Social media is an effective ecommerce tool for businesses to connect with their target market and boost sales. However, there are several tactics that businesses need to avoid if they want to succeed at selling on social media. This article covers the importance of social commerce and the behaviors that companies need to abstain from when conducting business on social media.
Why sell on social media & what is social commerce?
Social media has become an integral part of people’s lives. According to studies, internet users spend, on average more than 2 hours on social media daily, while the global audience of social media platforms is expected to reach 4.4 billion by 2025. Such figures considered it makes sense for businesses to use them as a platform to sell their products or services.
Social commerce refers to the buying and selling of products directly through social media platforms. It allows businesses to reach these segments of their target audiences, who are active social media users. Social commerce includes various features such as shoppable posts, social media marketplaces, and ‘Shop’ buttons, which make it easier for businesses to sell on social media.
What you should never do on social media to raise your sales
While often overlooked, it is important to talk about practices that should be avoided when engaging in activities, including selling, on social media.
Focusing solely on sales
The biggest error companies make when selling on social media is concentrating just on sales. Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms are places where people go to socialize and engage with others, not only as a sales tool. Businesses risk losing their followers and potential consumers if they concentrate singularly on making sales and don’t interact with their audience. As a result, companies must balance their efforts to sell and interact with customers.
Ignoring customer feedback
With social media, businesses have a great opportunity to interact with their clientele and get valuable insights into their preferences, attitude, and interests. Neglecting client input may damage a company’s credibility and reputation. Regardless of the comments received from customers, negative or positive, businesses should always be ready to reply and engage in a conversation. This way, customers will feel valued, and businesses will be able to enhance their goods and services as a result.
Posting irrelevant content
Posting unrelated information may be quite discouraging to a brand’s followers. Businesses should provide material that is pertinent to both their audience and their brand. Another mistake is to make too many posts too often. Posting low-quality information frequently is never preferable to posting high-quality stuff seldom.
Missing on being mobile-friendly
The majority of people use mobile devices to access social media. As a result, it is crucial for companies to make their content enjoyable from mobile devices. This involves generating short-form texts and visuals that are easy to read and view on mobile devices, as well as leveraging the responsive design and optimized graphics.
Being too promotional
Appearing too promotional in its social media activity can potentially damage a company’s reputation on these platforms. Instead of simply marketing their goods or services, businesses should concentrate on developing long-term connections with their customers and giving them value. Offering useful knowledge and starting meaningful conversations on relevant subjects are some of the ways to add value.
Not engaging with influencers
Influencers who are active on social media and have accounts with a sizable follower audience can aid companies in expanding their customer base and boosting revenue. For enterprises, not interacting with influencers means missing out on opportunities to build social trust, which is quintessential for digital marketing in today’s world. This means that companies in all sectors should work with influencers to market their goods and services.
Overlooking analytics
It is crucial to make analytics a part of any social media development plan. It helps in monitoring and assessing an enterprise’s performance. If companies neglect analytics, they might not be able to figure out what social media tactics work best for them. Because of this, businesses need to regularly review their data and adjust their social media strategy accordingly.
Conclusion
Selling on social media can be a great way for businesses to increase their sales and reach their target audience. However, businesses need to avoid certain practices such as focusing only on selling, ignoring customer feedback, posting irrelevant content, overlooking analytics, ignoring mobile optimization, being too promotional, and not engaging with influencers.
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