How Social Media Influences the Way We Shop!
Even the most ardent haters of social media will have to admit that increasingly the social media platforms are becoming a fundamental part of how companies increase sales.
From Facebook to Twitter, to Instagram and beyond, social media has evolved from a platform to share thoughts and chat with friends to an influencing research tool.
Whether you want to see updates from your favourite companies, look at new trends or see other customers thoughts on a product, social media is now the go to place to do it. Companies have realised that shipping is the new shopping.
Online Shopping!
For many online shopping is their go to method. No more sitting in traffic, finding car park spaces, hustling about in busy shops, just to sit on your phone or laptop and buy something with as little as one click? Even better it can even turn up the very next day.
Social media has revolutionised the way we shop online, most retail brands now have online profiles with simple ‘shop now’ button which opens a window to the website, without leaving the social media platform.
A customer can go from commenting on a piece of clothing, to seeing an ad for it and buying it in a matter of clicks.
Checking Reviews
Social media provides the perfect place for customers to leave reviews and therefore research potential purchases, reading comments about both the company and the product can often eliminate that disapointing purchase.
I know that person who bought the magnificent wall art only to discover it would be more at home in a dolls house!
It’s there to be used, freely as well and increasingly people will choose a seller where the feedback is there to be seen, it’s reassuring and contary to belief it’s not hugely damaging to see the odd bad comment, if the purchase can see that the seller has replied and acted on it then this can often actually further increase confidence in the decision to purchase.
On top of this, if a user has a positive experience with a brand through social media, 71% of them are more likely to recommend it to others. Word of mouth is still alive and kicking, but tends to be more word of tweet, now.
The Rise of the Influencers!
You’ve probably seen a boom in ‘social media influencers’ across your timeline on various social media channels, these tend to be people with a few above the normal amount of followers, who stick to one specific trend (e.g. fitness, beauty, travel…).
It’s been found that 60% of consumers say they trust and prefer content from ‘real’ people, rather than celebrities or the brand themselves.
When you see your favourite fashion profile sharing their thoughts on that new pair of shoes, saying how fantastic they are, it definitely encourages you to trust in that product more.
Also without even realising it, this a market research tool for businesses that use the social media platforms! If you take the time to look through your comments, you will notice customers suggesting ways the service could be improved, or other products they would like to see.
You have access to the thoughts of the most important people – your customers, meaning you can constantly meet demands and up your game!
This is a great example of how customers have a real voice towards companies to express their appreciation or dissatisfaction. We have seen the classic “how many retweets for a lifetime supply of chicken nuggets’ messages that have gone to McDonald’s and they have responded, which has been shared among thousands and thousands of users!
Make it Work For You!
Shape Marketing can help ensure your e-commerce site and social media are performing optimally. We focus 100% on ROI, we can help with:
- Ensuring your retargeting campaigns are fully and correctly set up
- Compiling and segmenting custom audiences to be targeted
- Setting up new cold audiences
- Building warm audiences of existing and/or lookalike audiences
- Split-testing to figure out the exact ads and audiences that work for you
- Sourcing & creating all imagery that is required
- Produce copy and CTAs (Call to Actions) for your ads
- Building Top of Funnel ads to show to cold audiences
- Building Bottom of Funnel retargeting ads to close sales
- Optimising conversation rates and costs to deliver results
- Testing and launching new/fresh creative as and when required
- Carrying out all work in your own Ad Account, so you can see what’s happening at ANY time
I hope this article has inspired you to start a kickass social media campaign! If you need a little more inspiration you can get in touch or if you are eager to get started with a bit of help from us, then use our live chat feature (in the right hand corner) or give us a call.
