Having a presence on Social Media is no longer a debatable issue, but a given for all brands, no matter the business model or industry. In this article, we’ll show you 3 major benefits of using social media and how it can transform your eCommerce business.

The opportunities are endless, which can make opening a business profile on social media daunting. This is why we focused on the most important steps you need to take in order to reap the benefits of digital communities and being present online in this shape and form.

The definition of brand awareness has changed in 2021

Brand awareness is important for businesses across the board, no matter how strong their presence on the market may be. It goes beyond customers recognizing your products on the shelves. Nowadays, brand awareness means making sure that your customers identify with your brand.

People want to be reflected in the brands they consume and more importantly, they want the brands to align themselves with their values and beliefs. The time of brands being apolitical and silent on social issues is behind us and this is where social media shines.

It allows brands and their audience to communicate directly, in real-time, without third-party involvement. Brands no longer sell products, they sell lifestyles, and the people that have those lifestyles or aspire to them, want brands to use their influence and speak up when an injustice is brought to light.

Social media helps brands craft their stories and give a new level to storytelling. Brands can show all the behind-the-scenes processes and explain how they acquire materials, test services, and give back to their communities. Opening up about the processes that your audiences weren’t privy to before has become the new norm.

Seeing how brand awareness entails a lengthy and consistent process, social media is a great platform for building awareness with your audience. Post about your products and services on multiple channels and reach a wider audience all while building on your previous posts, shaping a narrative about your brand.

For an even greater impact, you can try your hand in influencer marketing. Influencers can help you reach different audiences, who aren’t necessarily wide but more narrowed in around your industry and type of products, which is a big win for any brand.

Low investments can get you a quick increase in revenue

Billboards, TV commercials and PR articles are still very expensive, all while not providing you with any type of feedback on how many people saw or interacted with your ad. Furthermore, with those types of ads, you don’t get to pick and choose who sees them, so there is no way to zero in on your potential customers.

These are the core advantages of social media advertising, but the biggest advantage may be the low cost of doing it on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. With ads allowing you to target people based on their location, age, education, interests, lifestyle, shopping habits and even the device they use to access social media, this type of advertising has quickly become the marketers’ favourite.

When a campaign comes to an end, you can analyze it and see who engaged with it the most and customize your buyer persona based on those results. Monitoring Facebook ads comments can give you an insight into what objections users have about your products while a timely response to them can save your brand’s face and spark engagement.

Moving away from native ads, social media also has integrated stores where you can sell your products directly. With Instagram check out and Facebook shop, you can list products for sale, sell them directly and manage your shipping.

The whole process makes it easy for people to discover your brand and complete purchases, all on one platform. That is a huge advantage of social media stores since you’re going to your clients, instead of them having to go to you.

During the pandemic, the global social commerce market estimated an increase at a rate of 31,4%, and we believe it will only continue to grow. A great tip is to personalize the experience by using custom fonts, colours, and chatbots.

Make the experience easy and simple and include frequently asked questions about your products, payment services, and shipment in your product descriptions.

Customer service your customers won’t hate

Social media has revolutionized customer service since it gave customers a direct line of communication with brands, as well as a platform for them to air their grievances publicly, knowing it will get them results quicker.

Using sentiment analysis, you can investigate the attitude towards your brand on social media. By gathering the mentions of your business online and looking at drops in sentiment, you can quickly respond to any possible crises.

Seeing how people expect brands’ social media to function as a platform for customer service, you have to make sure to provide them with a positive experience. Make sure to answer their questions in a timely manner, which can be helped by using automation tools.

If you get the same type of questions a lot, include the answer to them in your automated responses. You can even go a step further, and create a FAQ page that answers all inquiries in detail.

Aside from speed, the second most important thing is the end result. Make sure your customer support team has access to your social media so that they can provide your audience with real answers, instead of your social media team referring them to a phone number, or an email address.

Your customer support on social media doesn’t stop at private messages. You should also answer all your public mentions – the positive and negative ones. This practice may seem tedious, but research shows that when companies engage and respond to their audience on social media, that translates into customers spending 20% to 40% more with the company.

Since quality customer support has such a great impact on your audience, it’s only natural that you should invest in this department and coach them on how to best handle different situations they may encounter.

The last piece of advice is to bring your personality into it. Don’t be afraid to stray from the usual cookie-cutter responses and add a bit of warmth into your communication with the audience.

Conclusion

Social media opened up a lot of possibilities for brands to connect with their audience and it would be a shame to waste them. Seeing how a large number of people already use those platforms, it is only natural that you would post content there and promote your brand.

Creating a loyal fan base, spreading awareness about your brand and increasing revenue are all attainable goals social media can help you achieve.

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