We’ve all been there. You’re scrolling through your timeline and an advertisement pops up with an item you just mentioned to your friend. No, your phone isn’t listening to you – we promise! Modern social media advertising has come a long way, even far enough to predict your wants, needs, and future purchases.
These days 74% of adults with internet access regularly use social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter have given retailers an entirely new way to connect to potential customers. Ensuring you are properly utilizing the right social media for your business can grow your brand, following, and profits. Let’s delve into social media platforms to find out what’s right for your company!
As the largest social media platform in the world, Facebook contains over 2 billion active users. Gone are the days of simply logging in to check notifications. On average, active Facebook users are on the site 40 minutes a day. This means scrolling, messaging, liking, commenting, and active opportunities for your business. The first step to using Facebook is creating a page for your business. Through this page, you can post updates, products, events, advertisements, interact with customers, and even sell your products directly through social media.
A good rule of thumb on Facebook is that posts with visually stimulating content will outperform those with simple text. As a retailer, this is a great way to post photos of your customers with your products, promotions, in-store photos, reviews, and organic content. You can also use Facebook to run advertisements that are extremely targeted to your demographic. Information like location, age, gender, interests, and previous buying patterns are used by the platform to specifically target new potential customers. While you don’t need to spend money with Facebook to reach new customers, this can be a great way to create a multi-faceted advertising strategy that can be extremely effective.
As a platform that is completely built around showcasing visual content, Instagram can be the perfect platform to showcase products. Just this past June Instagram hit 1 billion active users – nearly one-eighth of the world’s population – and is growing at an exponential rate. The first step to a successful Instagram profile as a retailer is converting your account to a business profile. This allows you to view post insights, see post-performance, and signals customers to recognize you as a retailer. Next, Instagram, advertisements will allow your brand to showcase ads within the feed and stories. Something unique to retailers using Instagram is their ability to use Instagram shopping. This service allows you to directly link products to your photos, allowing customers to purchase directly through the application. Overall, a good rule of thumb with Instagram is to create a well-branded aesthetic and feed, which invites new and existing customers to interact and follow your brand.
Finally, Twitter is another great platform for retailers to utilize on social media. It has 192 million daily active users, and nearly 81% of users state Twitter impacts their purchasing decisions more than TV commercials. This platform is perfect for a brand to converse and post regular updates regarding their promotions, products, and customers. Posting updates is a great way to drive traffic to your website, and with many brands regularly posting text and answering questions, it’s a great way to provide online customer service. Overall, utilizing Twitter to enhance your brand voice and connect to your customers will make customers feel more comfortable buying from you.
Social media is a modern way to diversify your online presence, advertising, and selling. By utilizing social media you will be able to connect with both new and existing customers. The Bottom Line is This, as a retailer your goal is to grow your business and increase your sales – social media can be a powerful tool to get you there!