With more than 1.55 billion active users, and over 1 billion users logging into their account everyday, Facebook is the definition of a powerhouse. Of the 72% of Facebook users that log on at least once a month, 65% of them use it daily. And we’re not talking short sessions either. The average time spent on Facebook per day is more than 20 minutes!

Social media marketing is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to target customers and drive sales to your online store. But if you’re hoping to grow and expand your business by exploiting this profitable avenue, there are some important factors you’ll want to keep in mind before you get to typing.

Check out the following tips and tricks for crafting awesome posts that Facebook fans will want to like and share with their family and friends.

Craft Quality and Engaging Posts

As an eCommerce merchant, odds are you’ve heard the hackneyed phrase “content is king”. The timeworn statement litters eCommerce blogs and guides for a good reason – poor, uninformative content always leads to dead ends. Crafting high-quality content, even when posting to Facebook, is a proven necessity if you’re looking for positive, tangible results.

Every post published to your Facebook account should be appealing, relevant, and most importantly, provide your customers with value. While this may seem like a difficult undertaking, remember that your posts aren’t limited to content produced solely by your team and website. Posting quotes, questions, and helpful guides (even from third party sites!) all make for excellent Facebook posts.

Keep Your Posts Short

If you’re looking to captivate your shoppers’ attention while browsing Facebook, you’ll want to keep your posts short yet catchy. Quickly and concisely provide the necessary information or message in as few sentences as possible. Research shows that the longer your posts, the less likely your customers are to read it.

Use High Quality Images

While images aren’t a necessity when posting to Facebook, their inclusion is highly recommended. Studies show that posts which include awesome images are 40% more likely to receive engagement. Images serve to bolster your copy, helping customers better visualize your product, promotion and/or message.

Tone Down Promotional Language

Customers aren’t interested in being inundated with sales pitch after sales pitch. Don’t think of Facebook as a free billboard to constantly push sales-heavy advertisements. Instead, provide a variety of quality content that users will find helpful or informative. You may want to offer helpful tips, a link to a great article, provide an inspirational or humorous quote, pose a thoughtful question, or share something newsworthy you found significant or interesting.

Treat Facebook as a social hub for communicating with customers and building relationships. That doesn’t mean you can’t advertise products, sales and promotions – just ensure every post isn’t demanding customers to “shop” or “buy now!”.

Create Urgency with Time-Sensitive Deals

An excellent way to attract attention and increase the likelihood of customers sharing your content is to promote a limited time deal. Great deals threatened by an expiration date incite a sense of urgency that demands shoppers to take action sooner rather than later. Today’s shoppers are the definition of bargain hunters, and will feel compelled to take advantage of your deal if only for the emotion a time-sensitive deal creates.

Continually Provide Fresh Content

Creating great content isn’t enough to win over a large following on Facebook. The key to succeeding via a social platform and bringing in the sales is to post high-quality content on a regular basis. Ideally, you’ll want to post at least one to two times a day, preferably when most of your audience is online.

If you’re just getting started and feeling a bit overwhelmed, feel free to start off at two posts per week and work toward increasing this number during the weeks ahead. It’s better to publish fewer posts of excellent quality than to push out a ton of poor content that users won’t find of value.

Attract Attention with Contests

Contests are one of the easiest ways to get customers hyped and can provide your business with a huge marketing opportunity. How customers submit their entries can be a fun and profitable tactic for your online store. You may want to require customers to “like”, share, or comment on your post for contest eligibility. Consider posing a question and having your customers provide their answers in the comment section – contests are supposed to be fun, so don’t be afraid to get a little creative.

Whatever prize or entry requirement you decide on, be sure to track your results. You may find that customers respond better to certain tactics and promotions better than others.

Engage With Your Community

Engaging with your audience is the best way to build relationships and promote loyalty. Take time to respond to any inquiries or concerns that may arise. It’s important to remember that social media platforms are the preferred channel for voicing dissatisfaction, so you’ll want to allocate a decent amount of time to monitoring Facebook activity.

If any of your customers drop in to say hello or express their love for your product, be sure to express your thanks or return a friendly greeting. Customers are eager to know that their opinion and loyalty is valued, and are more likely to share your content and become a life-time customer if you take the time to express your gratitude.

The post Crafting Quality Facebook Posts appeared first on Shift4Shop.

The first step is putting goals in place. How many Facebook fans and Twitter followers can you get in a month? In a quarter? In a year?

Now comes the strategy. Remember the golden rule: content leads to commerce. Sharing entertaining and informative content that applies to your industry is a great way to draw in followers. Think of your social media platforms as publishers. Your followers are looking for great content; when you syndicate that content using social media, you’re publishing your own magazine with shared and original content.

Promotions and discounts are great to share via Facebook and Twitter—but what about contests? When you make your audience take an active role in the development of your brand, you can gain lifelong followers. As an added bonus, contestants in a competition are more apt to share your brand with others. When they share their stories and generate their own content, they’ve done a lot of marketing work for you.

When you reach your goals and finally have your audience’s attention, gentle sales cues represent the next step. Pick a shopping cart that gives you the ability to set up a Facebook store. Make it easy for potential customers to find resources for buying through your store on your Facebook fan page.

While Twitter is a different sort of forum, many of the same rules apply. Use your Twitter and Facebook channels to open a dialogue with your customers. Listen to what they’re saying and respond. Social networks open conversations. The businesses that think of social networks as one-way channels to drop marketing on customers and potential customers are missing the point.

Establishing your brand is a crucial part of growing your business. While social networks offer fantastic resources for selling goods, businesses should be taking the same approach as individual users: use your networks to connect and open a dialogue. You may end up three steps ahead of the competition.

Twitter, a massively popular social media platform, is one of the largest revenue generating channels for businesses of nearly every size and industry. With more than 336 million active users, retailers are able to engage with customers, build relationships, and promote their brand on a daily yet worldwide scale.

But although Twitter is a widely used channel for monitoring customer engagement and promoting sales, its effectiveness is limited not only by a business’s understanding of the platform, but its adopted strategies and tactics as well. Marketing a huge, complex platform like Twitter is not without big rewards, but it takes an incredible amount of research, time and dedication to reap a large following and an even larger number of conversions.

If you’re attempting to tackle this platform for the very first time, or are simply looking to refine your marketing approach, check out the following tips that’ll allow you to successfully leverage one of eCommerce’s most powerful platforms.

Your Twitter profile comprises your username, profile and header images, bio, location, birthdate, website, and theme color. You can also pin one of your Tweets to the top of your profile. Your profile acts as a direct reflection of your business and brand. A heavily branded, visually strong profile allows visitors to immediately connect with a business’s image in a single glance.

A strong, cohesive profile image entails: the use of your company name as your username, a concise, keyword-rich bio, a profile picture showcasing the company’s logo, and a visually captivating header image that captures the essence or style of your brand. Add your business’s location, link to your website, and choose a theme color that works with your branding to complete the setup.

Twitter is an excellent channel for driving sales, but don’t expect a huge spike in conversions right off the bat. Marketing a social media platform is first and foremost about building relationships – a process that doesn’t happen overnight.

Millions of people use Twitter, and not for the purpose of being force-fed sales pitch after sales pitch. Users log in on a daily basis to connect with friends, family, and their favorite celebrities and brands. Once trust has been established, your followers will be more open to receiving promotional news and advertisements that they’ll want to share with their own network of friends and family.

Managing a social account is bound to come with its fair share of hurdles and hiccups. Although your goal is to gain a massive following of supportive fans, you’ll doubtless come across customers who’ll turn to Twitter to express their outrage and dissatisfaction.

It’s important to remember that not only is every relationship important to the success of your business, but how you choose to handle a public outcry will be witnessed by an untold number of onlookers. Always reply to every Tweet with a friendly yet appropriate tone, regardless if the user has stopped by to drop a warm hello or express their displeasure regarding their latest purchase.

Tweets are limited to 280 characters, which is much more versatile than the previous limit of 140 but still doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room to craft a compelling message that encourages action. Consequently, it’s important every Tweet is strategically crafted with care: bolster the appeal of Tweets with links and visual content (images, videos, articles), use trending hashtags, and Tweet during peak hours when most of your audience is likely to be online.

More importantly, always ensure you’re Tweeting content that your readers will find of value, such as important news, great tips or guides, or even helpful advice – understanding what your readers want and expect will go a long way toward maintaining existing followers and attracting new ones. For maximum results, try to Tweet as frequently as possible – ideally, at least once per day until you’re able to determine what number works best with your brand and audience.

Few psychological tactics work as well as inciting a feeling of exclusivity in your shoppers. Offering your Twitter followers access to exclusive deals and promotions can go a long way toward not only building strong relationships, but increasing your sales too! But while this tactic is a tried-and-true marketing ploy, it should always be used strategically and with care.

Retweeting content and mentioning others in your Tweets is a great way to build a following. Promoting credibility, and consequently trust, allows Tweeters to feel secure in retweeting your posts, especially if they’re unfamiliar with your name or brand.

Mentioning others is also an excellent way to build social relationships with fellow Tweeters, who will appreciate any namedropping that will send traffic in their direction. And in the world of social media – collecting allies is a must!

Twitter offers shoppers a number of benefits, but unless you’re a world-renowned brand, odds are your customers won’t go through the trouble of trying to track down your Twitter page. Allow shoppers to easily follow your brand by adding a linked Twitter icon on your website’s home page, sharing buttons on product pages, and/or even include a link in your newsletters and promotional material that encourages following/engagement.

Twitter is an ever-growing social platform that can yield big numbers for your online store. And while undertaking this unique social platform can seem a bit intimidating, its rewards are well worth the risk and investment.

The above tips are just a few basic yet critical tactics that can help you grow your following. If you’re interested in taking your Twitter presence to the next level, reference your Twitter Analytics for detailed information that can help you improve and refine your Twitter marketing approach.

The post Strategizing Your Facebook and Twitter Marketing Efforts appeared first on Shift4Shop.

Within the last decade, social media has evolved at a rapid pace. Facebook, the king of social platforms, has spearheaded our growing social addiction, allowing new, innovative platforms to prosper and flourish.

If you’re a small to medium sized business, odds are you’re operating a social media strategy with limited resources. It can be difficult, and sometimes stressful, deciding which platforms will yield the best results for your brand and customers.

If you’re hoping to save yourself time and money from a trial and error process, check out the following platforms and see which ones will best benefit your business.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social platform, boasting more than 1.5 billion active users – a number that continues to grow with each passing year. Facebook users aren’t just connected to their friends and family, they’re actively following brands, businesses and people they find of interest.

As the most dominant and powerful social platform of today (and probably tomorrow), investing in a Facebook page is one of the best things you can do for your business. Regardless of your brand or product, Facebook is a channel that provides businesses of every industry with countless opportunities to connect, engage, and build meaningful relationships.

Twitter

Twitter is one of the best and most accessible platforms to engage in brief yet meaningful conversations. If you’re hoping to get the most out of Twitter as possible, studies show that content plays more of a deciding role than your actual business or brand: Twitter users are more likely to retweet images than videos, text-based tweets containing a link over images, and most popularly, list based articles above all other types of tweeted content.

With hundreds of millions of active users, this popular platform isn’t one you’ll want to miss out on; just be sure to do your homework and tweet content that your followers will find share-worthy.

Google+

A Google+ page is another social platform you’ll always want to ensure is active and up-to-date, regardless of your brand or industry. Not to be summed up or reduced to simply a social platform, Google+ is a powerful tool for establishing a public identity that’s integrated with the world’s biggest, most dominant search engine.

And while Google+ doesn’t boast as many users as Facebook, its 300+ million users actively search for products, services, product reviews, and other business information that’s readily available right on your business page. Its integration with Hangouts can also bolster your business, and can serve as a great platform for webinars, product announcements, and video engagement with fans.

LinkedIn

Comprised of a network of professionals, LinkedIn is a great social platform for businesses looking to advertise to B2B rather than B2C. A company page on LinkedIn can provide your business with increased visibility for your brand and products, and is a great outlet for sharing news and announcements with fellow professionals and companies.

Furthermore, customers also have the ability to recommend your business just as they would your personal LinkedIn page. This is a great way to enhance your brand and gain an edge over your competitors, who may not be harnessing the power of LinkedIn. Nonetheless, if your research shows that your customers aren’t using this platform, steer clear and focus your attention on the channels that matter the most.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a growing social platform that promotes and encourages creativity through their signature pins (aka images). This is the perfect platform for products that inspire or illustrate imagination and talent, such as food, beauty, home decor and fashion industries.

Organized and structured by themes/interests rather than personal networks, Pinterest is a unique platform for getting products in front of large audience actively looking to buy. They also boast one of the highest conversion rates – 87% of users have used Pinterest as a deciding factor for their purchasing decisions.

Instagram

Instagram is a highly visual platform that can yield major results for businesses that publish images and/or videos of high-quality. With hundreds of millions of daily active users, Instagram is a powerful, visceral platform for advertising products to a consumer-addicted audience.

If you’re unable to take attractive pictures of your products, or if your products are solely digital (e-books, webinars, etc.) in nature, Instagram may not be the best social platform for your business.

Tumblr

Tumblr is a fast growing social platform that can be a powerful marketing tool for a niche business. Considered more of a hybrid or microblogging platform, Tumblr maintains a large and growing younger demographic, with the majority of users between the ages of 18-34.

If your business is short on time or resources, Tumblr can be an incredibly convenient and fast channel for releasing content. Users can post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog, which can be easily shared across a wide audience through their re-blog feature. Furthermore, users can also link their Facebook and Twitter accounts, which will sync content released on Tumblr automatically across all three platforms. Who doesn’t love a time-saver?

Reddit

Reddit isn’t a traditional social platform, but is does maintain a gigantic online presence and one of the highest percentages of news-readers. This growing online platform features one of the largest, most active forums, with smaller topic-oriented forums referred to as “subreddits.”

The key to succeeding on a unique platform such as Reddit is entirely dependent upon your ability to discuss and share engaging, valuable information. Whatever your brand or product, odds are there’s a subreddit for it. To benefit from Reddit, your presence must benefit its users. So take careful thought and time to ensure you content matches the rules and demands of its users. Your hard work is sure to be richly rewarded.

Choosing the Right Social Channels for Your Online Store

Businesses must have a presence on social media. That includes online stores, of course. You’re hearing it everywhere you go—and frankly, it’s become overwhelming to keep up. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest—there are simply too many social networks for you to manage a page and interact with customers on all of them.

Plenty of online businesses have adopted the perspective that Facebook and Twitter pages are better than nothing. But that might be wrong. You could be missing a golden opportunity to reach your target shoppers where they’re most receptive to buying from your store.

Take a look at some tips for choosing where to spend your time on social media marketing.

Don’t spend time on a social network just because other business owners say you have to

You’re constantly bombarded with the same advice: create brand pages on Facebook and Twitter if you want to compete in today’s online marketplace. But many of the best businesses are built by running against the grain, not with it.

If you’re spending time on social media channels because everyone else says to do it, take a step back and reevaluate your marketing strategy.

Budget out how much time you want to spend on social marketing to start.

First, figure out how much time you have available to spend on your social media strategy. You have a business to run, after all, and getting the word out is only part of that daily battle.

Budget out around three hours a week to start. You can ramp up those hours when you start getting a following.

Figure out exactly where your shoppers live.

Here’s the key to your social media marketing strategy: specialized online communities and social networks could be more productive places to spend your time than Facebook or Twitter.

For instance, a jewelry storeowner can reach more people through Pinterest, a website that values visual content and caters to women who are comfortable with technology.

Measure your success on your networks.

There are tons of simple ways to see how you’re performing on social networks—and none of them have to do with your follower count. What you really want to see is how often content you post leads to actual purchases through your store. You can measure this by configuring your shopping cart’s analytics platform to record purchases originating from inbound social links.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the more popular social networks making waves in today’s market. Feel free to explore and utilize any networks that you feel will benefit and bolster your business, including smaller niche-focused platforms that may not boast a large community.

As you continue to join and participate in online communities, be sure to never stretch yourself too thin. It’s better to be an active participant of two platforms where you’re constantly engaging than a member of six or more platforms that receive little attention.

What are you waiting for? Get to joining, publishing, and growing your business, one post or image at a time.

The post How to Choose the Right Social Networks for Your Brand appeared first on Shift4Shop.