Merchants using an ecommerce platform can easily implement social selling into their 2022 strategy. Over the last year, social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook opened up further with their marketplaces (e.g. Facebook Shops) to easily engage, entertain and sell. And as the pandemic directed all of us online more often than not, it makes sense to integrate social into your 2022 retail strategy — ensuring you reach more customers with the demographics you are seeking, all while reinforcing your brand online and increasing sales.
We can leave out LinkedIn (best for business networking) and Twitter, which is great for shoutouts. Let’s look at Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, which are built for immediate customer engagement and getting customers to your shop quickly and easily. Once considered a want-to-have, social selling on these platforms was a need-to-have for 2021. Here are just a few reasons why:
Instagram:
- Has over one billion active monthly users
- 80% of its users follow a business on Instagram
- Video content is effective in attracting and engaging customers, leading them to convert. In fact, “85% of consumers between the ages of 18-34 report they’ve purchased a product or service after viewing a video” according to Brightcove
Facebook:
Advertisement
- Has 2.74 billion monthly active users
- Is the world’s third-most visited website
- Represents the largest demographic of 25 to 34-year-olds, who are also the largest spenders
Snapchat:
- As of Q2 2021 the platform boasted 293 million daily active users worldwide, according to Statista
- With a majority of its audience being Gen Z, this social platform provides an opportunity to open up to a new audience
- Calls for unique and creative strategies — like “snaption” contests — where users create a theme to get followers to share their story about your product or shop
Instagram, a Key Advertising Tool
With Instagram, users upload photos, apply filters, add captions and share them with their “followers” or the entire Instagram network. This platform (among the others) serves as an additional touch point to engage with consumers and products with Instagram Ads. Because Instagram is a part of Facebook, all advertising is managed in your Facebook Business Manager account. A few ideas for advertising on Instagram Ads include sponsored posts, which is native advertising, and tagging products in posts.
Facebook’s Integral Role in Social Selling
As the largest social media site in the world, Facebook offers many advertising possibilities. With Facebook Shops, direct-to-consumer brands can create their own digital storefront and offer personalized content to customers. With Facebook Messenger, shops can connect with customers on a 1:1 basis. For a more personalized experience, Facebook Shops provides photos and videos to better showcase products. On the other hand, Facebook Messenger allows a 1:1 communication between shoppers and retailers to answer questions in real time — to better engage with customers — encouraging more sales.
You can build a single unified shop presence across both the Facebook and Instagram family of apps and services (Facebook Ads, Stories, Instagram Direct, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.) to reach billions of potential customers.
Snapchat: a Surprising Player
Advertising on Snapchat comes in various forms, including small videos that will appear between Stories or filters with logos. Whether it is Snapd, Collection Ads, Story Ads or using filters, Snapchat offers different options. Note that placement of the ads is key. You can decide to publish them anywhere on the app, using the filter based on context, and exclude or select exactly where the ad will be shown. You can also create dynamic product ads. Product ads are shoppable formats designed to showcase the products, services or experiences you sell online. Note that these can be in the same formats as Story Ads, Snaps and Collection Ads.
Overall, you should prepare your profiles, home in on your audiences, staff up to respond to inquiries, plan and schedule in advance to take advantage of the analytics each platform offers. Remember, social will help spread the word with flash sales, exclusive and targeted offers; enable you to integrate video to engage customers; and integrate user-generated content (Have your fans speak for you!) into your campaigns. So go crazy on the hashtags (no one will judge), and most importantly create a faster and simpler buying experience for customers. If you left social behind in the past, you can integrate it in no time for 2022 for your most successful year ever!
Rob Van Nuenen is the CEO at Channable, a leading global ecommerce platform provider for digital marketers, brands and online retailers.
