With the rising influence of social media on all spheres of our lives, brands that don’t utilize social networks for self – promotion will drop out of the game in no time.
Social networks provide availability, speed, and ease of use – everything that customers seek today. To make the most out of social media presence, business owners should develop a smart strategy for communicating their message via the most popular platforms.
The rise of social media and a new look at customer experience
Last year social networks scored $41 billion in advertising revenue and proved to significantly impact the customers’ perception of brands.
Shoppers who saw positive reviews on social media changed their minds about the products and more frequently proceeded to buy or interact with the brand otherwise.
There are several factors that make social networks a land of opportunity for marketers. People tend to check their social media feeds hourly (or even more often) so chances are high they will see your message. And because social media is all about interaction and sharing, it contributes to word of mouth marketing heavily, making your branding natural.
While 86% of people mute ads on TV or skip them, 90% of shoppers believe recommendations from friends. It’s important to remember though that WOMM is a passive form of marketing and you don’t persuade the user to engage with your brand. So the challenge is to be interesting and catchy enough to make people talk about you. And the best place for people to talk is, naturally, a social network.
As marketing drifts away from legacy ads, so do brands from the “world-famous” celebrities and lean towards micro-influencers that relate to real people. I.e. if you sell specific sports equipment, it would make sense to reach out to a fitness coach rather than pay a ton of cash to a celebrity athlete that is nowhere near your product.
The advertisement also changed from loud statements to “let me help you” approach. Think of various holiday campaigns under the “Get inspired” slogans. After the user sees a themed gallery on Pinterest or Instagram, for sure they will pay attention and probably save your products for later.
All these trends eventually lead to one main idea: social media will help you sell more if you play it right.
This year, there were approximately 1 billion active monthly users on Instagram, and, as per Omnicore Agency, 71% of all USA businesses have Instagram accounts. It’s clear that the platform is busy – but what about the benefits of Instagram?
The above-mentioned businesses would not be there if Instagram offered no options for selling. In addition to influencers and paid ads, Instagram recently introduced new shoppable features that perfectly blend with the user experience.
There are several features for businesses to try:
- Tagged products in regular posts
- Tagged products in Stories
- Shopping in the Explore Section
All of them work the same as other Instagram features: instead of tagging people, businesses can tag their products with short description and price. Upon tapping the shopping bag icon, the user will be redirected to the in-app page where he can purchase the product or read more about it.
The best thing about these features is that they will be seen by your target audience only. Meaning, if you are not a brand’s subscriber you won’t receive an advertisement straight in your face – but if you search for a product on purpose, you will be more likely to buy.
A common thing to remember is to keep the Instagram shop consistent in terms of style, colors, content, and posting frequency. It’s not enough to sync your profile with Facebook Store and tag products in all the posts. To sell on Instagram with Magento 2, you have to correspond to its very core, which is: have visually appealing content that people want to look at.
YouTube
Doritos Superbowl Commercial: which side are you on?
If you immediately thought of either Peter Dinklage or Morgan Freeman, congrats – you’ve fallen victim to a brilliant ad by Pepsi that totally won the hearts of millions of users worldwide, hit 10 million views, and became the most shared ad on social media.
While YouTube does not offer in-app selling as Instagram or Facebook do, it can help you create an incredible buzz around your brand, boost your word to mouth marketing efforts, and expand the audience reach significantly. The ad by Pepsi was featured in The Times, Business Insider, and Billboard – all thanks to the creativity behind it.
The phenomenon of viral ads is nothing new – they usually reach the highest peak during the holidays. Mothers day campaign, Valentine Day’s marketing campaigns – YouTube will give you dozens of creative videos for these searches. So for your e-commerce business, the approaching holidays are a great way to let people know about your brand, gain their interest, and arrange social advertising for your Magento store.
The user does not want to be pressed to buy – he wants to be entertained. This is the main point behind a killer YouTube ad.
Converting traffic is the Holy Grail for any marketer and Pinterest can help you boost it by 20% – 30% on average. This platform is perfect for inspiring people to buy from – if you apply the right strategy.
The research by Marketing Supply Co. states that Pinterest users browse the platform with an initial intent to buy and those shoppers who came from Pinterest spend 29% more than regular shoppers. So make the most out of the platform and inspire people by your brand and the lifestyle that you associate it with.
A few tips to grow your e-commerce business on Pinterest:
- Create an editorial calendar
- Create a secret board to store your pins for future posting
- Pay attention to your content: pin descriptions, boards names, etc.
- Reach out to the influencers and collaborate with them – you will get invited pin to major boards other people run
- Incorporate Pinterest buttons on your website
If you think your product is not appealing enough to be displayed on Pinterest, there is a rule that can help you. It states: your content should be composed of 50% repins, 25% of your own products and 25% of the products you see online and that correspond to your brand. This is not the ultimate ratio but rather a piece of advice in order to make your profile consistent and appealing.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook is dominating the social media platforms in terms of driving sales and has the highest conversion rate for all the social media e-commerce traffic. But, same as with other social platforms, your Facebook ads must look native and blend into the newsfeed of your customers.
One of the best-working strategies to make an app look native is to use real-life customer reviews in your ad. Shoppers tend to trust the opinions of influencers and peers more than they trust paid apps. So your task is to create an add that they would relate to rather than scroll down and skip.
Facebook also offers an option to create shoppable catalogs in product albums and companies use Messenger to interact with the shoppers and learn about their needs. Despite the false assumption that Facebook is slowly eliminating from the scene, it’s still a good place for e-commerce retailers to reach their audience.
What about shopping bots?
Facebook Messenger offers numerous ways to integrate shopping bots and to interact with the users on a more personal and efficient level.
To incorporate a shopping bot within your Messenger, you can either use ready services or DIY guides. Either way, it’s recommended to start with a simple bot that would perform one or two functions only, like handling order requests or booking. Once you get a grip on what the customers expect from your bot, you can make it more complex and responsive.
The use of Messenger bots already proved to be incredibly beneficial for the leading global companies, like Sephora or Lego. For example, the implementation of a chatbot resulted in 11% higher booking rate for Sephora and 71% lower cost per purchase for Lego. Chatbots, overall, increase the customer’s experience with a brand and serve as personal time-saving assistants.
How to sync your Magento store and social platforms
What makes Magento so awesome is the number and diversity of available extensions and plugins, including the social media ones. It’s not enough to just be present on social media but is also required to implement your profiles with your e-commerce store.
- The available social media plugins for Magento include:
- Social logins (Magestore, MiniOrange) for a one-click registration/login
- Social share buttons (AddThis) so your customers can share your products on their profiles
- Facebook Reviews (Amasty) to display the reviews on your product pages
- Facebook Store Connection for full store synchronization
- Instagram widgets to display your Instagram feed on your site
- Pinterest plugin to immediately add new pins and manage the store and profile
- YouTube plugin to display the videos on the store page.
Best Magento Social Media Extensions
You can always facilitate Magento out-of-the-box media opportunities with the help of various third-party extensions that are available on the AppExchange. The tools described below can be a helping hand for those entrepreneurs who want to master such a vital aspect of an e-commerce business as social media promotion.
Magestore Social Login for Magento 2
When creating a new account on an e-commerce website, a lot of information is required. This process can be frustrating for new customers who don’t want to waste their time filling all the fields and confirming their email address afterward. Given that most Internet users already have social accounts, why don’t you empower them to use these accounts to sign in to your store? With the Magestore Social Login extension for Magento 2, your customers just need to click on a Facebook or Twitter button and enter their credentials.
If the users are already signed in their account, the extension will automatically use the data from them to log in.
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AddThis
Do you want your audience to spread your content across different social networks? Of course, you do. So, you’ll need a special social media share button as an easy way for users to tell the web about the things they like. AddThis, being one of the most far-famed targeting tools, can make your website easily shareable by providing the connection with 200+ social platforms via “Share” and “Follow” buttons.
Not to worry, your audience won’t need to choose from a list of 200+ options when they are willing to tell something on their profiles. The point is that these buttons are auto-personalized. This means that the visitors will see only those social services that they are most likely to use.
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Facebook Reviews Extension by Amasty
People love to get feedback and enter into discussions. This Magento social media marketing integration can help entrepreneurs involve customers in their social activity and generate more content by providing shoppers with an opportunity to post comments and reviews using their Facebook accounts. As such, in order to share their opinion about a product, your visitors won’t need to look for your Facebook page, they can do it right from the product pages.
Moreover, users’ reviews are displayed directly on the Facebook account of your store which makes it more interactive.
Another great feature of this Magento Facebook integration is the ability to change the way the review block looks by modifying CSS.
Magento 2 Social Media Promotions by MageDelight
This extension is a complex solution that allows you to boost social media engagement. With this tool, your customer can share your products on various platforms such as WhatsApp, Pinterest, and Twitter. Moreover, you can integrate your online shop to Facebook seamlessly so that your buyers are able to complete their purchase right on Facebook itself.
Social Rebate
Do you know how to turn your customers into real brand advocates? This is exactly what Social Rebate offers. This module is not just another Magento 2 social media extension, it provides a creative approach to your marketing strategy. With this tool, during the checkout process, a customer gets the option to earn cashback if they post a promotional message in their social accounts: Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. As far as many users find the idea of saving money on shopping attractive, they will be happy to click on several buttons. The good news about Social Rabate is that the software is free of charge, you pay only for the result.
Facebook & Twitter Promo
With this Magento social marketing module, you can increase the number of your buyers, as well as followers. The main feature of the extension is offering discounts (promotional codes) to the users for following your company on Twitter and Facebook. You can configure the extension in such a way as to generate a unique coupon for every new follower.
The Facebook & Twitter Promo module for Magento 2 can generate banners with your own images and text that could be displayed on any page of your website to advertise the discount.
Instagram Widget by MageComp
This Instagram extension allows you to boost your sales and conversion, as well as keep your audience interested by displaying the Instagram gallery on any page of your store. You can easily adjust the photo slider right from your Magento admin panel and fine-tune them to meet your website’s design. As well, you may specify tags per product, assign a unique product ID to each hotspot for redirecting visitors to a particular product, and autoplay Instagram videos in a pop-up window.
In order to better analyze conversions via the Instagram extension, a UTM tracking code can be implemented to a product URL too.
Pinterest Product Share for Magento 2 by Webkul
This plugin is aimed at helping users share product images and descriptions from a Magento store on their Pinterest board. Once this feature is enabled from the admin backend, your website visitors will see a Pinterest icon on the catalog and product pages, so that they can pin product images with the item’s actual URL and description.
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Magento 2 YouTube Video Extension by Magefun
The main purpose of this plugin is to allow users to embed YouTube videos to any block of their Magento e-commerce store without deep knowledge of HTML. With this module, you can easily define the point from which a video starts, as well as set its width and height, enable and disable the fullscreen mode, and much more.
Don’t worry about slow performance. The plugin uses lazy loading in order to increase speed. This means that videos are not played until the user presses the “Play” button.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a real time-saver, a great Magento social media integration tool that will help you schedule, plan, and publish your posts so that you can build your brand more efficiently. Once the plugin is connected to your social media profiles on various social networks: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Plus, you get access to all the marketing tools the extension has. As such, you can create interactive posts for your connected social profiles, put together a posting schedule, make use of the curated content feature to never let your queue be empty, and use analytics to see what works.
SocialPilot is an indispensable tool that reduces your workload and saves you effort on social media.
Synchronization of your Magento store with your social media profiles allows you to save time on store updates, track customer activity, and store performance, and interact with the customers faster and better. Reach out to our dev agency and let’s talk about integrating your store with social media.