E-commerce : Social Media Marketing : Strategies and Tactics

Social media marketing, a trend everyone is following these days. But creating a strategy, content, and engagement is not easy in social media. Since Social media is made up 60 different types of networking sites, yet we only use the big 7 i.e. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter. One thing which is common in every Social Networking site is User-generated content. These above-mentioned networking sites do not create their own content, yet it is a billion-dollar industry. Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, which is totally based on consumer sharing and active participation by the user. So they earn by the data which is made by general users. 

But for the user, they can’t earn money from any social networking sites because they do not provide any dashboarding and monetizing elements. So rest assure, social media is just for the sake of awareness. 

Moving towards the best strategies and tactics which should be used in Social Media Marketing (SMM). The First strategy is Listen before you speak. Normally companies who are using SMM as a sole business platform, they don’t listen to their customers and do not tap into communities. Secondly, Focus, you cannot use every SMM site to advertise your product. Focus on the limited sites which have contains your target consumers. Quality is always better than quantity. Produce good quality content and infographics to increase your engagement on the networking sites. Patience is the key to success, success won’t come overnight. Create an engaging content and wait for the users to take action upon it. Compounding is a phenomenon where you share your content all across the networking sites. But one thing should be in mind, every content should be same across all mediums. For example, your Facebook page, you are putting an infographic with 40% discount, and on your actual website, the infographic says 50% discount. Alignment is necessary in compounding. To boost your trust on your user, find the best opinion leaders regarding your content and business. Since opinion leaders are influencers too, they can divert a lot of traffic to your website. Value is very important since users have full liberty to write anything on social media and you cannot stop it. So if you are aggressive, you might lose a whole chunk of consumers. Don’t show any kind of attitude towards the user, acknowledge them if they comment or share. Coke Studio 10 used this strategy where they individually Acknowledged those users who were commenting on their social media pages. Accessibility, another important tool, don’t just publish and run away. You should be present 24/7 while answering their queries. Lastly, reciprocity, an element where you share other people content so that they can share yours. 

Upon all the strategies, our primary strategy should be content syndication. Where you spread and publish your website, content or blog to others websites so that your web presence can enhance and ultimately you can climb up the ladder of Search Engine Optimization. 

But before that, we need to focus on identifying the right kind of user and convert them into your loyal customers. So the strategy through which you can easily put a limelight on your potential user is known as the Social Technographic Ladder. This ladder shows that majority of the users are Spectators and not Creators. The most important Key performance indicator is sharing in the social ecosystem. People read it and don’t share. They read the online forums but hesitant to share their own experience. This is the gap in the market. 

Digital firms should create a content which is minimal in design and carry a strong message across every channel on social media.  If your content is strong then it will become king and users across social media will become Queen. So boosting is not the best option in any social media. Normally if you boost a picture of a donkey, trust me, it will get 1000+ likes, but again they won't be organic likes. Your main focus should be to create an engaging content and put some viral element in it. Viral part is important because you need to ignite a match before starting a fire.