Social Media Marketing for eCommerce Sites
Social media may be the last big development in the “Web 2.0″ era, and it may well be the only thing that transitions over into the new evolution of ecommerce marketing. With sites like Twitter rushing into the Web 3.0 craze, any online store owner would do well to learn how to properly leverage social media for marketing.
Social media takes “word of mouth” to a whole new level. Frequented by millions daily, these sites have the power to start a lovingly viral buzz or a damning firestorm of negative opinion about your store. Those who know how to market in this medium can sway the outcomes in their favor.
To get started, you should create a company account at Facebook, Twitter, and possibly Myspace. With Facebook, it would be best to create a fan page for your store and then a personal page for yourself. (This is where your hardcore loyal customers will find you.). You can market your page to all previous customers and offer special promotions here. It’s a great way to get people to share your information with others. Remember, the goal with these platforms is to get your name out there.
The next step up will be Twitter. This service will take more work to get followers, but could be well worth it, allowing you to blast out short and sweet updates to thousands of people at a time. One good method for getting more followers is to offer something of value to make people actually WANT to follow you. For instance, an e-commerce store selling soccer equipment may keep a live update of tweets covering soccer games all over the world. The purpose of the feed is to keep everyone up to date on happening in the soccer world, but in the end, nd you are occasionally marketing your store’s products.
Conclusion
Here’s a last thought. Be sure to research all the available social media sites and determine which one has the biggest concentration of potential customers. This could take a few hours or a few d,ays but can mean the difference between investing and wasting your time.