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Social Media Ecommerce: SMM Management for Online Stores

Apr 30, 2014 4 min read 174 views
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Social Media Ecommerce: SMM Management for Online Stores

There are a lot of different technologies used to optimize Magento ® web stores. Let us review what SMM web store management is and what its basics in the internet industry and online commerce are.

Basic principles of SMM or social media ecommerce are as follows:

  • Create an information flow (a blog, Google Plus, FaceBook, Twitter accounts).
  • Notice the users of this information flow (customers and potential customers).
  • Maintain the information flow (regularly add new data).
  • The data should contain the information about your company, your products, special offers, etc. This will enlarge the circle of users and attract the attention of potential customers.
  • Profit from sales, visits volume, PR values.

social media ecommerce ideas

There are various approaches. Having thoroughly analyzed some of them we offer our readers the most effective and productive methods:

1. Use social networks (any network available – Google Plus, Twitter, Tmblr, FaceBook, etc.) to publish posts not only about your company or new products but also to add the information that your readers would like to know. Put yourself in your customers’ and subscribers’ place and think of everything you would like to know about a web store you visit. You may even include some funny stories from your company’s daily work, the main thing is to attract people’s attention.

HOT TIP:  Avoid being focused only on yourself on your social media marketing strategies.  In fact, as you share what other people are doing you are more inclined to cause a stir of interest not only from other people that see you as more than a one-man-band but also from the person for whom you are sharing their content on your stream and their associated followers.

2. Constantly analyze the efficiency of the social network optimization compared to other advertising methods, e.g. the number of clicks from search results, context ads or SEO. It is more convenient to do that once in a certain period of time, say 1 month or a week, although 7 days would not be enough for precise analysis of the SMM efficiency.

HOT TIP:  While it is important to understand how these various marketing strategies are affecting your ability to build a targeted audience, working them in unison as a marketing strategy is much more effective than targeting a single focus to push all your focus toward.

3. The frequency of your page or blog updating is very important. This means that you need to post new information as often as possible. Of course, you need to make sure that your information is interesting to customers and they will read it. There will not be any use if you create 20 posts per one day with the data that are not interesting to customers, they may simply wish to unsubscribe in that case. But creating one post a week is not a good solution either. The best variant would be creating one post per day. There may be exceptions, of course, depending on the situation, but generally, this will be enough to maintain users interested in your store.

HOT TIP:  Keyword research is an excellent way of determining what your audience will be interested in reading about.  You can also use the Google console to see how people are finding your website.  Targeting ideal keywords with new content is highly recommended.  When all else fails, do a Google about a keyword or topic that you want to write about, scroll to the bottom and look at the questions in blue that are being displayed by Google itself.  All of these activities will help in creating your social media ecommerce strategy.

4. Do not try to make the following in Twitter more times than the number of your account’s subscribers is. Otherwise, search engines will consider your site (blog or account) as an optimization tool and will lower your ratings.  Keeping everything strategically balanced breeds great success in all aspects of Google.

5. Once you have created a community on the social network, show your subscribers that you value them. Take part in discussions and comments, put marks on the messages or images posted by the community members.

HOT TOP:  The more engaged you are with your followers the more they will be engaged with you and your brand as you build your momentum forward.  This is called the power of reciprocity, and it works.

6. Use your community to resolve problems that may occur with your product or service. Discuss different variants of usage presenting live examples. Do not include abstract phrases describing your product (like a booklet) – this is not interesting to people. Ask and answer, help people to find the easiest way out, even if it is not so profitable for you. This will gain you customers’ trust.

HOT TIP:  If major events happen within your eCommerce store you can use your social media accounts to update your followers.  This could include unexpected outages or special events that they will want to know about.

7. Motivate your readers, hold competitions and sales, offer discounts to your subscribers.  Other ways of increasing engagement would be to have giveaways or hold contests.  Make sure that whatever you do it is perceived as a great value in the eyes of your viewers and a nice buzz will be found as your result.

8. Keep all personal information to yourself. Personality is needed in a blog, but only on a professional level. Stay behind the scene.

An exception to this is if you are building around a given persona with your eCommerce business you can build character into that persona.  Just be sure to remain focused on whatever the core mission of your Magento site is designed to target.  In this way, it is absolutely possible to have great fun with the character development in the process.

9. Remember that Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook and other services are not your only marketing strategy, these are only the tools to create your community.  Including thoughts from these profiles in conjunction with blog posts, video creations, images created and more builds a firm foundation for your projects future success.

10. Use Facebook and other social media accounts to learn more about your potential customers. Ask how they learned about you or your company, let them tell what attracted them to your product or store.  Find out what is important to them as it relates to your niche.  The more time you spend on developing a solid relationship with your targeted followers the more time they will take in purchasing products from your storefront.

11. Enable social buttons ‘like’, ‘follow’, ‘share’ and include links to all your sites, emails, and posts.  The more time you take to ensure that people can get around to your various properties the greater the possibility that they will do exactly that.

HOT TIP:  We do not recommend sharing the icons to your social media properties from the top of your e-commerce store.  Doing so can lead people away from your site before they have had the opportunity to check things out.  That’s why we recommend providing your social media links within the footer of your storefront.

Following this strategy, you will soon notice that your SMM web store marketing is giving good results, that your conversion and the number of visits grow. If you would like to learn more details or have any questions, please address your question to GoMage specialists in comments to this article.

Also please check the modules for Magento ® which will help you to increase sales on your Magento ® store.

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