Blair Heavey
The primary “social media” race used to be the acquisition of fans and followers. Now that you have them, they’re liking and following you, the big question is “Now what?”
How do we transform the social consumer’s light engagement of likes to real transactions. The social consumer wants a relationship that is deeper, more meaningful and provides specials, such as deals for their engagement. You need to understand the social consumer’s behavior for engagement and transaction.
You’ve undoubtedly heard a million times that success on the social web depends on building relationships, and you’ve done that. Now how – exactly – do you go about growing these relationships, and – once you have them as fans – how do you convert them into sales?
Social Commerce – a few best practices
Once you’ve gotten beyond the “So what?”, you’re ready for the “Now what?” This is where many brands fail. They build their audience, but then have no idea how to create a
social commerce strategy that will convert all those follows and “likes” into actual sales. It’s not as complicated as it might seem. Here are five best practices to get you started:
- Ask for the sale. A common mistake brands make is to keep their editorial and commercial content completely separate. Don’t spam your loyal followers with a constant barrage of heavily self-promotional updates, but don’t be afraid to ask for the sale either. Create an intentional balance between editorial, commercial, and conversational content.
- Create a “frictionless” buying experience. Social commerce is not promoting your products and services in a social context. Social commerce is selling your products and services in a social context. It’s no longer enough to post an ad that leads to a site that hosts an online store where your audience can (finally!) make a purchase. Today’s social consumer wants her shopping integrated into her social media. You need to embed the entire process – from offer to checkout – in the social experience.
- See the Big Picture. Brands that are smart about social commerce don’t see a sale as an isolated event. They see it as part of a cycle – the life cycle of the social consumer. Strong social commerce strategy considers not only the first sale, but the sale that comes after that and the sale that comes after that. Use tiered levels of content and access to deepen the relationship and, at the same time, deliver correspondingly “deeper” (read: higher priced) offers.
- Track and analyze your data. Just like a single sale is only one piece of an individual consumer’s social commerce lifecycle, it is also only one piece of your overall sales. Track engagement and transaction trends to see what’s working and what’s not. In addition to the peaks in activity and sales, pay attention to the valleys – they can be just as valuable in helping you determine your offers’ strengths and weaknesses.
- Optimize. With clear and accurate analytics, you can easily optimize your content and offers. By studying all the relevant activity, you will be able to clearly see where you are having the most success, where you need to pump it up, and where you need to jump ship.
If you can follow these five “starter” best practices, you’ll be well on your way to turning your social media presence into a social commerce profit center. We work every day to help our clients do just that. By combining the technology of our Distributed Storefront and Commerce Community products with solid analytics and best practices, stars like Reba, Taylor Swift, and others are figuring out the “Now what?” behind their social commerce strategy … and they have the profits to prove it.
If you’re a musician, athlete, publisher, or entertainment manager or agent and you’d like to learn more about how to get your fans and followers from “Like” to “Buy,” drop us a line. We’d love to help you out.
