Navigating Social Commerce Platforms in 2024
Social Commerce 2.0: Leveraging Social Media Platforms for Sales Growth
In the modern marketplace, eCommerce has evolved far beyond the classic model of operating purely on dedicated websites or third-party platforms like Amazon. In 2024, we find ourselves in the age of Social Commerce 2.0 (or just social commerce for short). This refers to a time when selling on social media has become core to any online business model, connecting brands with audiences from various channels.
With the existence of aspects like live shopping, shoppable posts, and influencer marketing partnerships, there’s a lot for brands to clue themselves up on these days. We wrote this blog to give you a better understanding of how to navigate social commerce platforms in 2024, so you can feel confident reaching your target audience across multiple social networking channels.
The Evolution of Social Commerce 2.0
It’s easy to understand the concept of selling products through a social media page, but what is social commerce really? Social commerce started when brands realized they could advertise their products on social media platforms, but now the term represents a comprehensive shift in how customers engage with brands and their products – from seeing a celebrity promote goods to purchasing them directly off a branded page.
Social media selling is on the rise as well. McKinsey estimates that by 2025 the sector will account for around 5.2% of all eCommerce sales, controlling just under $80 billion of the market’s overall revenue. One major reason for this growth in recent years is that major social media players have started to incorporate dedicated retail technology into their platforms.
Examples of Social Media Marketplace Technology
Instagram: Instagram offers a range of social commerce tech, with the most simple being the ability to add shopping tags to posts, which can also be used to create a digital catalog from which customers can either buy products directly or be redirected to an eCommerce platform. Also on Instagram is the Live Shopping system, from which users can live stream to sell products to viewers as they watch.
Facebook Marketplace: Despite first being known as a digital garage sale, Facebook Marketplace has become a reliable platform from which small to medium-sized businesses can sell products. For many, Facebook Marketplace exists to find cheap furniture or an old set of dumbbells, but with various checkout options, it’s also become a selling platform for more organized operations.
Pinterest: There are various ways shoppers and businesses alike can use Pinterest to buy and sell products. Along with filters in the search bar to distinguish searches as product-focused, brands can also create product catalogs and product pins that link to and from websites, making the process of browsing for inspiration up to making concrete purchases smooth.
TikTok Shopping: Launched in 2021, TikTok Shop was established as an eCommerce platform within the short-form video-sharing networking in partnership with Shopify. The system essentially allows video creators and Shopify merchants to sync their product catalogs to the platform, using live-streams, standard TikTok videos, or a shopping tab to sell to browsing parties.
YouTube Shopping: Similarly linked with Shopify, YouTube Shopping allows companies to sell directly on YouTube through their videos, shorts, or live streams, along with creating secondary online storefronts from which products can be bought. An interesting feature is the Shelves – essentially small storefront menus displayed below content automatically if products are tagged.
Snapchat: Snapchat allows users to shop directly from the app, along with including links to official eCommerce websites. Some of the advanced features that are exclusive to the Snapchat shopping platform include the capacity to send in screenshots to search for related items, along with AR filters allowing users to see what they might look like wearing products.
Twitch: Differing from the other systems described, Twitch commerce operates closer to the kind of advertising that we’re used to seeing on our television screens or in radio broadcasts. This means Twitch creators essentially market to their audience with videos, display ads, or paid ad reads. This system is effective as it allows viewers to support their favorite streamers.
With shoppable posts, advanced product tagging options, and live shopping only some of the features offered in the modern social media marketplace, it’s clear that this pillar of commerce shows no signs of slowing down. But it’s not enough to know what channels are available to you as a seller – the important part is figuring out exactly how to leverage these platforms to your advantage.
Maximizing Your Social Commerce Efforts
There are a few pillars to crafting a strong, reliable social media selling strategy. By properly understanding the nature of social commerce for each of the platforms you’re attempting to infiltrate, you can develop an effective methodology that allows your business to take on its own life in the social media ecosystem.
Creating Compelling Content
One of the most important aspects of any social commerce strategy is creating compelling content, outside of simply advertising your products in a dull, obvious fashion. By creating content that customers feel like they could’ve stumbled upon organically, you’re more likely to capture their attention, inspire engagement, and ultimately encourage them to purchase.
We’ve put together some tips for creating content for different platforms:
Short and Snappy Content: On TikTok and Snapchat especially, audience members respond to short-form content. Keep videos brief and snappy to capture your audience’s attention quickly.
Embrace Trends & Challenges: TikTok and Instagram Reels are loaded with trends and challenges – incorporating them into promotional content is a great way to connect with a wider audience.
Creative Visuals, Effects and Filters: Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat all have a wide range of filters, stickers, and special effects that can make content stand out in a humorous or visually appealing way.
Behind-the-Scenes Content: Viewers respond well to a glimpse behind the curtain – whether using YouTube or TikTok, behind-the-scenes content is great for building authenticity and relatability.
Encourage Interaction: On any platform that you’re marketing from, engagement will help content to grow, so ask your audience to share, like, or leave comments on anything that you post.
Interact with Other Creators: In the same vein as the above point, interacting with other content is a great way to funnel eyes back to your content and inspire collaborations.
Opt for Stunning Imagery: On platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, focusing on high-quality, eye-catching professional imagery and videography that reflects your brand identity is vital.
Use Stories: Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok are all platforms with “stories”, where more casual, time-sensitive content can be posted with added interactive features like polls, quizzes, and stickers.
Pinterest Pins: Pins on Pinterest should look good, include keyword-heavy descriptions, be organized into thematic categories, and be directly buyable to increase functionality and context.
Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC): By running contests and challenges on any platform, you can encourage users to create free promotional content for your brand, complete with tags/hashtags.
High-Quality Video Content: On YouTube especially, professional standards for video content are essential, with quality footage and editing vital for capturing audience attention.
Optimizing Content: Again, primarily for YouTube, things like keyword-rich titles and descriptions, along with compelling thumbnails are great for attracting viewers to your content naturally.
Tell a Story with Captions: Use your captions as your space for building a story, showcasing personality, and adding context, making for content that resonates more clearly with your audience.
Be Consistent: With a consistent publishing schedule on any of these platforms, you’re more likely to maintain audience attention, especially if they subscribe for regular updates!
By following the relevant tips for each platform and applying others when instinct tells you to, you should be able to create compelling content that encourages natural engagement from your target audience.
Building a Community of Advocates
While in any business, you’re hoping to build a community within your audience, social media has limitless potential in terms of creating a base of advocates. By developing a genuine fanbase for a social media presence, businesses can essentially develop an army of advocates who can share content with their own followers, create UGC, and leave public reviews that can drive sales.
Some surefire ways to inspire customer engagement and build a community include:
- Hosting Interactive Q&A Sessions
- Running Contests and Giveaways
- Encouraging UGC
- Hosting Virtual Events or Workshops
- Create Space for Community Discussions (Forums)
- Showcase Positive Customer Experiences & Testimonials
These methods are surefire ways to push your brand in the right direction for an active, engaged base of customers as collaborators. By incentivizing and facilitating audience participation through social media, businesses can develop natural, effective advocacy groups for their products, services, and brand identity.
Leveraging Influencer Partnerships
Influencer partnerships have become a huge pillar of social commerce and eCommerce as a whole. The concept is simple – working with a social media influencer (notable personality) to promote your goods through sponsored content on their social media. This tactic can present your brand in a way that connects with viewers more effectively, while also reaching a much wider audience.
We’ve listed some core tips for establishing an influencer partnership and guaranteeing its efficacy:
Define Your Target Audience: Start by figuring out the target audience of your product, along with any new demographics you’re trying to reach with your new content.
Research Relevant Influencers: Determine the kinds of influencers you’re looking to target (fitness, lifestyle, fashion, etc.), then research the ones that feel the most relevant to your target audience.
Evaluate Influencer Engagement: After finding a relevant influencer, review their content, engagement rates, and authenticity levels – making note of consistently impactful, connected content creators.
Review Any Branded Content: Check for any branded content they’ve made in the past, determining whether they’ll be up to standard for the kind of content you’re looking for in your campaign.
Check Influencer Reputation: As you should before embarking on any collaboration, make sure to do your due diligence in assessing an influencer’s reputation, credibility, and professionalism.
Reach Out and Build a Relationship: Reach out to the influencer with a clear, personalized proposal for partnership, and make sure to go over any terms and conditions if things get that far.
After you’ve made a deal with them, simply provide them with the necessary information and resources to make the promotional content you need. Of course, you can include stricter guidelines or instructions for the kind of content you want from them, but you should know what they’re capable of. If you want to connect with their audience, don’t be afraid to leave them with primary creative control over the content they produce for you.
Conclusion
As an online business in today’s market, you can’t afford to ignore social commerce as an essential limb in your corporate strategy. Whether you work to develop an omnichannel approach across a range of different social media platforms or put the bulk of your effort into one, avoiding this aspect of marketing is just leaving money on the table at this point.
Social Commerce 2.0 is happening whether you like it or not, so it’s time to start creating content, building your community, partnering with influencers, and optimizing your conversion rates.
If you still feel social media illiterate, you should visit this year’s eCom Business Live. At this event, eCommerce professionals from every corner of the industry will find themselves converging in New York to browse and test the world’s finest online selling tools, including products that can make social commerce feel a lot more manageable. Register for your ticket today and guarantee your spot at the eCommerce event of the year.