How do you bridge the gap between social media and ecommerce?
Social media and e-commerce are the quintessential digital platforms for growth. Businesses can access global audiences, drive sales, and garner unfathomable attention allowing them to become overnight sensations.
But how do we get them to work together?
Let’s explore.
The Right Platforms:
Like all things in life, things aren’t as simple as connecting your social media accounts to any e-commerce platform and expecting followers to increase and sales to start soaring. No dear reader, it’s about something far more elegant. It’s about forming a strategy that creates the most perfect match made in heaven.
It all begins with knowing the top social media platforms to turn to. After months of research, we realized it consists of three major players. The holy trinity- Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok.
Now, let’s explore the ideal e-commerce platforms that flawlessly integrate with each social media platform. While it can be time-consuming, rest assured we’ve got you covered.
✦ For Instagram, the perfect pairings are Amazon and Shopify
✦ For Pinterest, the top choices are Etsy, Walmart, and target
✦ And when it comes to TikTok, the best fit is Shopify
The Biggest Weapon
E-commerce businesses are confined to online transactions, here buyers and sellers very rarely get to interact with one and another. Buyers never get to see the product and must rely solely on the reviews of previous consumers. That’s where social media comes in.
With billions of people who spend hours a day on each platform, brands have a unique opportunity to build an ecosystem of social proof. Proof that not only validates the product but also the brand. By scrolling through comment sections, DM-ing the brand directly for responses on products, and checking the tagged section to see real people use their products, social media validates the brand and the product in a way that websites and simple reviews can only ever wish to.
But social media does so much more for e-commerce brands than just offering social proof. It helps them build a community that they can engage with daily. They can talk to people, respond to comments, and take followers behind the scenes, making the brand feel more personal. This ultimately leads to a loyal fan base that invests in the brand on a monetary level as well as an emotional one. And it’s this key aspect that makes social media vital for any e-commerce business.
Cohesive Branding:
Brands must be instantly recognizable. Although it seems obvious, it’s one step that often get overlooked. Many people feel that they must be serious on websites or e-commerce platforms, while they can let loose on marketing and social media material. However, that’s not true. In fact, it’s the opposite.
Whether it’s offline on billboards, social media pages, e-commerce platforms, as soon as a person sees your page, they must instantly recognize the brand. From the colors and content used to set the tone, to the images and models involved, every aspect must exude the brand’s essence.
Pro Tips:
While this isn’t an easy process, there is one epic tool that can help sellers accelerate- social commerce.
Social commerce platforms such as TikTok Shop and Amazon Inspire are designed to help brands do one thing- create a new stream of revenue. Brands can directly sell on the platform through options like Live shopping and shoppable videos, without having to link third-party links that redirect users to websites.
Furthermore, Shopify’s Shop connects all stores built on Shopify into one app- a gamechanger for all e-commerce businesses that are just starting a hope to connect to larger audiences.
Final Words
For social media and e-commerce to ever dream of working in tandem with one and another, they must understand how to work in unison. After all, as the saying goes, “teamwork makes the dream work”.
This means that they must focus on their respective domains. While e-commerce specialists need to ensure their listings adhere to the platform’s regulations, social media managers must use the right data to market to the right personas and build a community that makes a consumer a fan.