Social media platforms continue to evolve. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer a marketplace feature already which allows online shoppers to buy items. This proves that social media platforms have made eCommerce easier. 55% of online shoppers use social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest et cetera. Also, social media is where influencers are. According to Global Web Index, almost a fifth of the internet population follows their favorite celebrities and influencers on social media. This popularity of influencers means that 14% of online consumers discover new products or services via endorsement posts. Amidst all this, what can social listening do to boost eCommerce? What has it got to do with this?
How Social Listening Boosts eCommerce?
Social listening helps with everything related to eCommerce via social media. This includes customer service, customer insights, lead generation, and influencer marketing. Social listening primarily works by gathering every mention of predefined keywords. This data is gathered from every possible online source available and social media platforms are a part of that. These real-time alerts could be set up for any number of keywords. You may monitor your brand name, competitors, products with a name, industry news et cetera.
Social listening is so versatile that each of these actions can help boost your eCommerce in different ways.
Customer Service
When you track your product, the tool brings every possible conversation around it. So when a customer is reviewing your brand/product, complaining, or appreciating it, you know about it instantaneously. And this works to your benefit as all customers expect an early reply.
What makes social listening so very important is that most of your customers won’t tag your official handle. You could risk your brand’s image if you remain unaware of these mentions. In the example given below, the social media user describes Starbucks in appreciating words.
However, in this post, they are being discussed in relation to the recent “Black lives matter” protests. The brand itself hasn’t been tagged in this post or the post below. Ignoring the mention below could have potentially ruined Starbucks’ online reputation.
If you’re a brand trying to sell online and/or on social media, you cannot afford to have a pile of negative reviews or posts with negative associations on your plate. Social listening offers an effective solution to this.
Business Insights
Social listening also allows you to know your audience better. You get a complete insight into the times when they are the most active, their purchasing habits, and what they think of your product/brand. Customer feedback is extremely important for eCommerce, especially when you are looking for product improvement tips. These insights help you with not only that but also in your marketing efforts. Supposing you invest big bucks into running a new ad campaign. But, it misfired and people aren’t very happy about your messaging! Wouldn’t you want to learn about this immediately, to initiate some damage control efforts while halting further ad runs?
Influencer Marketing
eCommerce has been booming on social media. And one of the reasons for this is influencer marketing. Millennials and Gen Z look for authentic reviews from influencers. This has given rise to the trend of micro-influencers and brand ambassadors. When you take an influencer on board you have some sets of eyes fixed on your product. And the conversation rate promises to be higher as most followers are generally loyal to the influencers they follow. So if an influencer is endorsing a product, the general belief is that it is a genuine review.
Social listening helps you find the right fit with the right influencer for your brand. And this is important because finding the right influencer is a tough job. The profile has to be authentic, with real followers and engagement. Then there is the part where you work out what niche they serve. This entire process of finding and choosing the right person is automated when a social listening tool is at work.
Lead Generation
People require products and services. They even use social media to seek recommendations for some of them. They may not even know about your brand or have any preference for you. Listening to industry keywords might help you find and connect with people looking for product recommendations. This comes as a great opportunity to reach out and start pitching an offer.
In conclusion, learning about customers can help you understand ways to improve your eCommerce strategy. These valuable insights help you adapt your business tone to better suit your customers. Social listening boosts eCommerce by helping you improve ways to drive sales online. This includes lead generation via better customer service, social engagement, and reputation management.