As an eSeller, you’re always looking for ways to maximize your marketing dollars. Social media can provide a powerful return on investment for eSellers looking to leverage the latest platforms, techniques and strategies.
In order to optimize your ROI from social media, it’s essential to focus on your customers and potential customers. Knowing what they want and need is the best approach, according to Gavin Hammar, founder and CEO of Sendible.com, a social media management platform. Sendible helps small businesses connect with customers across social media and other platforms.
Below, Gavin Hammar shares some insights into the top social media best practices for eSellers in 2019.
It’s only been about 15 years since Facebook was introduced. In the years since, Twitter, Instagram, Baidu Tieba, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, Yelp, WeChat, WhatsApp and LinkedIn have also emerged and become major social media players. At the same time, countless others have come and gone.
For eSellers, it’s best to understand the markets, purpose and scope of platforms and find those that are best suited for your brands. It’s also important to be up to speed on some of the issues facing different platforms.
Hammar notes that the ongoing privacy issues with Facebook and changes in how the platform connects companies to customers are problematic for some businesses.
Brands want their messages to be organic and reflective of the brand’s ethos. With platforms such as Twitter, for example, that becomes more difficult, Hammar says. Twitter no longer allows users to post duplicate content, forcing brands to devote more time to creating unique content.
At Sendible, Hammar and his colleagues have a saying: Stop interrupting what people are interested in and actually be what they’re interested in. For brands, that means being what your customers care about, not what your products or services are, he says.
Using storytelling techniques helps businesses build a social following. Those stories need to help create a mindset about your business and deliver content that matters. Hammar suggests starting by talking about a challenge the company has faced and why that challenge is important. Explaining how your company overcame that challenge and leading to a call to action becomes a compelling way to build a following, measured in engagements, shares and views.
Hammar advocates that brands focus on delivering high-value content. Providing content that your audience is looking for establishes your brand as trustworthy and closely aligned with their values. Taking customers along this journey allows brands, over time, to deliver more specific and detailed content, driving those customers closer to completing a purchase and remaining loyal.
The process is not about hitting them over the head with specific information about your products or services. That comes later in the journey. Broader, rich and informative content on social media is the place to start. Eventually, you can provide more specificity and advantages to choosing your company.
Think about how much information about your brand is available. Potential customers can go online and, with a few keystrokes, discover star ratings, reviews and comments. This information offers those prospects a rich and detailed picture of how your brand relates to its customers.
That’s why social listening is so critical, Hammar says. Prospects are going to be greatly influenced by what they see about you online. A strong social listening strategy lets you understand what others say about your products, services, experiences and interactions.
Listening affords you other opportunities as well. You can respond where appropriate. How you react to and respond to social feedback also shapes how your brand is perceived.
Comments and reviews also are a tremendous opportunity. Reaching out to your best customers and asking them to share their opinion of your business influences search engine results and click-throughs from review sites.
Hammar is a proponent of snackable content. Sharing a morsel of content about the brand can whet readers’ appetite for longer, more detailed content. Giving prospective clients a taste of what your brand stands for with catchy and compelling information that evokes an emotional reaction is a great way to build relationships, Hammar says.
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