Five Things Every E-Tailer Should Do On Social

By Lux Narayan, Unmetric

As online experiences continue to improve, consumers enjoy countless benefits: Endless browsing from the comfort of your bed, no teller lines (or judgment), easy returns, faster customer service…not to mention the efficiency of buying wellness products, electronics and food all in one place — a super store at your fingertips.

To compete, brands are shifting not only their marketing efforts, but also their entire business strategies. In exchange for the comfort and convenience of shopping without having to leave home, consumers are more willing to share information with brands through web sites, email and of course, social media.

Companies are using social media intelligence in increasingly intuitive ways, making sure they provide the best possible consumer experience, which in turn drives better engagement and more sales.

When it comes to social media, what can brands do with all this consumer information? Here are five things to focus on:

1. Personalization: Of all time spent on mobile devices, 64% is dominated by use of social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Engaging with consumers where they spend the most time makes sense. When consumers offer information about themselves on social media, they implicitly allow this information to be passed on to brands that can use this information to build a more personalized strategy to target and retarget their audience.  

2. Targeting: The most important disruption in social media was the shift from traditional, broadcast messaging to the interactive relationship between consumers and brands. In order to receive relevant messages, consumers relax their rules on personal information with brands. This way, make-up brands don’t spend money on a male demographic, or promote a sale in San Francisco to New Yorkers.

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest have deep, insightful analytics dashboards; with their ad platforms allowing paid micro targeting. A restaurant opening in downtown Dallas can pay to target only foodies in Dallas. A brand launching a new app can focus on particular devices and pay only for completed downloads. This kind of insight can drive not only marketing strategy but also a data-driven shift in business objectives itself.

3. Retargeting: The premise of retargeting is that if a consumer showed interest in a product but didn’t make a purchase, she is more likely to complete that purchase if reminded of that product at regular intervals. Sure, there’s a chance that she was just window-shopping and has no real intent to buy. However, other factors (e.g. cost, bad checkout process) may have stopped them from hitting the add-to-cart button.

While Google Display Ads take care of retargeting on the rest of the Internet, brands can use information from their web site and owned landing pages to retarget previous visitors via social media. For example, if someone visited your web site, didn’t make a purchase and then checked their social media, your retargeting ad campaign will show them your brand message, encourage brand recall and direct them back to your web site.

4. Customer service: Social media is a powerful customer service channel, especially for e-Commerce brands. Tech-savvy consumers that are comfortable enough to make purchases online are more likely to expect customer service through the same means. If consumers buy your product online, then retweeting their appreciation or addressing their grievance is, or should be, simple.

Many Fortune 500 companies have Twitter channels specifically for customer service. Some airline, telecom and insurance brands have entire teams dedicated for this purpose. E-Commerce brands, big and small, should take this responsibility equally seriously. Remember, social media is a great platform to promote brand advocacy and build a loyal fan base of customers who will spread your message for you.

Show your loyal fans, followers and subscribers some love in the form of added perks for interacting with your brand on social media and they will return the love. Also, be sure to keep tabs on how long it takes for you to reply on social. Having an overly long average reply time (ART) can hurt your brand.

5. Collect shopper insights: Social media can often be the harbinger of consumer trends. In the past, brands and agencies would run focus groups prior to launching an ad campaign or product. With social media, the world, or a select portion of it, is already conversing with your brand and providing live, unfiltered feedback. It’s no longer market research; it’s market reality.

Whether a product is suddenly gaining popularity, losing favor, or there’s just a trending hashtag your brand could leverage, social media offers unparalleled real-time market intelligence. So how does a brand sift through the terabytes of data, not only of their own performance on their multiple social media profiles, but also of their direct competitors and their audience?

Social media tools can help you listen to your audience (Radian6), keep an eye on the competition’s social media strategy (Unmetric), and even give you insights on what your target demographic is also interested in (Kenshoo Social), all combining to give you deeper, more meaningful and actionable insights to inform your marketing strategy and broader business plan.

Find out more about “progressive permissioning” — or how to ask customers or visitors for more data to help you personalize their experience more, in this interview with Bill Piwonka, Vice President Marketing at Janrain.

Social media is like your brand’s ear to the ground. If you’re not paying attention to the signals it’s sending you, you’re not going to be ahead of the competition and will just get lost in the stampede.