Many online businesses understand the innate value in social media networking to increase their web traffic and ultimately their profit margins; yet, surprisingly, some do not or have not yet begun to tap into the benefits that social media affords when it comes to marketing and growing one’s online or drop shipping business. The following five reasons are strong evidence why social media is integral to any ecommerce strategy in today’s digital marketplace.
Who are You?
Sure, customers are aware of brands like Sony and Apple, but when it comes to your business name, do they know it and how can they begin to trust it? Social media is a great outlet for creating brand recognition. The more people hear about your brand and see its logo, the more familiar your business becomes. This familiarity can foster interest and inspire people to make a purchase. Once the transaction goes through smoothly, that trust may be cemented, but getting them to recognize who you are in the first place is where social media can shine. The more your brand shows up on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and even Pinterest, the more potential customers can get to know it.
Drive Traffic
Building a profile and following on major social media networks allows ecommerce sites to drive traffic to their websites. Moreover, this traffic can be analyzed so you can learn how your social media efforts are resulting in hits to your site. You may find that the more you post information about your business on the sites like Twitter, the more traffic you see; getting customers to your website is an important benefit of social media.
Interact with Customers
Social media allows eCommerce operators to engage fully with their clientele. In essence, these are just great platforms to ‘talk’ to people. Sites like Facebook allow you to post information about new products or even ask customers for insights regarding new product lines they may like to see. This interaction can nurture customer loyalty (Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/himanshu-sareen/1830976/how-smaller-brands-can-level-playing-field-social-ecommerce). When you establish a regular connection to your fan base, you’ll find that your marketing efforts will pay off. When you announce a sale, for instance, you can gauge how many people actually receive this important information that is apt to lead to increased sales.
Market
Social media platforms allow businesses to advertise and share vital product information. You can market your brand by posting pictures of products or positive product reviews (Source: https://www.doba.com/hot-products/). You can share news stories regarding the brands or items you carry. You can even post videos with tutorials. This type of information helps people understand the nature of what you carry and it may, indeed, prompt them to make a purchase from your website (Source: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/61594-Does-Social-Media-Impact-Ecommerce-Sales).
It’s Free
While not all social media sites are free, many of the big names like Twitter and Pinterest are. This means that there’s virtually no excuse for ignoring these valuable marketing tools. Take time to explore their potential. While setting up a Facebook account is free, you can also spend quite inexpensively to generate ads on that site that can help you promote your social network profile as well as your brand.
These are just five of the major benefits of social media networking for ecommerce sites. Once you establish your presence on a few, you’ll likely to see that there are many more reasons to make social a viable part of your daily marketing campaign.