Social commerce leverages the networking capabilities of social networks to promote brands and close sales. Social media’s deep targeting algorithms make it more likely that a product would show up in front of a customer that is already inclined to buying those items.
At the moment, however, not a whole lot of brands have jumped on the social commerce bandwagon. Most of the early adopters are smaller brands that realize they can focus on their target demographic easily through social media algorithms. To help, 13 professionals from Forbes Communications Council look at how brands can leverage social commerce to their benefit.
Members share their tips for boosting your brand’s social commerce efforts.
Photos courtesy of the individual members
1. Make It Convenient
By allowing people to buy right from an ad or a social media post, you can cut down the number of steps for a purchase. A messenger bot can remind people to revive an abandoned cart and complete the transaction as well. Fewer steps means higher revenue. – Preeti Adhikary, Fusemachines Inc.
2. Own Your Story And Your Data
From Warby Parker to sustainability brands like Public Goods, direct-to-consumer brands are disrupting traditional retail models. Social commerce platforms like Instagram allow brands to control and tell their story directly to their target customers and they get to own their buyer data. This means that buying trends and demographics that would normally be hidden by a middleman retailer is now instantly available. – Dana Córdova, Dana Córdova
3. Tailor Your Strategy By Platform
Your social commerce strategy should be tailored for the platform that aligns the most with your brand, as well as the receptivity of your community. Consumer packaged goods brands with a strong, visual, brand identity should focus their efforts on a platform like Instagram whereas a business-to-business brand may see more success with traditional social selling on LinkedIn. – Andrew Caravella, Sprout Social
4. Make Privacy And Security A Priority
To increase social commerce, we need to put privacy and security by design to the top of the list. It’s time to ensure that we are protecting our customers with good privacy/security. The benefit? Trust, reputation and repeat business! – Heather MacLean, Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick
5. Give Back To Move Forward
Social commerce isn’t a buzzword marketers can land on when they need a feel-good moment for a brand with waning appeal. It’s an opportunity to use a brand’s platform and reach to create thoughtful, lasting change. Make an impact through donating a portion of sales, organizing a community event or creating a product in collaboration with a charity. Bettering the world will always be good business. – Melissa Kandel, little word studio
6. Leverage Shoppable Content
Social media is very visual and because of this, consumers can be inspired to make a purchase at any moment, on any device. Marketers need to ensure that when launching social commerce campaigns, all content is shoppable so purchases can seamlessly be completed. Shopping experiences also need to be optimized for whatever device a consumer is browsing on to ensure a good experience. – Sara Larsen, Brightcove
7. Use Authentic Customer Videos
Building trust and establishing popularity with lots of ratings and reviews is critical — this is simple behavioral economics theory. However, authentic customer video reviews showing the product in use by real people will establish trust faster and create more product engagement. – Duane Sprague, Trust Brands
8. Include Peer Reviews
The ability to discover and shop online for everything from electric toothbrushes to digital transformation platforms is essential. Regardless of the desired product or service, prospective customers care what others think. Brands of all types should have a strategy that includes peer reviews. Find the most influential in your space, allocate budget for sponsorship, and do some advocacy. – Ann Boyd, Cherwell Software
9. Use Data From Mainstream Channels
Harness the volume of interaction and transaction data from your e-commerce store, to inform and drive the product recommendations on your social commerce channel. Make sure your offers are relevant, by unifying the source of your product recommendations. An emerging category of experience intelligence platforms is bringing this capability to cross-channel marketing and commerce. – Mark Floisand, Coveo
10. Take Advantage Of Organic Commerce Options
Instagram offers organic product tagging for brands who qualify, a turnkey solution ensuring that both your organic and paid efforts are driving ROI and that consumers have the easiest pathway to purchase. This also cuts down on community comments asking “what product is this?” or “where can I buy” and allows for copy in the post to be more lifestyle-focused, while still encouraging a purchase. – Dixie Roberts, DKC/HangarFour
11. Sell When Consumers Are Interested In Buying
The beauty of social commerce is that consumers can buy a product without leaving the social platform to buy. For example, when an influencer posts images of them in their latest outfit, there is often immediate interest to buy the same shirt, pants, etc. Rather than clicking over to the site where consumers can get distracted and abandon their cart, they can click to buy that exact product and be done. – T.J. Welsh, Stryde.com
12. Connect With Seamless Payment Strategies
A smooth mobile checkout experience can help drive cart conversions, engagement and greater satisfaction for digital shoppers. Considering that only 26% of consumers are “very satisfied” with social commerce experiences, according to our own research, the door is wide open for retailers to leverage the digital payments experience as a competitive differentiator. – Theresa McEndree, Blackhawk Network
13. Use Social Media To Educate, Not To Close
One of the mistakes brands make is they try to hard-sell their product on social media. It’s important to recognize where in the customer journey your prospect is: namely, the research stage. Social media is a chance for you to educate about the benefits of your product and how you solve their pain points. Do this and you’ll close more effectively than the hard-sell every day of the week. – Patrick Ward, Rootstrap
