How is social media used in the present?
Social media is a dynamic channel ecommerce store owners HAVE to use for brand visibility, customer engagement, and targeted advertising. It enables businesses to reach a global audience, showcase products through visually appealing content, and foster trust through reviews and user-generated content.
The impact of social media on eCommerce has been increasing a lot in time, evolving with the platforms. In the beginning stages, social media served the primary purpose of fostering personal relationships and content sharing, yet companies saw an opportunity to market themselves. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter came up with options for advertising like creating a business page and advertising options, allowing brands to establish an online presence and reach specific audiences.
As engagement with Instagram and Pinterest grew, such platforms arose. These platforms are quite handy for eCommerce since product marketing is their primary focus. They allowed businesses to develop appealing storefronts and motivate individuals to buy through aspirational content. Scrolling through such features as shoppable posts and integrated checkout made browsing and buying virtually seamless while transforming social platforms into sales engines.
Also, it was the generation of influencers that brought a change in the eCommerce world, since brands began to work together with people whose opinions were considered to be authoritative in order to advertise goods and reach their target market. With time, advertising systems such as those found on Facebook or TikTok allowed shops to improve their efforts in strategic targeting for maximizing ROI.
In this day and age, social media is no longer a mere supplement but an integral part of an eCommerce company. It facilitates interaction, and sales and promotes the brand through integrations like live shopping, personalized advertisements, and AR experiences. This evolution highlights the blending of social connectivity and commerce to meet modern consumer expectations.
What are social media channels?
We can list or mention the names of the most known and used social media channels, but what are they?
We know them as online platforms that allow users to create, interact with and share, content created by other users virtually. These platforms cater to various forms of communication, including text, images, videos, and live interactions. The most popular ones are Meta (Facebook), Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
Each channel has grown differently, requiring businesses to adapt their content to reach their target audience and grow organically. This leads us to the following question: What is organic social posting?
What Is Organic Social Posting?
Organic social posting refers to creating and sharing unpaid content on social media platforms. This includes posts, stories, videos, and updates shared directly on a store’s or individual’s profile without any promotional spending. Organic social posts should connect with the followers, and create a sense of community and fans. Organic posts, unlike advertising, have no paid reach. It is based on the people’s interaction with the content and algorithms of the platform as users interact with it. This is important for the brand development, an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and skill, and for the audience to interact.
And why is it important
While paid social media promises quick results, organic social media remains strong, offering several key advantages.
1. SEO Benefits
Consistent social posts will indirectly improve your website’s search engine rankings. Social media activities increase brand awareness, leading to more branded searches on platforms like Google. These searches signal to search engines that your brand is credible and relevant. On top of that, if your content is shareable it can attract backlinks when users reference your posts in their blogs, articles, or websites. This in turn wil boost your site’s authority and ranking potential.
2. Social Proofing
Social media presence demonstrates that your store is credible, accessible, and connected to its audience. It reassures potential customers that your brand is legitimate and attentive, especially when they see consistent posts, customer interactions, and timely updates. This presence helps establish trust and provides validation, making customers more likely to choose your brand over less visible competitors.
3. Extra Visibility
Social media expands your brand’s exposure far beyond its immediate followers. The use of hashtags, shares, and user-generated content can amplify reach, making it possible for your posts to appear in trending topics or be discovered by new audiences. Viral or widely shared posts can even bring your brand to the attention of global audiences.
4. Relationship-Building
Organic posting fosters two-way communication, allowing business owners to engage directly with customers. Responding to comments, addressing concerns, and participating in conversations can build solid and loyal relationships with your audience. Over time, this engagement cultivates a community around your brand.
5. Showcasing Expertise
Social media is an ideal platform to highlight your industry knowledge, share educational content, and position your store as an authority in your field. By consistently providing value, you can attract a loyal audience and boost your brand’s credibility.
6. Gaining Insights from Feedback
Interactions on social media provide valuable customer insights. Comments, shares, and direct messages often reveal customer preferences, pain points, and expectations, offering a treasure trove of data to refine your products, services, and marketing strategies.
As a whole, organic social posting is an inexpensive method of improving your online presence and consolidating your brand as well as developing meaningful relations with your audience, all of which are beneficial for the growth of the business in the long run.
Now that we know why social media is essential for an online store, let’s see how we can successfully be present on these platforms.
How to Master Social Posting for Your eCommerce Store
1. Identify the Correct Channels for Your Online Store
Choose the platform that best suit the specifics of your store and the audience you are targeting. Clearly knowing your audience’s likes and dislikes will enable you to target the most decisive channels.
Each channel serves distinct purposes, and understanding these can help you choose the best ones for your Shopify store or online store:
- Twitter: Ideal for real-time engagement. With 500 million daily tweets, this platform is perfect for sharing news, promotions, and witty, branded content. Use hashtags and trending topics to join conversations and increase visibility.
- Facebook: excellent for sharing detailed posts, photos, live videos, and product updates. It’s particularly effective for growing a community. It will only help you to drive organic traffic if the content is engaging and interactive,
- Instagram: A must for visually driven brands. Instagram is perfect for showcasing products through high-quality images, short videos, and Instagram Stories. Use hashtags and geotags to expand reach
- YouTube: unbeatable for tutorials, product demos, or storytelling. With over 1 billion daily video views, it’s ideal for educating and engaging your audience
- LinkedIn: The world’s largest professional network is essential for B2B businesses or Shopify stores targeting a professional audience. Share industry insights, whitepapers, or company updates to build authority and trust
- TikTok: Growing rapidly with over 1.1 billion monthly users, this platform suits brands that can create fun, authentic short videos. It’s ideal for engaging younger audiences with creative and trending content
Source inspiration: https://www.the-pixel.com/social-media-channels-explained/
2. Study the Competition
Analyze competitors in your niche to identify effective content strategies. Look at their post types, engagement levels, and frequency. For an online store, observe how they showcase products, handle customer queries, or leverage seasonal campaigns. Use these insights to craft unique strategies and improve upon gaps in your competitors’ approaches.
3. Establish a Cadence Using Existing Assets
Streamline your social posting by repurposing content from your Shopify store, such as product descriptions, blog posts, or customer reviews. For example:
- Share customer testimonials as Instagram stories.
- Convert blog articles into visually appealing infographics.
- Create quick, engaging product demo videos from existing footage or user-generated content.
This approach ensures a steady flow of engaging content while maximizing the value of your existing resources.
Here are some examples of how we’ve repurposed content effectively:
- Blog Post to Social Media: Our article Why Shopify is the Best Platform for Your Pet Store was repackaged into an Instagram post to engage our audience. [Read the article here and view the Instagram post].
- Customer Reviews to Social Media: After receiving a glowing review from a client on Clutch, we transformed it into a branded social media review post to build trust and showcase credibility. View the social media post here.
4. Build a Content Planner
A social media content calendar ensures consistency and strategic alignment for your online store. Planning helps you align your content with promotions, sales, or critical shopping seasons.
5. Personalize Messaging for Customer Personas
Your content should be created with the ideal store audience in mind. For instance, use informal, colorful words for younger capsule collections shoppers, or formal and useful posts if the audience is B2B. Through personalized messaging, the content speaks directly to customer segments, improving engagement and conversion rates.
6. Community Management
Respond to comments, direct messages, and mentions to show your online store is approachable and engaged. A responsive approach builds trust and encourages repeat interactions.
7. Actions to Grow Your Reach
Expand the reach of your Shopify store by collaborating with influencers, hosting giveaways, or leveraging trending hashtags to increase visibility. Encourage user-generated content by asking customers to share posts featuring your products tagged with your online store’s handle. These strategies amplify reach and create authentic engagement with your brand.
Implementing these strategies can help your Shopify store or online store establish a solid social media presence that attracts customers, drives sales, and builds lasting relationships.
Common Misconceptions About Organic Social Posting
You’ll Get Lots of Traffic: Unfortunately, organic social posting is primarily aimed at building awareness, enhancing social proof, and improving SEO, not driving massive traffic directly. While organic posts can certainly increase visibility, the significant traffic spikes typically come from paid advertising or promotions. Organic efforts often lay the groundwork for future traffic by nurturing engagement and trust, but it’s paid strategies that are more likely to lead to immediate conversions
Social Posting Guarantees Sales: A common myth is that simply posting on social media will automatically drive sales. In reality, organic posts are a tool for engagement, relationship-building, and brand awareness, but they don’t usually result in direct sales. Successful sales come from a combination of strategies, including compelling offers, effective website design, and targeted marketing campaigns, not just organic posts.
Frequent Posting Is More Important Than Quality Engagement: Many believe that posting frequently is the key to social media success. However, the frequency of posts matters less than the quality of the content and the engagement you foster with your audience. High-quality posts that resonate with your followers and prompt interaction will yield better long-term results than simply flooding feeds with low-value content. Meaningful engagement, responding to comments, answering questions, and fostering conversations are far more impactful than sheer volume. Of course, this does not mean that you should post once every few months; you still need to be consistent with your posting.
Social Media Is Only for Direct Interaction with Customers: Another misconception is that social media is solely for direct interactions, like responding to inquiries or complaints. This is important, but social media is also necessary for brand storytelling, content sharing, and increasing network visibility. Building your brand’s story, sharing valuable content, and participating in trending conversations help establish a solid brand presence.
Understanding these common misconceptions can help businesses appreciate the real strength of organic social posting and help them manage their expectations whilst delivering an effective plan that is consistent with their aims.
To create or improve your social media strategy, contact us for a free social media audit.
For more tips and insights, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
And remember, every piece of content you share is an investment that will grow your brand over time. Each post, comment, and interaction builds momentum, nurturing future engagement and success.