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eCommerce Marketing

How to Grow an Audience on Social Media

How to Grow an Audience on Social Media

by John Larkin

John runs the blog here at eCommerceLift and is a verified Shopify Expert. Interested in an initial growth consultation? Click here

10 years ago


How to Grow an Audience on Social Media

Marketers and practitioners often like to spout the importance of using social media for eCommerce. With everyone claiming that it helps brands grow, foster communities, increases customer interaction and is generally just a positive force for online merchants. Even here, at PropelAd, we have often emphasized the need for brands to have social media as a central part of their marketing campaigns.

However, with pressure to focus on social media, brands can be perplexed about how to actually grow and connect to their audience on social media. This can lead to them not using social media at all or their social media becoming stagnant and dragging down the brand.

This need not be the case though as reaching customers on social media isn't such an arduous and off-putting task. All that is needed is some know-how so we are presenting out tips that will help you grow and audience on social media. 

Understand your Audience 

Before doing anything in regards to social media, you have to understand your audience. Knowing who your audience are, what they like and what content they are drawn to online is the only way your brand has a chance to effectively engage and connect with your audience.

Starting with demographics, you should establish their age, gender, location of your brands customers to gauge an understanding of them. Added to this, accessing interests, education, lifestyle and any other relevant tidbits of information that you can evaluate and gather will be invaluable to you when building up your social media.

All of this information gathered should give you an image of your audience and let you know what online behavior they have and what content they react to best. Then you can pander your content to this audience and they will get value from it therefore building you en engaging audience. 

Pick your Platform Carefully

With the plethora of social media on offer, it’s not always easy to pick the right ones for your eCommerce store. Being on too many would just dilute your content but being on the wrong ones could mean no engagement. It is also pertinent to know that not all platforms fit each business. Each have different demographics using them meaning it is essential that merchants do some research before jumping in to the social media world. 

Researching what each platform does, brands that have been successful on them and whether you audience is using it will give you guidance as to where to go. Also consider how you would use each platform. If you are image focused then perhaps Instagram and Pinterest might suit you best. Whereas promoting blogposts or conversations with fans might be best done of Twitter or Facebook. Just make sure you consider it all before jumping in at the deep end.

Implementing a Content Calendar

Make a content calendar that is relevant, regular and engaging is often touted as the key successful social media. It can be daunting, time consuming and hard work for merchants to keep on top of their content, while also keeping it relevant and valuable for customers. To avoid feeling overwhelmed and behind on your content we suggest building a content calendar.

This is a simple yet effective way of keeping up to date and be organised in regards to social media. Content calendars involve marketers planning out future content that will be used for social media. From planning out holiday events to arrangement how to effectively promote content to scheduling, content calendars can give you a way to plan and successfully implement content so that you can delight and add value for customers. 


Give Customers a Reason to Follow 

Customers will not follow you unless they are getting something back otherwise there is no value or benefit for them. Hence planning content that will appeal to customers and make them want to like or follow your brand. 

A popular and effective method used by many brands is to make followers privy to information, giveaways and promotions. Giving fans a behind the scenes look at your company and exclusive content can be a great way to convince them to follow as they are seeing something they cannot get elsewhere. Meanwhile competitions, giveaways and coupon codes are obvious but effect as customers feel they are being rewarded for following your brand. This also brings a loyal audience that is willing to share your content as well as continuously come back for more. 

Optimize Social Media 

When mixing social media accounts into your marketing strategy, it’s not enough to make content that is relevant, it has to be easily found. Setting up social media without optimizing it will not grow your audience as they will be unable to find you and you will be lost in the big, dark internet world.

To remedy this include up to date, relevant company bios and information about your eCommerce store. Also include logos and links to your website as well as include keywords wherever you can. All of these little touches will make your social media much more accessible for your potential audience and will enable them to find and engage with your social media.
 
Growing social media is an invaluable marketing strategy for your eCommerce store. However, starting out can be difficult and intimidating. But by following these steps you may find yourself more comfortable and confident with your efforts to build an audience on social media for your eCommerce store.

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