The Rise of Social Commerce

What Does It Mean for Your Business?

‘Social commerce’ is emerging as a combination of e-commerce and social media. It promotes social interaction and user engagement for buying and selling products and services. You can also define social commerce as using social media networks in the framework of e-commerce sales. In other words, social commerce is one of many channels that marketers have learned to tap into to bring in more sales from social media.

More marketers are turning to social commerce

In the past two years, social commerce referrals have risen by several million and the number of referrals continues to grow every day. Several brands have already taken advantage of social media giants Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook to promote themselves, gain a larger customer base, and gain shares and likes to grow even further.

Also in the past two years marketers have changed their investment focus to social with the objective of increasing their bottom line. What’s important to note here is that whatever type of social ad campaigns you elect to pursue, you should make sure that your platforms and campaign tools are synced in order to track interactions, revenue, and performance.

Through tracking and reporting, marketers will be able to tell where their budget is going and what investments in social commerce are paying off.

Use the right tools to get the right results

Generating social commerce focuses on discovering solutions that meet the needs of the consumer. It can assist brands in connecting with prospects so they can understand their needs and what drives them emotionally to do business with you.

Consider this: over 40% of B2B companies have found clients through Facebook. With these numbers on the rise, you may want to consider researching marketing automation tools to help you track, manage, and automate your social media marketing campaigns.

According to social media examiner, well over 50% of both Facebook and Twitter users are expected to recommend, share, and like a brand but, more importantly, are expected to buy through social media as well.

This means if you are not using social commerce in your business plan you run the risk of missing out on a huge chunk of potential revenue.

Of course, not every business will use every social media site. It all depends on your target audience and your brand’s personality. An agency may use LinkedIn to find more leads than say Facebook or Pinterest. Twitter is also great as a conversational platform for customers and is typically more heavily used by brands who are focused on B2C than B2B customers.

The revenue generated through social commerce could make a huge difference at the end of the year and greatly affect your bottom line.

Integrating social commerce with your store

When people are ready to buy a product or service, some people turn to social media for advice, product reviews, sales, and promotions to make a decision.

Your targets may view you as a popular and trendy business they can connect with online to feel comfortable making a purchase, knowing they can contact you with a click of a mouse and that you are accountable to your customers online.

Social media sites engage prospects and offer places for product reviews as well, so it’s a good idea to display as many of these reviews as you can. This gives off the impression that your company is transparent and honest in its dealings, and that you are accountable to your customers.

Something to Tweet About

Many marketers have already begun supplementing their revenue streams through social commerce. Integrating your business with social commerce helps give your brand a positive public image as long as you gain more likes and shares than negative comments – and monitor the situation.

Choose the right social media outlets and, if possible, integrate with your online store for even more impact.