10 Social Media Optimization Tips For Small Business

Mention social media to any ecommerce company and you may get mixed reactions ranging from loathing to excitement. If you own or work for an ecommerce company, you most likely have a social media presence. But is it a pain to come up with new content every day? Maybe it’s part of your business plan but you’ve been putting it off for the past few months.

We’re here to tell you a few things: don’t put it off any longer, and it’s not as hard to get going as you think!

Social media creative agency We Are Social partnered with several data firms to find out just how many people are on social media in 2020. As of January 2020, We Are Social found that there are approximately 3.8 billion users on social media. Your customers are online and ready to consume content from you.

Optimizing your social media accounts doesn’t have to be scary or expensive. With these 10 simple social media optimization tips, your ecommerce business can increase its brand awareness, reach new audiences and even bring in more sales.

Try these 10 tips today.

1. Know Your Audience

Dive into your customer base and pull up a few orders that you see over and over again as far as product and order quantity. From there, research the customers that have placed the orders! This will give you a picture of who your audience is and what their needs are. 

2. Set Up A Plan

Once you’ve pulled your top customers, it’s time to set up your social media game plan. Using your top customers, create a persona chart detailing their demographics, buying habits, user journeys and the potential struggles they encounter when shopping for products similar to what you offer.

Use this chart to find your social media voice and to define the content you create. If it helps, create a sheet with different categories of content your social media posts will fall into. Keeping your content organized now will help you generate more content in the future when you’re feeling stuck.

3. Repurpose Content

This is the easiest social media optimization tip you can implement! You don’t have to constantly generate new content to deliver to your audience. Use what already exists on your website or other social media pages. From your product photos and descriptions to your homepage and about us pages, content already exists everywhere around you. 

Using this existing content, pull out one-liners and images you can use to create social media posts. You can also utilize your social media platforms to reinforce your brand by posting about your value props, products and what customers are saying about your product.

4. Tag Products

Don’t forget to show off the products you post about! Help your customers find what you’re highlighting easily and quickly by tagging your products. Both Facebook and Instagram allow you to tag your products if your store is set up on Facebook Shop.

Once tags are set up, your customers can tap or click on the tag and instantly start shopping. 

5. Tag People and Brands

In the same vein, don’t forget to also tag people and other brands. When you tag another user, you’re creating a direct link to their profile. On Instagram, your tag will show up on the tagged user’s profile under a separate tab. 

This helps your brand create connections with other brands and users, and increases the chances of your brand getting tagged by other users. 

6. Schedule Ahead

Chances are, you won’t be able to log into your social media accounts every day to post. There are holidays, weekends and days where you get caught up with your other job duties.

This is where scheduling ahead comes into play. Facebook now makes it easy to schedule both your Facebook and Instagram posts, so there’s no need for a third party scheduling platform if you don’t have the time to set one up. By scheduling ahead, you’ll be helping yourself when you have to put your head down for a project or if you get to take a few days off. Scheduling helps keep a consistent stream of content during the times you can’t give 100% of your attention to social media. 

7. Keep it Personable

Try to stay away from traditional marketing tactics on your social media channels. Use less sales and marketing jargon and focus on being your most personable self. 

Audiences today are looking for brands they can relate to. Being personable means showing a side of your brand that isn’t the salesy, buttoned-up website your customers are used to purchasing from.

8. Optimize Your Profile

When was the last time you updated your Facebook page’s about section or your Instagram bio? These places are key to letting new customers and potential customers find out who you are and what your ecommerce company offers. Place your top value peops in your about section or bio and include a link to your homepage or a landing page that shows more of what you offer.

9. Interact With Followers

Comment, reply and like other posts. Your social media platforms shouldn’t be a one-way street. When your customers and audience leave comments on your posts or tag you in photos, take the chance to show your personable side by dropping a reply! 

When you interact with your followers, you increase your social media engagement. While engagement doesn’t necessarily equate to more purchases, it does measure the popularity of your post and brand and it can lead to more eyes on your page.

Through interaction, you can also help educate your customers and audience if there are negative comments about your brand. Be constructive, positive and helpful in your interactions.

10. Analyze 

Finally, all of these tips will only help you in the most optimal way if you analyze the results. By taking a look at how your audience has responded to your content, you’re giving yourself the chance to keep improving. 

Measure your engagement rates for each post through the social media platforms and take note of which kinds of posts performed the best. Don’t forget to take a look at which days and times performed the best for your posts. Using this information, adjust your posts or posting schedule in order to deliver on what your customers have told you through their interactions. 

To optimize your social media effectively, take a bit of time to break down the process. First, get to know your audience and create a plan using the content that’s already around you. Then analyze and make tweaks to keep improving and getting to the level you’d like to reach.