The Ultimate eCommerce Social Media Marketing Guide

I'm sure you've heard this tip multiple times, but let me remind you again about what it means.

To make it easier to digest, I'll include examples.

Specific

Don't set goals that are so broad. Be clear about what you want to achieve to avoid misdirection.

Example:

✅"I want to increase my followers on Instagram."

❌ "I want more followers."

Measurable

Make your goals measurable to see if you're achieving them.

Example:

✅ "I want to increase my followers by 50%."

❌ "I want to increase my followers."

Attainable

These are realistic goals that you can achieve.

Example:

✅ "I want to gain 1,000 followers in 2 months."

❌ "I want to gain 10,000 followers in 20 minutes!"

Relevant

Your goals should be relevant to your business. This will avoid making impractical choices.

Example:

✅ "I want to gain more Facebook followers." is a relevant goal because it can increase your brand awareness.

❌ "I want to decrease the bounce rate of my website." isn't really relevant because it goes beyond social media marketing. Maybe, you need a website optimization.

Time-bound

How long do you think it will take you to achieve your goal? Set a time.

Example:

✅"I want to reach 1,000 unique accounts on Instagram by the end of the month."

❌ "I want to reach 1,000 followers!"

Remember, in every goal you set... make sure they're SMART!

But if you have no idea yet what goals to set... I got you covered! 😉

Social Media Marketing has a lot of use. But as I said, you should be specific with your goals.

That's why I will show some social media goals you can set when planning your social media marketing strategy.

So, what are the examples of these?

1. Generate Leads

Lead generation is one of the most usual digital marketing strategies.

And social media can also help you with that. You can create content that indicates the benefits of your products or services, then urge them to sign up for your offers.

But don't forget... not everyone who visits your social media page the first time will immediately sign up.

There are different stages of a buyer's journey. You need to create a social media content strategy based on that, which I will tell you about later.

2. Gain Followers

Followers show how many people "subscribe" or "follow" your page to see your content.

And having a ton of followers makes it look like you have a reputable eCommerce brand on social media.

You should consider it as social proof.

If others see that thousands of people follow your social media platforms, they won't want to miss out and follow you, too!

So, make sure to include increasing followers on your social media goals.

3. Increase Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is not easy on social media, but definitely doable!

Sure, you need to strategize the best content to help you get discovered by more social media users. But due to the popularity of social media, it's easier to connect with other people.

That's why it's one of the goals you should set when creating your social media strategy.

4. Community Management

And as I mentioned above, social media makes it easier to connect with your existing customers.

But wait...

What's community management?

It means nurturing your relationship with your customers. And remember, you should start cultivating the relationship at the beginning of their buyer's journey.

Fostering a community can help you with customer loyalty.

5. Drive Website Traffic

Driving website traffic is an essential metric of digital marketing.

Because the moment people visit your website, it means they're already aware of your eCommerce brand.

And social media is one way to get website traffic because you can drive your followers to your eCommerce site.

Already have ideas which goals to set?

That's great! Don't forget that goal-setting is a vital part of creating your social media strategy because that will determine which direction you're going to take.

And another important thing you should do is know your audience.

What are buyer personas?

Buyer personas are in-depth research of your customers or target audience. These will help you understand their needs because you will analyze them on a deeper level.

Creating a buyer persona includes this information:

1. Name
2. Age
3. Gender
4. Location
5. Profession
6. Interests
7. Hobbies
8. Problems
9. Challenges
10. Behavior

This is an example of what it looks like.

Yep, it's fictional. But what you're going to put in there is based on research. Not purely imagination and creativity.

They are your potential customers. So, you need to identify the possible problems they're facing to give solutions.

And in the context of social media marketing, you'd know what types of content you can post to reach your target audience.

Another way to research your target audience is...

To strengthen your audience research, you can visit your competitors' social media pages.

If they have established platforms already, you can check the types of people interacting with their content and their followers.

This will help you identify which social media sites have the most engaged followers. And you can use your findings to kickstart your social media marketing strategy.

I will discuss conducting a competitive analysis later, so stay tuned!

But here's another way...

As I said, you don't have to create multiple social media accounts at once. This will avoid exerting so much time and energy on the wrong platforms.

And by choosing the right social media platform, you can easily create a brand message and convey them to the right people.

That's why you need to use the platforms where your target audience is.

So, to help you figure it out... let's analyze a few popular social media giants.

1. Facebook

Facebook had 2.91 billion active users in the third quarter of 2021.

It has 56% users who are male and 44% female.

Facebook's largest demographic is between 25 to 35 years old.

It's still proven to be one of the biggest social media platforms, despite the rise of other sites, such as TikTok.

Facebook also has tools to guide you in Facebook Marketing, like Facebook Ads Manager, Business Suite, and Creator Studio.

There are also different types of content, such as text posts, images, videos, stories, and more. It also has a lot of communities through Facebook Groups.

Facebook can be beneficial in social media marketing.

You can create content that will spark conversation and entice your audience to interact with your eCommerce brand.

2. Instagram

Facebook owns Instagram. It used to be a photo-centric social media app until it expanded to videos.

It has 2.35 billion monthly active users. And the countries with the most extensive user bases are India (229.6 million), the United States (143.4 million), and Brazil (113.5 million).

17.9% of its global active users are men between 18 and 24 years old. And most of its global users are 34 years or younger.

Instagram can also be a great social media platform for your marketing strategy.

Since Instagram is not just focusing on photos, you can do different things to connect with your audience.

You can host a Live, shoot an IGTV, upload short-form videos on Reels, or utilize the Shopping feature. It just keeps on improving!

Instagram is workable, so you can rock this and achieve your social media goals!

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a career-centric social media platform.

It's used to find jobs and connect with other professionals worldwide. And for me, I see it as a community.

LinkedIn has 930 million members in more than 200 countries worldwide.

If you're a business-to-business eCommerce brand, LinkedIn might be an incredible platform for you. Because you can directly connect and engage with businesses and their employees.

4. TikTok

TikTok is a short-form video platform by ByteDance.

It has 50 million daily active users (DAU) with mobile devices... in the United States alone. And it has also been downloaded 3 billion times!

With this massive popularity, it's safe to say that TikTok is not going anywhere soon.

That's why if you think your target audience will enjoy short-form videos... join the club! You can create entertaining content while showcasing your products!

5. Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging platform where users can create short text posts or "tweets."

It has 396.5 million users. It was also downloaded over 6 million times in the last quarter of 2020 in the United States from the App Store!

That's huge!

Due to its nature, Twitter is the best for real-time updates. That's why more and more people hop on to Twitter to see what is "trending."

Big and reputable brands use it to connect with their audience. Be it through addressing their concerns or posting funny tweets.

While Twitter doesn't have as many features as the other platforms, it's scaling more than ever. In fact, you can now access Spaces, where people can talk live with each other.

There's also Twitter for Professionals and a monetization feature.

Such a great platform, right?

Knowing the users of each social media platform can help you tailor your content based on their likings and demographics.

By choosing the right platform, you can be sure that you're talking to the right people! 😉

And speaking of which...

If you want to keep up with the latest social media marketing trends, you can check out blogs posting about social media or digital marketing as a whole.

Reading at least an article a day would keep your mind fresh. And you can apply what you learn every day as you manage your social media accounts.

You can also check out Debutify's blog for your daily dose of digital marketing knowledge!

Content creation for your social media channel shouldn't be time-consuming. That includes designing your images.

So, to minimize the time you'll spend designing, it's best to use editing platforms with templates... like this:

Canva is a popular online photo editor. You can design your social media posts using their templates to make them less time-consuming.

But remember... always incorporate your brand identity.

Don't forget that social media can be an excellent way to build a social media presence and stand out online. Don't use templates that hundreds of people are already using.

Pro tip: To further enhance your Instagram presence, you can add your Instagram Feed through Debutify's Instagram Feed Add-On!

This way, you can showcase your fantastic Instagram feed to your website visitors.

You don't need to create an alarm and remind yourself to post... because you can use a Facebook and Instagram scheduling tool from Meta itself.

You can go to Creator Studio and log in to your Instagram account to get started.

And here's how to schedule a post on Facebook using Meta Business Suite.

1. Go to Meta Business Suite.
2. Select the page you'd want to create a post for on the left corner.
3. Click on Create post.
4. Write the text, add the photos or videos, and customize the settings.
5. Select Schedule post on the bottom right.

And you've now scheduled your post! Time to focus on the other essential things in your business to achieve more goals. 😉