Top 10 Tips on Social Media Content Management for eCommerce Businesses
With the growing need for businesses to have a strong presence on social media, rigorous social media and content marketing strategies are being deployed in almost every business. And eCommerce is no different. eCommerce companies are also realizing that in order to get ahead of the competition, they need to get online and start distributing good quality content. The struggle, usually, is getting their hands on content or creating the type of content that can make an impact on audiences and increase engagement.
Note: For additional tips, read “21 Social Media Management Tips for Winning Social Media Managers”.
We asked eCommerce business owners and social media managers for tips on proper content management for social media, and here is what they had to say:
“Save everything. If I come across an article or an image that would be great on one of my companies’ social media profiles, I save it immediately. There is so much content everywhere that I’d forget where I found something if I didn’t save it right away.” – Aryana Jaleh, Social Media Manager
You could do this with DrumUp’s content library. Never lose a post, never miss out on great content and valuable tips. Save all great social media content to your customizable content reserve.
“My tip is to schedule simple posts, like a quote or picture, every week. That way, you know something is always being posted, even if your client isn’t actively doing much at the moment.” – Anna Webb, Publicist at Kore PR
The content you share should really appeal to your audience, and for that, it is extremely important to know exactly who your target audience is. Once you know that, you can tailor your content according to what interests them the most. Just remember to maintain a balance. The posts you create shouldn’t be entirely promotional, but should also provide value.
“More than anything, know your audience. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on reach, if your message isn’t appealing to your demographic, you’re wasting your money. Know who you’re marketing to and only speak to them – alter your company’s voice.” – Kelsey Goeres, Social Media and Marketing Manager at MyCorporation.com
“Provide valuable, non-pitchy content – People [will] know if they’re trying to be sold to. Save the sales pitches for when you really have something to sell, and focus more on building a community. Post about something memorable that happened to an employee or the business. Think about the things that make you happy and want to continue talking with your friends or to keep coming back to a place of business. If your friend asked you to buy something from them every day, you’d get tired of that—and they may not be your friend for much longer. Same goes with social media.” – Sean Murphy, Marketing Director at Fleet Feet Chico
“Educate people about our industry. Instead of constantly pushing out our product and self serving our company, we post articles and content pieces that are relevant and interesting to our readers. We do this by trying our best to follow the 50/50 rule. With this rule, 50% of the content is ours, and the other 50% is from other sources. We interact, retweet, respond, and engage with the Twitter community as an attempt to spark ideas and conversation. Once people trust your brand and value what you have to say, the rest will fall into place. You need to establish credibility though, and the only way to do that is to serve as a source of education to people – not a sales pitch.” – Aria Solar, Inbound Marketing Coordinator at UrbanBound
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“As a eCommerce business owner social media plays a vital part to the success of my business. Trying to mange and juggle several social media accounts can get pretty hectic. Especially when I try to pick out different content for each type social media platforms. With experience I was able to implement a few social media strategy’s that helped me save time and money. I would recommend every eCommerce business owner to use a third party app/software to manage all of their social media accounts on one platform. Most third party apps will have the capability to set up a weekly content schedule so it can help minimize the time you spend on sharing excellent content.” – Lisa Chu, eCommerce Business Owner, BlacknBianco
An app to manage social media could make life much easier for anyone trying to tackle multiple social accounts at once. DrumUp can help you discover awesome content that is relevant to your business and it also lets you schedule your posts ahead of time. You can add multiple accounts on the DrumUp dashboard, and publish content on a regular basis to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages.
“Don’t be afraid to use the same content more than once. If it worked once, use it again. This is more true on some social media sites than others. For Twitter, for instance, re-using content is not a problem whereas on Facebook it might not be as good of an idea. A great holiday post can be recycled next year. A tweet that was effective can be used many times over until it produces diminishing engagement.” – Bob Bentz, President of ATS Mobile
“Find the channel that works for you and focus your energy there. You don’t need to be on Twitter AND Facebook AND Instagram AND Pinterest if your customers are not there!” – Jennie Cook, Social Media Manager at CWDKids
“Hashtags Are Your Friend: Using the right hashtags on platforms like Instagram can expose you to hundreds of new followers who are interested in these topics. While broader hashtags (#fashion) will get you more likes, more targeted hashtags (#newfallfashion) will result in a greater impact on your business.
Curate Content for Each Platform: While there’s a great temptation to re-use the same content across social media platforms, resist the urge. Instead, find content that’s appropriate for the voice of each platform – Instagram posts and Twitter posts, for example, are very different.” – Marta, Co-Founder of DoseNYC
Visuals attract attention. You don’t need us to tell you that. People respond better to visual content than a plain ol’ block of text. Mix it up and publish images, infographics or videos.
“Use visual elements like an image or video to catch your audience’s attention. The human eye recognizes pictures faster than words, meaning the right image can pique your customers’ interest and draw them into the content. At Company Folders, we’ve found that images with bright, warm colors tend to perform better because they create a sense of urgency. Just make sure your visual is appropriate; some sites, like Facebook, have strict rules about the images you’re allowed to post and promote.” – Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of CompanyFolders.com
A quick summary of the top 10 tips suggested by our expert contributors for eCommerce social media content management:
1. Save good content for future use
2. Schedule simple posts like quotes or images for each week so you’re covered even if nothing else is going out that week
3. Know your audience. If you don’t your efforts are worthless
4. Share useful, non-promotional stuff in addition to official, commercial content
5. Inform people about your industry and try to balance 50% of your content with 50% great content from other sources
6. Use a 3rd party social media management app to help manage your social accounts and save time
7. Don’t shy away from using the same content again if it has worked before
8. Find the social media platform that works best for your brand and focus resources there. Don’t spread yourself too thin
9. Identify and use targeted hashtags for better discover-ability
10. Use eye-catching visuals to catch your viewers attention
5 interesting facts that you didn’t know about social media eCommerce that can help you manage your content better:
Source: (ReadyCloud)
1. Facebook is the top social media site driving traffic to online retailers
Facebook is responsible for driving about 60% of the traffic driven by all social media platforms. You can leverage this knowledge by choosing a social media dashboard that lets you manage Facebook content and paying special attention to the content that goes up on your Facebook page.
2. According to a study, satisfied customers usually share their experience with about 9 other people while dissatisfied customers share it with over 22 people
You have to monitor your brand on social media to ensure that you are instantly responding to customers who have had a negative experience, so you can resolve their issue before it affects your brand. You can also encourage people who have had a good experience to talk about it by catching their positive mentions and thanking them for it.
3. Half of social media driven purchasing occurs within a week of posting, linking or commenting about a product
You need to post compelling content on your social media pages on a frequent basis, so you can remain at the top of your target audience members’ minds. It is also useful to track prospect social media fans, check if they are converting and provide them with the necessary push if they aren’t. Social media lead gen tools can help with the process.
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4. 44% of online shopping begins with a search engine
Search engine optimization is just as necessary for your business as social media optimization is. Ensure that your blog and social media pages rank for the right keywords to drive a steady stream of traffic back to your website.
Also make sure to add relevant links back to your website on your social media posts and in your social media page description. It is always good to include the exact link to the page your are talking about on your posts to save people from the effort of having to navigate to it themselves (which they are not likely to do).
5. Existing customers are 60-70% more likely to convert
You can make the most of this tactic by convincing existing customers to subscribe to your newsletter or follow your social media pages, so you can keep the communication lines open with them. Include social media follow and share plugins on your webpages, blog pages and newsletters so it becomes easy for your customers to connect with you socially.
There are multiple ways of managing your content for social media. You just have to step on to the playing field and experiment with things. Once you figure out a strategy that works for you, stick with it. Although it has become much easier nowadays to find an audience and interact with it, you still need smart content to grab their attention, and the right tools for managing your content.
Note: This article was first published on Dec 3, 2015 and has since been updated with additional information.
Image Credit: Designed by Freepik
