a monthly fee. We don’t necessarily endorse any one particular program, but here are a few to get you started: • Integrations with Facebook from Shopify • Online Store from Volusion with Facebook Integration • e-Commerce Facebook App from ecwid • Aradium Facebook Store
Facebook Ads Facebook offers an advertising program for businesses as well. It’s based on a very simple concept, much like Google’s AdWords program: businesses can select what audience will see their ads based on certain demographic factors, and will pay only for the clicks the ads they post receive. It provides companies with a cost-effective, easily targetable method of marketing.
You might also want to check out this article from Practical Ecommerce, an e-Commerce-centric website we highly recommend: Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products.
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MARKETING WITH FACEBOOK
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Conclusion As mentioned, Facebook offers an almost one-size-fits-all approach for businesses looking to connect social media with e-Commerce. It offers companies of every size the chance to interact with a relevant audience while keeping them engaged, making it more likely to shop with them when they have a need for what they sell. Utilized correctly, Facebook can be the first step in creating new, long-term and prosperous relationships with customers, and can be a consistent method of generating interest that leads to sales.
Avoid the ‘Sales Only’ Approach We discussed earlier that Facebook is useful for sharing valuable content, and we want to reiterate that here. Don’t make the mistake of only utilizing it to tell your customers about any sales and specials that are going on at your business – make sure you’re also sharing content of value that asks for nothing in return from your customers. This will help them see you as an authority and a consistent source of relevant information, which can keep them coming back to your brand.
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What is Twitter? It is many different things to many different people. It can be used by a family to keep in touch, or a company to coordinate business, or the media to keep people informed or a writer to build up a fan base. Twitter is micro-blogging. It is social messaging. It is an event coordinator, a business tool, a news reporting service and a marketing utility. Twitter is almost like Facebook’s little brother: it’s a big opportunity for engaging with customers and sharing news about what’s going on at your business, but its (in)famous 140 character limit makes it much smaller in scope. Statistics (March 2014) • 34% of marketers say they have generated leads from Twitter
• 81% of Twitter users expect a same-day response to questions and complaints aimed at brands
• Twitter currently has 645,750,000 users • There are 400 million tweets sent out each day
• 60% of Twitter users access it from their mobile phones
Demographics (March 2014)
• The highest age population on Twitter is 18 – 29 age group, which makes up 31% of users
• Virtually no gender disparity in Twitter users
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MARKETING WITH TWITTER
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What to Post Sales, Specials and Other Deals: This is likely even more effective on Twitter than on Facebook, since you’re forced to stick to the bare bones of what you’re posting. That lets you get a firm message across: this is the special, this is how long it’s on, this is how you’ll benefit. Short, sweet and simple – exactly what customers come to Twitter to see.
Inventory Updates: A quick “just arrived” tweet, with a photo or video of the product, is a perfect way of quickly spreading the word that you’ve got a new item in stock. Members of your audience who are excited by what you’ve added to your online store may be likely to retweet this and share it amongst their own network of followers as well.
Customer Support: This is a bit different on Twitter than it is on Facebook or any other social media platform. Users can tweet at one another, but they’re limited to the usual 140 characters, so any communication between you and your customers will be done in a more direct, back-and-forth manner. Still, this can be one of the most useful ways Twitter can help businesses quickly answer questions, address issues and start a dialogue.
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MARKETING WITH TWITTER
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Twitter-speak Since it’s such a unique service, Twitter has developed its own lingo that those who use it on a regular basis are familiar with but the layperson may have trouble understanding. Here are some terms you’ll need to understand if you’re going to utilize Twitter for the purposes of e-Commerce. Twitter Handle (@ecomessentials): A Twitter handle is a username selected by anyone using Twitter and must contain fewer than 15 characters. Each Twitter handle has a unique url, with the handle added after twitter.com. Example: http://twitter.com/username. Retweet (RT): Re-sharing another user’s tweet with your followers. Mention (@): When one user mentions another by their username in a tweet, they use the @ sign (e.g., @ecomEssentials). Users who are mentioned in this fashion will receive a notification. Hashtag (#): A way of allowing users to find your tweets. When users click on a word preceded by a hashtag (e.g., #ecommerce), they will see a list of tweets that mention that word, even if they aren’t following that user. This is also a great way of discovering other users who are interested in a topic that is important to you. You could also use a “hashtag” like #weeklydeal. Once your audience learns about this they can begin looking for this hashtag each week to get the info on this week’s deal. Direct Message (DM): A private message between you and another Twitter user. Only available to utilize with users who you are following and they are following you back.
Conclusion While Twitter doesn’t offer as much room for customers to get cozy and follow you for updates of every variety like Facebook does, it still provides e-Commerce businesses with an excellent opportunity to keep their followers engaged. With a good strategy and regular posting schedule in place, Twitter can be a great way of keeping customers up-to-date on how you can meet their needs with what you sell.
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YOUTUBE
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No point in introducing what’s essentially become the next generation of television. Everyone is familiar with YouTube, which by now hosts everything from silly five second videos for a quick, cheap laugh to full-length films you can rent for a small fee. So where do e-Commerce businesses fit in? Like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube isn’t exactly a direct channel to more sales. However, it offers businesses an excellent opportunity to showcase their products with a compelling visual demonstration, focusing on unique features and benefits and giving those customers who prefer to watch, rather than read, a perfect place to conduct further research on a company and what they sell.
Statistics (March, 2014) • 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Breaking this down every further,
that’s one hour of video uploaded every second.
• Over 4 billion videos are viewed every day
• Over 800,000,000 unique users visit YouTube every month
• YouTube is now localized in 39 countries and across 54 languages
• Cross-platform potential: on average, there are 700 YouTube video links shared on Twitter every minute, and 500 years worth of YouTube videos viewed on Facebook every day
Demographics (March, 2014) • YouTube reaches more adults in the US aged 18 – 34 than any cable network
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What to Post Product Information/Demonstration Videos: Videos that give a detailed overview of a specific product, highlighting its unique features and benefits, are perfect for YouTube. They can be short and sweet while offering the visual-minded customer a good look at what you offer, giving them an incentive to check out your online store for more information.
Educational Videos: You can also post videos with less of a selling angle and more of an emphasis on educating viewers about something in your industry. For example, our hypothetical winter clothing company might make a video with tips on how to stay warm indoors without breaking the bank, with a strong call-to-action at the end that can still drive viewers to their online store (for example, “Want to stay warm when you’re exposed to the elements this winter? Check out our selection of coats at …”). While these types of videos are less likely to convert viewers into paying customers, they can still work to generate interest in their products.
Video Series: The title of this one is a little vague, but so is the concept of a video series as a promotional tool, because there’s a ton of creative potential here. The key is to give these videos a consistent theme that’s entertaining for viewers, but also incorporates your products in some manner. The most famous example may be Blendtec’s “Will it Blend?” series, in which the company tested a multitude of different items in their blenders. It was an extremely unique and humorous method of promoting their brand, and really made the company stand out. Customer Support Videos: YouTube allows you to take your customer service efforts a step further by posting video responses to commonly asked questions. As with any type of video you post, it would be wise to end these with a call-to-action with your website address or that of your online store clearly displayed.
Video Testimonials: Another great use of YouTube is video testimonials. You can request that customers film themselves reviewing a product they recently purchased from your online store and upload their videos to your channel. These are often much more powerful than written testimonials. It might be a good idea to offer a bit of incentive to your customers as a thank you for taking the time to submit a video review, such as a percentage off, or free gift with their next purchase in your online store.
Old Spice Social Media Video Series
People post questions on Twitter or Facebook for the Old Spice guy and he responds via YouTube Video
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The “Buy Now” Button YouTube has implemented the ability to add a “Buy Now” button to videos, which is a goldmine for e-Commerce retailers. It allows users to purchase products directly after watching a video. Like the Facebook Store app, it’s the exception to the general rule that social media isn’t a straight shot to more sales.
YouTube Ads Like Facebook, YouTube also offers its own advertising system. Also like Facebook, YouTube ads also allows targeting based on certain demographics and advertisers only pay when viewers choose to watch the ad, which helps keeping
Conclusion YouTube fills a void created for the visual learners in your customer base. Many individuals prefer to watch rather than read when conducting any form of research, and creating compelling videos that showcase the features and benefits of your products, educate your audience, tell a unique series of stories related to your industry or answer your customers’ questions can help you cater to those individuals and drive them to your online store instead of your competitors’.
keep this method of marketing cost-effective and targeted to relevant audiences. Utilizing this system can help you reach a new audience that isn’t aware of your business yet and draw them to your YouTube channel and subsequently your online store.
YouTube’s advertising format is known as TrueView. Since this e-Book is focused on social media and e-Commerce and a full explanation of how TrueView works would put it in paid search territory, we’d recommend clicking the link above for a full outline of the different options TrueView offers and how they can benefit your business.
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GOOGLE+
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Google+ has undergone several major changes since it was introduced several years ago. In its early days, it was known as the Google Local Business Center, then Google Places, and then, after Google released Google+ as its answer to Facebook, Places went along with it. Now, businesses can create Google+ profiles for their brands, connect with other companies and business owners by adding them to their circle, and keep individuals with Google+ profiles fully up-to-date regarding news and products.
But how does that work for e-Commerce? Google+ was originally designed for customers to find local shops in their area. However, businesses can also utilize it to impact their e-Commerce efforts. How? By offering customers who find their profiles as much information as they possibly can about their products, and by making it clear that they have an online store, which users can visit if they like what they’ve found and want to start shopping right away.
Statistics (March 2014) • There are over 1 billion registered Google+ users. Of these, 540,000,000 are currently active
• 80% of users log in to Google+ at least once a week. 60% log in every day
• 70% of businesses have a Google+ profile
• With 25,000,000 users in its first month, Google+ is one of the fastest growing social networks
Demographics (March 2014) • The average age of Google+ users is 25 – 34 years old
• Over 67% of Google+ users are male
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What to Post Relevant Business Information: When you create a Google+ profile, you undergo a step-by-step process of filling out all of the relevant information about your business. This includes general information about what you offer, your contact information, your website, your hours of operation, photos, videos and any additional miscellaneous information (this section is a great place to specify that you sell online). All of this offers customers a snapshot of what you do and how active you are, which is the first step towards developing relationships with them. Relevant Content: Google+ is more like Facebook than Twitter in the sense that it allows you to make full posts for sharing your content. Every time you create something that’s intended to drive traffic to your online store – whether it’s a video promoting your product (Google+ has a nifty feature that allows you to connect your profile to your YouTube channel) or a photo of a new item – post it to your business’s Google+ profile. This helps it reach your audience, who will hopefully follow up by visiting your online store to learn more about what you’re promoting. Reviews: Google+ was practically designed for this. While Facebook is a moderately ideal platform for them, Google+ includes a section that’s specific to user reviews, where other users with Google+ profiles can post about an experience they had with your business. Positive reviews will help encourage other individuals thinking about doing business with you, while negative ones give you an opportunity to respond and demonstrate that you do listen to your customers’ feedback and work diligently to address any issues they may have had (it goes without saying here that any response to a negative review should be calm, patient and civil, no matter how nasty they get).
Here’s a helpful article from Practical Ecommerce on how Google+ can help you sell: 10 Ways Merchants Can Use Google+.
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Business Verification One of the most important things to do as soon as you’ve created a Google+ profile for your e-Commerce business is to verify that you are the owner. This can be done one of two ways: via a phone call to the main business number in your profile, or via a postcard to your business address. Both will contain a PIN that you enter in your profile in order to confirm your status as the owner. How you do it doesn’t matter, but getting it done certainly does, as verified businesses can only be edited by the owner and are much more trusted by Google.
Authorship Another added bonus of Google+ is authorship. Individuals, such as business owners, with their own personal Google+ profiles can link them to the content on their website, crediting them as the author of blog posts and other similar types of content. In some cases, their profile picture and name will show up next to results in Google. This can do a lot to add to a business’s authority, and can also contribute to higher search engine rankings.
See here for Google’s instructions on how to implement authorship on your website.
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MARKETING WITH GOOGLE+
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Citations and Local Search Rankings Once you’ve created your business’ Google+ profile, you should begin gathering citations. A citation is any appearance of your business’ name, address and phone number (NAP), exactly as it appears in your profile, on other websites, usually business directories. The more consistent appearances of your NAP online, the better the chances that your Google+ profile will rank for local-based searches. That means more potential customers seeing your page and starting the process of doing business with you.
Conclusion Google+ has come a long way from the days of Places, when business profiles were created with the intention of being a simple, helpful resource for potential customers looking for businesses in their area. Today, it’s a fully-fledged social network that gives business owners the chance to share relevant content and increase customer engagement to help with their e-Commerce efforts.
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Sort of like a corporate Facebook, LinkedIn allows individuals and businesses to connect with one another, follow updates, seek employment and look for potential partnerships with other companies. Although LinkedIn is primarily designed for B2B (Business to Business) marketing, it also offers benefits for e-Commerce and B2C (Business to Consumer) marketing. It’s not exclusive to B2B, as its wide reach and the ability to easily connect with other individuals does provide a lot of opportunity for pursuing different leads. Statistics (March 2014)
• There are currently over 277,000,000 LinkedIn users
• There are currently 2,100,000 LinkedIn groups
• There are 2 new LinkedIn users per second
• There are 187,000,000 monthly unique visitors to LinkedIn
• 41% of LinkedIn visits are from a mobile device Demographics (March 2014)
• 22% of online adults use LinkedIn
• 27% of LinkedIn users are aged 30 - 49
• Men (25%) are more likely to use LinkedIn than women (19%)
• 38% of LinkedIn users have a household income of at least $75,000
• 38% of LinkedIn users have at least a college education
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What to Post Relevant Content: This one seems to be the staple of most social networks, but it’s for a reason: social is about sharing, and LinkedIn is no exception. It allows you to post updates for those in your network to see, and if you’re trying to use LinkedIn to help your e-Commerce efforts, then those updates should include any content that will drive traffic to your online store, such as product photos, videos or simply a link to the store to remind followers that it’s there to meet their business needs and they can browse and shop at their leisure. Inventory Updates: This one sort of falls in line with the above, but it’s more specific. If you’re working in B2B and you get a new product or set of products, post an update with a photo or video of what it is, with a description and pricing information or how to contact you for a quote. Business owners doing their daily browsing of LinkedIn may come across it and decide to research a little more about how it can meet their needs – the first step to a sale. Answers: LinkedIn Answers and Groups allow individuals and businesses to discuss topics and answer questions related to their industry. This is a great opportunity for you to utilize thought leadership to establish yourself as an authority in your audience, creating awareness of your brand amongst your potential customers – another excellent first step towards them doing business with you.
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Company Pages LinkedIn allows you to build a page for your business and promote your products and services to potential partners or customers, who can view it to get a general overview of what you offer, how you may be able to work with them and how they can get in touch with you. It’s extremely useful for giving a quick but detailed summary of what you offer in a manner that may lead to potential leads from either other businesses or interested customers.
Networking Sometimes, simply adding someone to your LinkedIn network can be enough to start the first steps of generating e-Commerce business. If you take some time to connect with business owners who are in your target audience, you could start a conversation that leads to them asking about how your products can meet their needs. That’s exactly the kind of networking that LinkedIn is built on, and something you should definitely be taking advantage of as a business owner if you want to utilize it to help with your e-Commerce efforts.
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LinkedIn Ads Like Facebook and YouTube, LinkedIn offers its own advertising system for businesses. And, like Facebook and YouTube, this system provides plenty of options for targeting the right audience, such as job title and function, industry and company size and seniority, giving business owners the ability to find those with an active interest in what they sell who are also in a position to pursue an opportunity with them. It also gives the option of paying per click or per impression, offering a cost-effective alternative to other forms of advertising. It’s a useful system to keep in mind if you’re looking to expand your reach on the best B2B networking website available.
Search for Partners, Suppliers, and Vendors LinkedIn’s advanced search feature can help you find other businesses in your industry and add them to your network, allowing you to follow each other’s updates and discuss the possibility of partnerships and other mutually beneficial endeavours. Your search can include people in non-competitive, complimentary areas of business, with whom you can build strategic alliances, further growing your business as you continue to seek new e-Commerce opportunities.
The advanced search feature can also help you find vendors and suppliers in your industry, giving you the opportunity to grow your business with reliable partners. If you take some time every month to look for companies that would fall under your target audience, you could start making some great connections that turn into customers. The leads are there – you just need to find them.
Conclusion LinkedIn may not have been specifically designed for e-Commerce, but with the right strategy in place and by making use of certain features, you can increase your B2B sales and build new partnerships that will help you grow your business. The potential it offers for networking gives business owners a great opportunity to find an audience that’s interested in what you sell and easily connect with them, which is the first step towards building those important relationships.
Here’s an article from Shopify that offers some advice for LinkedIn and e-Commerce: 6 LinkedIn Ecommerce Marketing Tips.
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On the surface, Pinterest may not seem like it can offer businesses much – if anything – in the way of e-Commerce. After all, it’s just a site where people post ideas and inspiration for projects, isn’t it? How can that help with online sales? That’s a question with a very long answer, because the fact is that Pinterest is actually one of the best social media platforms businesses can use to help their e-Commerce efforts. Utilized correctly, Pinterest can help you create a personality for your brand and promote it to the right people, with the ability to lead customers to your online store through sharing content and showcasing the unique aspects of your business. As you can see from the numbers below, if your audience is primarily female and your products are visual, then Pinterest could be your most important social channel.
Breaking Down the Basics o A pin is an image added to Pinterest.
o A pin can be added from a website using the “Pin It” button, or you can upload images from your computer.
o Each pin added using the Pin It button links back to the site it came from.
o A pin board is a collection of pins. Think of a bulletin boards on a wall, each with it’s own theme.
Statistics (March 2014) • 47% of online shoppers in the U.S. have made a purchase based on a recommendation via Pinterest
• Pinterest generates more than 400% more revenue per click than Twitter and 27% more than Facebook
• 75% of all daily Pinterest traffic comes through mobile apps
• There are currently 70,000,000 active users on Pinterest
• Pinterest pins with prices receive 36% more likes than those without
Demographics (March 2014) • More than 1 in 5 U.S. adults now use Pinterest
• The average Pinterest user has a household income of $100,000
• 84% of Pinterest users are women
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What to Post Product Photos: Pinterest allows you to post photos, but because of its nature, it’s best to stick to photos of products that you sell, not things like a “Grand Opening” sign in your new store. Posting photos of your products helps connect you with potential customers who are browsing Pinterest to find items that interest them.
Inventory Updates: Again, as Pinterest is a social media platform that puts an emphasis on photos, it’s a perfect place to post visuals of any new items that have recently arrived at your store. Unique Boards: Pinterest works by allowing users to “pin” items to a board. In order to ensure you’re targeting the right audience with each pin, create a range of different boards for different topics for each of your ideas and products. This targeting strategy will ensure you’re more likely to get the attention of customers that have an interest in certain products, rather than what you sell as a whole, which can help draw traffic to specific parts of your online store.
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MARKETING WITH PINTEREST
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Unique Titles and Descriptions: Each pin you post will come with a title and description. As with your boards, make them unique: instead of making them vague, like “Winter Coats”, try something that will catch the attention of a subset of your audience who’s probably looking for something more specific, like “Coziest, Warmest Winter Parkas”, further detailing the products in the description. This will also help with your targeting efforts. Inspiration: Sharing the behind-the-scenes details of what ideas, products or projects inspire your business to do what it does, can help create a more personal connection between you and your customers. They might be browsing your board, see you’ve posted something that inspired a certain product or category of products that you sell, and think, “Hey, I like that too! Let’s check out exactly what this company did with that inspiration.” This is a first step towards getting them to browse what you have for sale, and it’s a lead that would come exclusively from Pinterest.
Embedding Photos on Your Website: Like YouTube, Pinterest allows you to embed content from your account on to your website, allowing you to easily share the photos and videos you upload for your business in your online store. Everything you embed on your website will also appear with your Pinterest username and comes with a link to your profile, allowing users on your store who haven’t followed you on Pinterest yet to do so, giving them another means of keeping up with your updates on social media. Going back to our suggestion of getting customers to take and submit photos of themselves with your products, you can take this a step further and embed their pictures on the product pages of your website (with their permission). Seeing products in action is always better for potential customers who are shopping than simply seeing a shot of the product itself.
Pinterest pins with prices get up to 36% more Likes than those without!
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Conclusion You wouldn’t expect it, but Pinterest has a lot of potential for increasing e-Commerce sales. It allows you to create a unique personality for your brand by easily posting and sharing anything from ideas or inspiration for your business, to photos of new products, and can be easily used to bring potential customers to your online store and share what you post with others in your audience. If you’re looking to create a distinct online brand identity in a manner that could increase traffic to your e-Commerce website, then Pinterest might be the perfect social platform for your business.
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Business Account Since your goal with Pinterest is to improve your e-Commerce sales, you’ll want to ensure your profile is set up as a business account. This will ensure that any visitors you get are aware that you’re posting more than just ideas and inspiration – you’re posting things you actually sell, and that they can buy with just a few clicks. Rich Pins You can also take your status as a business on Pinterest a step further by using Rich Pins, a recently introduced feature that allows you to include additional, relevant details for shoppers such as pricing, availability and where to buy. This provides users interested in making a purchase of what they see on Pinterest with all of the information they need to do so from your business - an essential aspect of e-Commerce, regardless of the channel that brings individuals to your store.
The “Pin it” Button Pinterest allows users to add a “Pin it” button to their websites. It’s a perfect addition for the product pages of an e-Commerce store, as potential customers who are browsing it can easily “pin” any product to their own Pinterest boards, spreading your content to others who may have an interest in what you sell, but don’t know about your business.
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Instagram is another head-scratcher for many business owners: how exactly can a website dedicated to photos uploaded from a mobile device help drive online sales? Well, if you’ve come this far in our e-Book, then you’ll know that there’s more to most social media platforms than meets the eye, a rule that Instagram follows just as much as the rest of the platforms we’ve covered so far. Just about every social media channel we’ve talked about up to this point, with the obvious exception of YouTube, has included a recommendation for posting photos in some capacity. That’s exactly what Instagram’s existence is based around, so right there is the first part of your answer to how it can help your e-Commerce efforts. How you utilize it, however – by carefully choosing what types of pictures to post for your audience – is key as to how it can help with your online sales. Statistics (March 2014) • There are currently over 130,000,000
Instagram users
• There are 1,000 comments per second posted on Instagram
• Over 5,000,000 photos are uploaded to Instagram per day
• There is a 50% crossover between Instagram and Twitter
• Every second, 8,000 users like a photo on Instagram
Demographics (March 2014) • 17% of all online adults use Instagram
• 68% of Instagram users are females
29 • The largest demographic on Instagram is the 18 – 29 age group – 37% of users in
this demographic use Instagram
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User Participation: Like Facebook, Instagram offers business an excellent opportunity for customer engagement. With its exclusive focus on uploading photos, think about how easy it would be to start, for example, a photo contest amongst your audience – it would take them less than a minute to shoot and upload their submission. Again, to keep this tied in with your e-Commerce store, it’s a good idea to make the top prizes some sort of discount when winners shop next with you online.
What to Post Product Photos: This is Instagram’s bread and butter. The ability to easily upload photos at the touch of a finger from a mobile device means it was practically made for retailers to snap photos of what they have for sale and show it to their audience, all within about 60 seconds. Customers who are interested can see that it came from your brand and check out your website for more information – again, the first step towards a sale. New Arrivals: This one should be just as obvious as photos of products you already carry. As soon as you get some new items in stock, snap a photo and put it on your Instagram profile. It’s hard to think of a faster way to make people who follow you, aware of the fact that you’ve got new inventory, and this one comes with the added bonus of people sharing the photo – or photos – amongst their own followers, who may also have an interest in what you sell. This is the stuff social is made for. Customers in Action: Continuing with our hypothetical winter clothing store (introduced on page 6) as an example, they might use Instagram to ask customers to post photos of themselves in new jackets, hats, gloves, etc. They would ask customer who participate to post these photos with a hashtag of their brand included (it’s not just Twitter that makes use of these, folks!), so everyone who sees it knows where it came from. This strategy can help create brand awareness and generate more interest in the products you sell.
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MARKETING WITH INSTAGRAM
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Embedding Photos Going back to our suggestion of getting customers to take and submit photos of themselves with your products, you can take this a step further and embed their pictures on the product pages of your website. Seeing products in action is always better for potential customers who are shopping, than simply seeing a shot of the product itself. Make sure you get your customers’ permission to do this.
For more information about web embedding, check out the Instagram Help Center.
Commenting Instagram includes a comments system to go with uploaded photos, allowing the original poster, and anyone who views the photo, to comment. This can lead to an opportunity for you to answer and address customer questions about your products. For example, if our hypothetical winter clothing company uploaded one picture of a new coat, customers who found it on Instagram may like it but wonder if it’s available in another color, and can ask about this and have their query answered right there in the comments feed. It’s a great method of providing fast and satisfying customer service.
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Linking Photos to Product Pages If a potential customer sees a photo of one of your products, but they aren’t familiar with your brand and have an interest in learning more about where the product came from, you need to give them a clear option for where they can learn more or make a purchase. Aside from including a hashtag of your brand with the photo, you should ensure that the gallery in which it is hosted has a link to your online store so interested individuals can instantly be taken to a place where they have the option to shop for what you sell.
Facebook and Twitter Instagram allows businesses to utilize cross-platform marketing in social media, as users can also display their photos on Facebook and Twitter. Take advantage of this: every time you upload a photo that’s directly tied to the goal of increasing your e-Commerce sales, make sure it posts to your Facebook and Twitter profiles as well. This will allow anyone who does not follow you on Instagram, but follows you on one or both of the other two sites, to be notified of these updates as well.
Conclusion It may seem like just a photo-sharing website, but a lot goes into making Instagram a valuable ally in your efforts to increase your e-Commerce sales. With the simple ability to quickly snap and share a picture, you’re given plenty of options to showcase and promote both new and existing products while tying the marketing you do with this particular social platform back to your online store.
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PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
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Posting Frequency There are no set-in-stone rules for how often you should post on each social media platform, but there are some good guidelines based on scope and audience. 1 – 3 posts a day is usually good for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, while Twitter’s status as a “microblog” gives you a little more opportunity for frequent posts, so 3 – 5 is a good number. Remember that these are just suggestions – you’ll have a better idea of what number works for you when you build up a solid base of followers on each website.
4-1-1 Rule Here’s a tip from Andrew Davis of Tippingpoint Labs and author of the book Brandscaping. It’s called the 4-1-1 rule, and it’s a sharing system that enables a company to get greater visibility with social influencers. The 4-1-1 rule states: “Tweet 4 pieces of relevant content from others and re-tweet 1 relevant tweet for every 1 self-promoting tweet.” Try it and see how it helps you keep your content tight and build connections amongst other social influencers in your field.
Yes, the above quote is intended for Twitter, but really we think it’s a tip that applies to every social channel. Now, let’s take a break from getting specific with these tips for a second, shall we? Here are some general tips for using social media for e-Commerce. These are intended to help you understand how to use these platforms effectively and with proper etiquette so you’re able to keep your audience coming back.
Don’t Post Passively Every Facebook status update, tweet, Instagram photo, etc., that you send out should have some substance, with the potential to turn into a full-fledged discussion amongst your followers. Quality over quantity is key here: don’t post just for the sake of posting. Make sure you actually have something of value to share that your customers can appreciate and follow up with you on via comments, so you can keep them engaged and continue establishing yourself as a leading source for shareable, discussion-worthy content.
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PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
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Link to Your Store Wherever Possible If you’re focusing on using social media for the purposes of e-Commerce, then you should be including links back to your online store, wherever possible, with each piece of content you post. It’s important to note however, that if there really isn’t an opportunity to include a link– for example, if you’re simply posting a quick status update about something in the news that’s related to your industry, or a video that showcases a behind-the-scenes aspect of your business and has nothing to do with your products – then don’t. Doing so would make it seem like 100% of everything you do with social media is a half-disguised method of selling more, which is very rarely the case, even if e-Commerce is a main focus.
Encourage Customer Participation We did cover this one with a few of the platforms we mention in this book, but it bears repeating. Social media revolves around the concept of people talking and sharing, so it makes sense to get them to talk about and share things from your business. Reviews, questions, general comments, suggestions, demonstrations of your products in action – all of these should be encouraged amongst your audience, as it all contributes to spreading the word about your brand and business.
Make Yourself Unique Just about every business has a presence on social media these days, so it’s extremely important to ensure you’re doing everything you can to give your brand a unique voice. Boring, bland and generic stuff that the rest of your industry is doing won’t cut it here – capture the attention of your customers in fun, compelling and creative ways that resonate with your brand and its distinct identity.
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PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
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Share Buttons People may not visit your website every day, but they’re definitely likely to check their own social profiles at least once every 24 hours. Rather than rely on them remembering or bookmarking your website, add social share buttons to each page of it, so they can add you to their networks instead and get notified every time you post on any of your social networks. Some shopping carts also allow you to put share buttons relative to each specific product in the shopping cart, allowing customers to share specific things you sell with their friends. Overall, share buttons are a great way to increase brand awareness.
Share It Slightly different from the above suggestion: add Share buttons to your blog to make it easy for people to share your content across social networks. You may have noticed we’ve been doing this on the bottom of every page in this e-Book. It’s a simple tactic that can help drive more traffic to your website, putting you on the radar of more interested customers.
Brand It Finally, remember that each and every one of these social media websites is playing host to your brand. Don’t leave a single website devoid of your business’s unique personality – always include your logo and positioning line, so all of your social profiles will be branded with consistency. This will also help maintain brand awareness amongst followers who have several other businesses on their feeds.
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HOOTSUITE
36
Monitor Multiple Streams in One Place
Add Team Members to help Monitor your Social Media Activity
Cross Post to Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, WordPress
Available on Apple and Android products
Get Free Reports by Email
Offer a Paid and a Free Version
Sign up at Hootsuite.com
We’ll be honest: there are a ton of fantastic tools available to help you with your social media marketing efforts, far more than we’d have the time or room to cover in this e-Book. So in the interests of saving both, we’ll cover 3 tools we believe are very useful to help manage social channels and find and curate content. You might be throwing your arms up in exasperation at this point, wondering how many more social media platforms could be out there. Between general social, microblogging, corporate connection building, photos, and videos, you probably figure that by now, we’ve covered everything social. Hootsuite Hootsuite offers businesses an all-in-one location where they can manage their feeds for Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn (as well as WordPress). It’s a pretty useful tool, and one that can save you a lot of time on your social media marketing efforts. You can manage all of the above platforms and measure the essential metrics that help you understand how your social networks are helping your e-Commerce sales. Take a look below for a point-by-point on what makes it such a valuable, time-saving resource for businesses looking to go big on social.
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BUFFER
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Manage Multiple Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn Accounts
Set Up Your Own Updating Schedule
Easily Add Updates to Your Buffer
Offer a Free & Paid Version
Use it Everywhere with Apps, Extensions, and Extras
Easily bookmark & schedule Tweets or Facebook updates from any browser/mobile device
Sign up for buffer at www.bufferapp.com
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Buffer is similar to Hootsuite in that it allows you to manage multiple social media accounts in one convenient location. Posts can be scheduled, allowing you to sync each one across all of your social networks, and it’s compatible with both desktop and mobile devices, giving business owners the option to take care of their social networking tasks at the office, at home or on the go. Like Hootsuite, Buffer helps you save time on your social media marketing efforts, and offers analytical data to help you measure them as well. While we agree that both are extremely useful if you’re looking to do social on the quick, we’re not here to recommend one resource over the other – take a look at the points below and check out our links section at the end of this e-Book to see the websites for both and compare for yourself.
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FEEDLY
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Between these three tools, Feedly is sort of the odd one out. It’s not a resource for managing multiple social platforms at once, or for measuring how they’re helping your business. In fact, aside from the potential it offers you to find and subsequently share content you find interesting and valuable, Feedly has a lot less to do with social than Hootsuite and Buffer. Feedly is a website that pulls content from blogs and news websites all over the web. When you sign up for an account, you can choose the sites from which you’d like to get the latest posts and content on your Feedly front page, filtering them by industry or topic of interest and allowing you to get information from a multitude of sources that are relevant to your interests. Your interests are, by extension, your audience’s interests as well. That’s why Feedly is so useful: amongst the daily updates in your feed are often a wide range of content that will bring added value to your customer base, giving you something to share with them that they’ll want to read. It’s all part of establishing yourself as not only a one-stop shop for the products they’re looking to buy, but also as a source of valuable information from different related sources on the web.
Get Relevant Content From a Range of Places in One Place
Full Customization Which Websites are on Your Daily Feed
Mobile Application Available for iOS and Android Devices
Sign up at Feedly.com
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CONCLUSION
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Social media may seem like a simple landscape to those who don’t work with it day in and day out, but the truth is there’s a lot to learn about it and how it can benefit a business. When it’s broken down and looked at from a business standpoint, the potential that exists on each of the platforms we’ve covered in this e-Book is absolutely staggering: connecting with customers and keeping them engaged; making your brand stand out by creating and sharing unique, valuable content; establishing your business as a thought leader in your industry with authoritative content; showcasing your products in an interesting manner, such as an educational video; opening a dialogue between company and customer and addressing questions and concerns quickly, efficiently and in a way that shows an excellent dedication to customer service – all of this, done effectively and with a good strategy in place, can help you drive more traffic to your online store from people who already have an active interest in what you sell. One thing we’d like to advise: don’t try to do everything at once. Don’t work with five different social media platforms at the same time. Don’t sign up for profiles that may not work for your business. Start with the right software and social media websites, the ones that meet your needs, so you can launch and manage your campaign properly rather than taking on too much and doing it poorly. We hope you close this e-Book with a better understanding of how you can utilize whichever of the social media websites we’ve covered that are a part of your marketing plan for increasing online sales. It’s not an easy field to navigate, especially with the doubt that many business owners harbour about how websites like Facebook and Instagram can play a role in increasing sales, but once you have a decent understanding of how both topics connect, you’ll be able to look at it with fresh eyes and tweak your strategy to help you sell. Whether you’re only on Facebook, stick to micro-sites like Twitter and Instagram, or utilize a full range of social media websites as a part of your marketing strategy, social media has a role to play in building your business online. As with all aspects of marketing, you get out of it what you put into it. We wrote this guide with the intention of giving you a lot more to do with your social strategy, so get out there and start sharing – your sales are waiting!
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GLOSSARY
Below we’ve assembled a list of terms often used in the e-Commerce or Social Media world. Although everything isn’t discussed in this e-book, we felt it may be helpful to list in case you encounter the terms elsewhere.
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+1: A Google+ term. When a user sees a post they enjoy, they can click the ‘+1’ button to show their approval. App: Short for application. Refers to a program or add-on for a social media website, such as Facebook. Often created and utilized by businesses to improve connectivity with customers. Blog: Short for weblog. Businesses often use blogs to communicate with their customers more directly, and to write articles that share their expertise or a more personal side of their companies, sharing their posts via social media platforms. Call to Action (CTA): A prompt intended to drive a user to complete a desired action from marketing material, such as a download, signup or quote request. Posts on social media can contain a call to action for potential customers. Channel: A YouTube term. Businesses can host videos on their own personal channel and brand it with their logo and other unique aspects of their business. Circle: A Google+ term. Refers to the people and companies with whom you are connected on Google+. Citation: Relates to Google+. Any appearance of a business name, address and phone number on other sites across the web, which contributes to helping a business’ Google+ profile rank higher in search results and attract more potential customers. Connections: A LinkedIn term, connections come in three different types: 1st degree, 2nd degree and 3rd degree. A 1st degree connection is for individuals and businesses with whom you have agreed to connect with, while 2nd and 3rd degree refers to people that are connected with other individuals in your network, but not directly with you. Useful for building relationships with other businesses and potential customers.
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GLOSSARY
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Content: Refers to anything shared on the web that is designed to entertain, educate or assist users, such as an article, a video, an image, or a free resource or tool. Social media is an extremely useful platform for sharing content in all its forms. Twitter Direct Message (DM): A Twitter term. A private message between you and another Twitter user. Only available to utilize with users you are following and who are following you back. e-Commerce: Short for electronic commerce. The official term for the industry of buying and selling goods or services via computer systems and the internet. Embedding: Implementing a bit of code to display a piece of media, such as a photo or video, on a website. Useful for putting product videos hosted on YouTube on product pages. Follower: Generally a Twitter term. Refers to individuals or businesses following a Twitter feed’s updates. Hashtag (#): A Twitter term, also used in Instagram & Facebook. A way of allowing users to find your content. When users click on a word preceded by a hashtag (e.g., #ecommerce), they will see content that mentions that word, even if they aren’t following that user. Like: A Facebook term. When a user sees content they enjoy on Facebook, they can click the ‘Like’ button to show their approval. Mention (@): A Twitter term. When one user mentions another by their username in a tweet, they use the @ sign (e.g., @ecomEssentials). Users who are mentioned in this fashion will receive a notification. Online Store: A section of a website that allows users to browse and buy products is often referred to as an online store. Pin: A Pinterest term. Refers to anytime a Pinterest user posts content to their Pinterest board.
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GLOSSARY
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Retweet (RT): A Twitter term. Re-sharing another user’s tweet with your followers Share Buttons: Buttons in the form of social media logos that businesses can place on their website for users to easily visit their profiles and follow them for updates. Shopping Cart: When shopping online, the items a customer has saved and plans on purchasing from an online store are in their shopping cart. Social Media: Websites on which users and businesses can connect with others and interact, share content, and build a network of people and companies they know. Prime examples include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Social Media Marketing: The practice of marketing to potential and existing customers by building a network of connections and sharing content and updates across social media platforms. Tabs: A method of separating types of content on a Facebook page. Useful for businesses who are offering different ways for their customers to interact and connect with them. For example, a company running a contest through Facebook could have a tab dedicated exclusively to it on their profile. Viral: Viral marketing is a strategy by which a marketer creates a campaign or promotion focused around the goal of causing viewers of that promotion to spontaneously spread it by sending it to friends. Widget: Similar to an app, a widget is a built-in tool for a website that takes up a small amount of space and serves a specific purpose. It can be something as simple as showing the time, sharing updates to highway traffic in the area or informing users of new content when it’s posted.
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RESOURCES
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• Social Media Today
• Practical Ecommerce
• Social Media Examiner
• Clickz
• E Consultancy
• GetElastic
• Our Social Times
• Shopify Blog
• Big Commerce Blog
• Magento Blog
• Bit.ly Blog
• eMarketer
• Jeff Bullas
• Lee Odden's Book - "Optimize"
Note: There are many other shopping cart platforms available. Any mentioned were used for informational purposes only. We do not endorse any specific e-Commerce platform.
• Google+
• Forbes
• Digital Insights
• HubSpot Blog
• Kiss Metrics Blog
• Small Biz Trends
• Nitrogram Blog
• Mashable Social Media
• Gary Vaynerchuk's Book – “JAB, JAB, JAB, RIGHT HOOK”
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Are you still burning with a desire to learn even more about social media and how it can help you sell more online? If you have any further questions about what you’ve read here, feel free to get in touch with us – social media marketing is a part of what we do as an internet marketing agency, and we’d be happy to help!
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