4 Crucial Social Media Features In Charge of Accelerating E-Commerce Sales
Social media wears the crown when it comes to building customer engagement. This is one domain that could yield maximum value for your business in terms of promotion and sale of products. So, it comes as no surprise when e-commerce companies keep social media front and center of their product marketing mix.
However, there are too many social media platforms out there for businesses to pick and choose from, which makes it challenging for them to figure out the right one for their company.
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Pinterest are just a few platforms that offer several amazing features, helping businesses promote and sell products in unheard ways.
Shoppable Posts on Instagram
Up until now, it was simply impossible to set up shop on Instagram because of two reasons: 1) The platform didn’t offer clickable links in the image caption. 2) The tagging of products wasn’t permitted. So, it was nearly impossible for e-commerce companies to get Instagrammers to buy products on the platform itself.
Instagram launched the Shoppable Post feature, making it easier to discover and buy products on Instagram. Users can tap into product tags to check the complete product details and click on the “Shop Now” feature to buy it.
Here’s an example of an Instagram Shoppable Post for you to check out:
Case study: ORA LA, a Los Angeles-based multi-million men’s fashion brand, set up Instagram Shoppable Posts about two years back. Since then, they have witnessed a 29.3% increase in month-over-month revenue.
According to Kevin Dao, Co-founder and CEO/CCO at ORO Los Angeles
“Shopping on Instagram product tagging is so much simpler than the usual ads. It makes the experience a lot easier and more natural for our followers. Customers still take some time to review before buying, but the buying process is way shorter.”
The Shoppable post feature is available only in selected countries.
You can check out more on Instagram posts here. Leverage Instagram Shoppable Posts to directly sell and promote products on Instagram.
Snapchat’s Geofilters for Selective Audience Targeting
Geofilters are photo filters that can be accessed from specific geographic locations. Small businesses or brands can get their name out by making fun filters for users to enjoy.
You can leverage this incredible feature for every business event – be it launching a new store or for the promotion of your product.
However, remember the size of the fence and the duration for which the event is being set up, for it will have a direct impact on the price. The best part about on-demand Geofilters is that they are affordable and you can operate it in the same way as traditional Snapchat filters.
Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the early adopters of Snapchat Geofilters, used it for his #AskGaryVee book tour. He set up custom filters for every talk, Q&A, or event he hosted.
The filter that cost him $62.98 generated 229,713 views. However, businesses have to follow a couple of Snapchat guidelines before they can set their filters up on their Snapchat account. Check out the beginner’s guide here.
Facebook Live for Product Showcase
55% of people watch videos online every day. Realizing the importance of videos in customer engagement and sales, apps such as Snapchat, Periscope, and Meerkat started tapping into the power of live videos. In no time, Facebook followed suit.
In an influential study involving 700 video professionals, 82% admitted to streaming Facebook Live, because it’s crucial to reach their organizational goals, especially to reach new followers and connect with existing ones. Businesses, for instance, could take advantage of the live video feature on Facebook to talk about new launches in their store. They can even use it to talk about different ways to use your product.
Pinterest Ads Platform
Pinterest works just like Google Search Engine. Just like people search content on Google using various keywords, Pinterest also uses the same logic to help people find relevant Pinterest boards.
So, if you are planning to leverage Pinterest for promoting your e-commerce products, make sure to get at least 10 of your boards’ keywords optimized. This will ensure that your boards pop up whenever people perform related searches. The ads platform comes with an advanced keyword research tool that throws up all relevant keywords (on the basis of searches) that could be effortlessly woven into your board title and description. This will ensure that your Pinterest board pops up whenever a user or a shopper searches for a specific product.
Let’s say you are creating boards for furniture on Pinterest. So, the moment you key in furniture on Pinterest’s keyword research tool, all sorts of keywords will start popping up, which could be considered for optimizing your boards.
Make the most of these social media features if you want to make a lot of bang for your buck this year. If you don’t have the time and resources for every platform, just take into account two big social media channels such as Instagram and Snapchat to get your sales and profits rolling.
