According to experts 92% of advertisers are harnessing the power of Facebook. So where do you start building a social media strategy at your eCommerce store?
Let’s start by taking a look at the brief answer before we dive into details and give you the best tips on how to grow your dropshipping venture using social media.
How do I build my dropshipping store using social media? Use social platforms to research products, conduct analysis, connect with important influencers, grow a client base to increase organic traffic and create paid advertising through Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, you can grow your eCommerce dropshipping store and remain competitive.
What can I use social media for in my dropshipping store?
- Product research and analysis
- Working with influencers
- Run advertising campaigns
- Encourage organic traffic
1. Product research
Don’t follow the lead of many dropshippers by creating social media accounts after you’ve launched your eCommerce store. This will only lead to a race to the bottom as you desperately try to build a following and play catch up.
By getting started with some early research and identifying your niche you may uncover trending products which other dropshippers are overlooking. For instance, Twitter’s trending topics, moments, and search features can help you discover the kind of products that are most in-demand. Or just search ‘went viral’ on twittter or Facebook and you will be inspired with niche trending products.
These crucial insights can prove invaluable when it comes to making decisions about which dropship wholesalers to partner with or which lines to include in your inventory.
2. Work with influencers
Finding out which influencers your target audience are listening to can help you generate a large number of followers. It might be the type of content they post will give you clues, or even the way they personally dress.
When you’re building your dropshipping store, influencers can help elevate your brand’s social following through the roof in a relatively short space of time.
However, it’s worth noting that the most expensive influencers aren’t always going to increase your revenue most effectively. You could find yourself paying out up to $500 for a post which gives no return.
Make sure to check out testimonials and reviews on influencer network so your investment are in correct direction. Sending a free sample of your product to such influencers, who are either within your industry or related to it in some way, gives you an opportunity to let them know you appreciate their work with a small gift. Also, hopefully, you will get a mention on one of their sites or platforms.
3. Run an advertising campaign
Advertisement is the biggest and perhaps the sole traffic source for many dropshipping stores.
- Have a combination of different social media ad campaigns
- Compare your ads and find the ones that bring in higher conversions
- Test those ads with specific customer segments
- Optimize the copy and images to improve your results.
Once you’ve settled on the ad campaign that works for your products, scale and monitor it continuously to ensure high performance.
While with Facebook advertisement budget goes up, it is highly recommended that sellers checkout other platform such as Google, Pinterest and TikTok. Nurturing loyal customer base is important too.
4. Encourage organic traffic
Although Google says that ‘social signals’ don’t directly impact rankings, there are ways you can use it to boost organic referral traffic. Here are three great ways to boost your organic visitors using social media
- Add social links A simple, but often overlooked, way to boost interaction and show that your profiles are active, is by including a link to your website in your social profiles to increase the quality of traffic to your website, and vice versa. Make sure you include share buttons on your website, emails and other online business profiles.
- Optimize your content As Google aims to return the most relevant and useful results to answer users’ queries, the brands that are most effective on social media are those which provide a great customer experience by regularly publishing unique, content focused on your target audience.
- Public endorsement Social engagement is social proof that you offer a good quality service. People trust recommendations from their peers. Ensure your content is relevant and create an anchor to show your followers you are offering great products. This will help spread the message and increase brand awareness.
4 Tips on creating social media for dropshipping store
- Create consistency
- Interact with the audience
- Use quality visuals and content
- Don’t hard sell
1) Create consistency
Make sure you regularly post on social sites but make sure you aren’t literally bombarding your followers with irrelevant material.
Keep it consistent but add quality posts, sale offers and ads which relate to your audience.
For instance, the Facebook algorithm works much better for your page if you post consistently. If not, it can only take a guess on who might be reacting to your page and content. The more consistently you post, the more targeted your engagement will be.
2) Interact with the audience
Social media can be the perfect channel to engage your customers and promote your e-commerce store because it allows you to interact with your followers and answer their questions directly.
For instance, when someone tags you on a question posted to Twitter, you can answer the question directly by replying to the Tweet.
3) Use quality visuals and content
Social media has changed the way businesses operate. With social networks like Facebook and Instagram that allow longer videos, you can come up with more creative and interactive ways to promote your dropshipping store and products.
4) Don’t hard sell
Your customers do not want a hard sell. Social media is exactly that. A platform for sharing content without the hard sell of traditional advertising.
A great way of engaging your audience by running a contest on your Facebook account. To make your content relatable, make sure that the prize is relevant to your audience.
By posting relatable and relevant content to your social media accounts, you can encourage your followers to share your content. It’s an excellent strategy to spread your brand awareness without sounding too overly “sales-y”
Last but not least…
Executing a killer social media strategy for dropshipping store will benefit in a long way. So to make sure you don’t get left behind in the competitive world of dropshipping, start using social media platforms to build, develop and grow your store.
And ultimately, you should provide a pleasant shopping experience to consumers, since at the end of the day, customers are buying quality products meets expectations. An reliable dropshipping platform will help you ensure your customers’ offline experience as good as the online experience.