The 4 Must-Have Social Media Accounts for eCommerce Businesses

While you should definitely have a great eCommerce website which you can get by contacting one of the top BigCommerce web design companies, you also need some more online presence. Here’s our overview of the must-have social media for any business to help you get more customers.

Facebook — Create and Customize Your Business Profile with Descriptions, Photos, and Videos

Сonsidering virtually every business with a website also maintains a Facebook page, Facebook is still the king of social media. And it’s easy to see why. With well 829 million people using Facebook on a daily basis (an increase from 802 million last quarter), Facebook is the Internet’s “front page” for a vast population. It has become an electronic gathering ground where people socialize, find news articles, and – believe it or not – make purchases.

In fact, Facebook users bought $234 million dollars worth of virtual goods and gifts on Facebook over the last quarter and it drove more than 85% of purchases made through Facebook in 2014, making it our number one must-have social media account for eCommerce businesses. Not bad for a site people claim is “dying”.

Tip from a Chicago Web Design Agency: Since Facebook has recently changed what content appears on the users’ feed page, make your brand posts more interesting so users will like your posts and you will appear in their feed.

Twitter — Register as a Member to Micro-Blog or “Broadcast” Short Posts Called Tweets

Twitter offers much of the same functionality for eCommerce businesses like Facebook. Twitters 750 million users look for companies who tweet short-burst, rapid, entertainment-oriented content. Commentary and opinion abound. Interestingly, Twitter makes the process of interacting with companies and other specific users very easy. 70 % of small businesses are on Twitter and 85% of followers reported feeling more connected with a business after following them. Successful companies can harness that goodwill and facilitate the spread of brand positives – all “on the fly” by an increasingly mobile generation of millennial consumers.

If you’re still not convinced that Twitter can positively affect your business, check out these statistics:

• 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow on Twitter
• 42% of consumers learn about new products and services via Twitter
• 63% of people follow Small Business to show their support for them and promote their content to their followers, aka: potential new customers.

Google+ — Replicate the Ways in Which People, eCommerce Business Owners Included, Interact Offline

Their mantra: “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.”

Even with 90 million users, Google+ has not become the Facebook-killer for which Google had hoped. However, it continues to gain followers due to the search giant’s ability to leverage products and services in an onslaught of complimentary offers to eCommerce businesses.

While it may feel redundant to add a Google+ account to your company’s longstanding Facebook account, the SEO advantages you will enjoy far outweigh the hassle. Because sites are already indexed by Google, if you have a Google + page, they will show you a little favoritism by expediting your indexing process. Naturally, Google privileges its own social networking site when determining page ranking (especially over Facebook. They’re a little bitter). Read our blog post about Google+ effectiveness. As a Chicago SEO company, we follow Google+ trends very closely.

Pinterest — Upload, Save, Sort, and Manage Images and Videos

Images are electronically placed on “pinboards” to showcase products and services for sale via your business’ eCommerce.

Pinterest brings the intrigue and fun of department store shopping to the era of eCommerce. The minimalist, visually oriented design of the site allows users to browse various products across brands and stores without the pressure of being “sold to” in a more formal sales environment. In fact, 93% of Pinners shopped online in the past six months. For many businesses, Pinterest is only second in visitor count, lead conversion, and online sales to powerhouse Facebook.

One of the biggest benefits of Pinterest is the fact that the number of people who see your pins is greater than your number of followers. This means a potential customer does not have to be following you to be exposed to your message and promoted pins perform long after campaigns end. As a web design agency, we recommend using a Pinterest channel to many of our Clients that sell directly to consumers.

Be Social

Depending upon the social-savvy qualities of people in your industry, you will achieve better results on some platforms compared with others.

For antiques and collectibles, for instance, Pinterest and Instagram drive more sales than Facebook or Twitter. Digital products—from electronics to appliances—on the other hand, sell much better when product endorsements appear on Reddit or YouTube.

Ultimately, social media is a tool to help you reach and interact with your customer base. When you understand and honor what your customers want and like, you are halfway to creating engaging content that boosts your business’ bottom line.

Analyzed properly, it will also provide a treasure trove of insights into your customers’ behaviors and purchase patterns that would be impossible to know, fewer than ten short years ago.