Before you can begin thinking about incorporating direct shopping into your social media platforms, you need to focus on creating a brand image. If your brand is confused or non-existent, how do you expect people to want to purchase from your social media sites?
There are a number of important pieces of advice to follow when it comes to building a strong brand via social media. From using SERP API to having a consistent voice, this includes the following…
- Be on the right social media platforms – The first step is to make sure you are present on the right social media platforms to begin with. Did you know that there are currently are over 100 social media websites? You can’t advertise on all of them! The best thing to do is choose a couple of platforms and focus all of your efforts onto those. It’s better to perfect your craft than to try and be a jack-of-all-trades. If you build a presence on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+, yet you don’t have the time to manage all of these accounts effectively, you’re going to have an ineffective presence across the board. Instead, you need to conduct research to determine where your target consumer base is. Facebook is the only site that really appeals across the board. Instagram is an image-led site, whereas Pinterest is proven to be popular with females of college age predominantly. LinkedIn is for professionals. Where are your consumers going to be?
- Be consistent across all of your social media platforms – Consistency is key. If your voice and presence on Facebook is completely contrasting to how you approach your Instagram and Twitter accounts, you are only going to leave people feeling confused. This will dilute your brand identity.
- Get the visuals right – Visuals also play a critical role when it comes to social media branding. This again goes back to consistency. If your social media pages look like they belong to different brands, this is going to create a disconnect. When someone looks at your pages, they should instantly recognise your brand.
- Develop your voice – The final piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting started with the branding of your business via social media is to develop your voice. To determine what your voice should be, there are numerous elements to consider, including your company culture, your audience, and authenticity. You’re not going to be able to keep up your social media posts if they’re not authentic to your brand!
Make social posts and grow an organic audience
Building a social audience gives you advertising your don’t have to pay for. However, you are only going to achieve this if you post in the correct manner; in a way that engages with people and is authentic. You can’t fake it to the top by purchasing social media followers or automating 100 per cent of your posts. You must add a personal touch.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to using social media for their ecommerce brand is simply posting an endless stream of promotional products. You’re simply going to come across as a spam account. Instead, you need to engage with people and post about topics relating to your brand. This will help you to build a loyal following.
If you receive negative feedback, you can also use this as an opportunity. Engage with this person and figure out how you can do better. Make an effort to show your brand as one that always strives to achieve more and deliver to its customers. Not only can this grow your organic audience, but it can create some loyal followers too.
Another way to boost your brand with a clever yet organic post is to run a competition. These sorts of posts are effective across all platforms. It will generally involve people re-posting, re-tweeting, or sharing your original post in order to enter the competition. You can ask them to comment on the post and use a particular hashtag too. The winner will then get a prize of your choosing, for example, it could be one of your products or a voucher for your store. This is a great way to generate free advertising because anyone who enters is going to be showing of your brand to all of their followers too. It will give your search engine ranking a good boost as well.
