How to Grow Your Brand’s Social Media for Ecommerce

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It's no secret social media can be a powerful marketing tool. Each month Facebook andInstagramtogether host over 3 billion active users (yes, BILLIONS). The capability to reach a large audience on these social platforms offers great opportunities for brands to connect with current and potential customers, grow their brand awareness, and market their products in a fun and interactive way. This is especially useful as ecommerce sales have grown immensely in recent years.

In 2020 alone, US ecommerce grew by 44%, which is the highest it has been in two decades! As the number of people shopping online and connecting virtually through social media increases, you should take full advantage and utilize social media as a growth tactic of your own.

Social media is a great outlet for you to give consumers a sense of your brand personality while also sharing your company's "why." Through meaningful content shared on the platforms, individuals are able to connect with your brand on a more intimate level, becoming more attached in the process.

As Facebook and Instagram are two of the most popular platforms for brands to connect with consumers, this blog post will focus on these two.

How to Organically Grow Your Instagram and Facebook

When growing your social media presence, you have two primary routes: paid ads or organically. For this post, we will keep our focus on organic growth.

The best ways to organically grow your social media following are through posting regularly, engaging with users, and networking with other accounts.

Post Regularly

One of the best ways you can grow your social channels is through posting. The type of content you can share will depend on the social channel you are on.

On Facebook, users can share status updates, photos, videos, reshare other's content, and post Instagram-like stories. The variety of sharable content allows brands to reach their target audience in whatever fashion best suited for them. Also, Facebook messaging allows brands to efficiently reply to consumer questions/concerns in a timely and personable manner. Through a humanistic social strategy, brands can position themselves as more than just products; rather, as a community of like-minded individuals with similar interests.

Instagram offers a more aesthetically focused and photo-centered experience than its counterpart, Facebook. On this platform, users can share main feed posts, stories, IGTVs, and reels (which are short videos similar to TikToks). Main feed posts can contain up to 10 photos and/or videos and populate both on user's personal pages as well as on the main feed that pops up when one first opens the app.

Stories offer similar content capabilities as main posts, but are short snippets that each last 10 seconds. They are available for 24 hours and can be found at the top of the main feed and on user's profiles. IGTVs are longer videos (1 minute to 10 minutes in length) users can share on Instagram's main app and also on the IGTV app. They are full-screen experiences and provide opportunities for users to share more compelling and informative information than a traditional post would allow for.

Reels are shorter videos, very similar to TikToks, and populate on Instagram's Reel feed.

Engage with Your Followers

Both Facebook and Instagram work the same with user engagement - the more you get an individual to engage with your content, the more the algorithm is likely to push your content to their feeds. Whether or not a user is going to engage with your content is driven by their interest in what you are sharing, the quality of your content, and their attraction to your brand. To increase their likelihood of engaging, it is vital you only share high-quality content that is well-aligned with your brand and your followers.

Another way to increase follower engagement is through your own engagement with them. If followers comment on your post, tag you in a story, or send you a direct message, reply! Through this genuine connection, the user that you interact with is going to feel appreciated and seen (which increases their emotional tie to your brand), and others notice the interaction as well!

A great example of a brand that does this well is Warby Parker.From their eyeglass-centered feed to their consistent blue branding, they have crafted their Instagram page extremely well. There is no question about who they are, what they support, and the type of community they are cultivating within their feed. The company also does a great job interacting with followers. If you scroll through their photos, you will notice they consistently reply to and like user comments in a way that is both informative and playful (which further reinforces the type of brand they want to portray themselves as).

Network with Other Accounts

Another proven way to grow your brand's social media presence is through networking. This can be with both other brands as well as other large accounts like blogs, websites, magazines, etc. Networking with these types of accounts allows you to connect with each other's followers, in turn growing both of your bases.

Networking is an authentic approach to organic social growth, and it works best when you network with accounts that have similar target demographics. If your audiences share similarities, the chance that they would be interested in the content shared is high. So, through networking, not only are you growing your following, but you providing additional value to your audience by connecting individuals to brands and accounts they could genuinely enjoy.

Best Practices to Organically Grow Your Social Media

Be Personable

Social media is a place of entertainment. Users log on to be entertained, learn, and find new people, brands, hobbies, etc. In order to capture your audience and grow it, you must continually entertain them. A great way to do this is by being personable.

Understanding your buyer personas and who is interested in your brand is a large part of this. You need to know who they are in order to respond with the charisma, humor, and personality that will resonate with them.

Once you figure this out, craft your posts to fit them. If your target demographic is young and trendy, consider hopping on some of the trends and jargon used on TikTok! If your target demographic is middle-aged professionals, consider more informative, yet fun content. Being perceived as personable will depend on to whom you are talking, so it is vital you understand your audience.

Be Consistent

In the social media realm, consistency is key. Consistently showing up on your followers' feeds increases the likelihood of them engaging with your content, thus signaling Instagram and Facebook's algorithms to push your content more to them. There is a fine line to walk with this strategy, though, as posting too much may annoy followers and can lead to an unfollow.

When scheduling posts for our social media marketing partners, we schedule three posts per week at various times. These times are set depending on follower activity and when they are more likely to interact with the type of content being shared. Spacing posts out this way keeps your posts on the forefront of their feed without bombarding them with content.

Be Professional

While scheduling posts for your brand's social channels, it is important to keep your brand personality in the forefront of your mind. What may seem fun and exciting for one brand may be completely unprofessional for another. Understanding the necessary tone for your posts helps to ensure that you are viewed in the desired manner.

When posting, it is important that you are only sharing high-quality content - both in the photo/video content and in the caption copy. Content that is clear, well-lit, and thoughtful communicates your commitment to quality to your audience. If they see content online that is high-quality, they will relate this to your products/services as well.

Be Contextual

As social media updates by the millisecond, it is important to be contextual. In other words, you must understand the social setting. Engaging with contemporary events, whether that be holidays, season changes, or major news events communicates to your audience that you are keeping up with the ever-changing social setting that we find ourselves in.

How to Combine Social Media with Amazon

Connecting your social media strategy to your Amazon listing can be extremely beneficial in driving Amazon sales and awareness. There are various ways to do so, each having their own benefits.

Publish to Amazon Posts

For those brands selling on Amazon, utilizing Amazon Posts can be a great way to market products on the marketplace. For an in-depth look at why you should be using Amazon Posts, check out this blog post!

Combining these two marketing tactics gives you the opportunity to create a unified strategy across multiple channels, further enforcing the brand personality you are trying to push. When users look at your Instagram vs your Amazon Posts they will see the same type of content, further engraining exactly who you are and what you stand for.

Linktree

Adding a Linktreeto your Instagram or Facebook bio can be a great way to increase exposure to your listings. With Linktree, you can link to your Amazon store and other relevant sites that your followers may find helpful.

When you post on Instagram or Facebook, mention your Linktree to push attention to the various links hosted on the page, thus increasing awareness.

Share Links to Amazon

Sharing links directly to your Amazon listing on social media is also a great way to connect your social strategy to your sales strategy. By clicking the link you share, followers go directly to your listing instead of searching for your products and possibly getting distracted on Amazon's SERP.

When scheduling posts that directly link to your Amazon listing, consider how often you do so. Posting direct links too frequently can make your posts feel more like an ad disguised as a post. Social is a channel all about trust and creating awareness, so keep this in mind.

Learn About More Amazon Marketing Tools

Social media can be a great tool for brands of all kinds and sizes. If you don't know how or where to start, feel free to reach out to us! Kaspien offers social media marketing partnerships personally tailored by our team to best fit you and your needs. Whether you need help managing your channels, finding influencers, running ads, or anything in between, we are here for you. Reach outto our team today to get started!

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