This document outlines effective social media strategies for e-commerce brands to increase traffic, brand awareness, and sales by focusing on providing value and building an engaged audience rather than direct selling. Key tactics include creating varied content, understanding audience personas, maintaining a consistent brand voice, and fostering community engagement through questions and storytelling. Ultimately, the goal is to build relationships with customers and market experiences, encouraging them to connect emotionally with the brand.

1. Social Media
+ Ecommerce
How to drive more traffic, build
brand awareness, and increase your
sales using proven social media
strategies

2. The Good News:
There are currently 2.62 billion social media users around
the globe. That means there’s a lot of potential to drive
engagement and increase revenue.
The number of internet shoppers in the
US will reach 217 million this year.
(statista.com)
96% of Americans have made an online
purchase in their life, with 80% having
made a purchase in the past month alone
Bigcommerce.com

3. The Challenge:
You are competing for people’s time and
attention
Social media users don’t like being sold to
How can e-commerce brands drive more
sales on social media without being salesy?

4. Social media does not work when you’re trying to turn
every new fan or follower into a paying customer. It
gets a lot simpler, when you shift your focus toward
offering value and building an engaged audience.

5. Counterintuitive Fact Alert:
The more you systematize your
social media, the more natural
conversation and engagement
you will generate.
(Hint: post questions and
conversation starters along with
links.)

6. Authenticity and
Consistency
Build Your Know, Like, and Trust
Factor… Your social profile is like
your storefront
Show up for the followers you have
and make your site socially
shareable!
Find the content that best matches
your niche.
Analyze your market and decide how
you want to differentiate.

7. Strike Your Perfect Marketing to Value Ratio!
For every product promotion you
post, you need at least three to four
pieces of content that add value!
Educate Inform Entertain Promote

8. You can’t make cookies with just a carton of eggs, or a bag of flour
– you need a variety of different things. On social media, that
means a variety of different update types.
Remember the 80/20 rule:
:Links to your own content – Blog posts, Videos, Downloads
Other people’s content – Curate, Curate, Curate!
Shareable wisdom – Quotes, Tips, and Wit
Promotions – Products, Contests, Sales, Newsletter signups

9. Ask don’t sell
Making an elegant sale - Self Selecting Marketing - When is the ideal time to buy?
They have a problem, you have the solution, it’s
your job to let them know you exist!

10. Now, the instructions.
Say you end up with six or so categories – six
types of updates that you routinely share.

11. This allows for a robust
schedule where you are never
posting the same content back
to back!

12. If you’re posting three updates a day, five days
a week, that’s a pretty respectable number
when you’re starting out.
3 x 5 = 15
And now you make the batch.

13. That makes 15 updates a week, or 60 a
month.
15 x 4 = 60
And now you make the batch.

14. 60 updates a month comes down to 10 updates
per category per month.
6 ÷ 60 = 10
Each category needs 10 new updates a month!
And now you MADE the batch.

15. Once a month, sit down and write 10 updates
per category. That’s it!
10 links to blog posts you think
are interesting. 10 tips or
quotes. 10 links to your own
promotions, and so on – and
when you’re done, you’re done.

17. It all starts with audience
personas, or semi-fictional
archetypes, that represent
your ideal type of customer.
When approached correctly, audience personas help you:
● Anticipate and address audience needs (make them think you read their mind).
● Personalize messaging, brand voice, content, and product features.
● Prioritize initiatives, budgets, and resources.
● Drive desired actions (get them to spend that money – if that’s your goal, that is).

18. Discovery and Awareness
Not yet aware that they need your
product, or are not aware that you exist
In the market for your product and are
considering several options.
Gathered their data and are ready to
make a decision on your product.
Audience
Targeting
Consideration
Decision

19. 80% of Pinterest users are women according to Marketing Land. Nike
creates platform specific content and speaks straight to their followers
story by having a Pinterest board specifically for women

20. Upcycle Your Content
Add Visuals: Use Canva
to do the heavy lifting
Play the long game: It
takes 7 touch points
with a brand to build
loyalty and purchase
power

21. Your company’s
voice on social
media shows people
who you are – and
just as importantly,
who you aren’t –
and you have to be
able to keep that
identity consistent.

22. Who you
are:
Their purpose
isn’t
necessarily to
drive traffic –
it’s to share
something that
their
audiences will
care about and
appreciate!

23. Who You Are Not
They tapped into a like-minded
community of people who wanted to
#OptOutside on Black Friday, and
other brands jumped on board:

24. Your voice can be visual
Be recognised faster
Establish a consistent
color scheme with your
photos and text!

25. Success comes from
your followers knowing
what to expect!
Uniformity and a
distinct character.
Consistency = style,
frequency and timing -
enables subscribers to
feel part of the overall
Olive experience!
Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users. Which means over 1
billion people are paying attention to this app every single month!

26. One Post One Job
Clear Call To Action - One Post One
Job
Image clearly shows the variety and
looks available for this product
Link Shortener for clean look and
tracking
The harder it is to buy or access
something, the less likely we are
to follow through. Develop a
strong advertising presence with
an easy purchasing process.

27. Are you marketing experiences?
Think of a creative way you can tap
into a community of individuals. You
have to know your ideal audience and
sell an experience – not just your
product.

28. Shareable
Timely
Connect your products with your
customers’ personal identities. Rather
than selling a product based on its color
and physical attributes, focus on the
lifestyle or identity that a customer can
obtain.
People purchase lifestyles, not
products.

29. Customers like to feel
both seen and heard.
They want to express
themselves using your
products, so create
opportunities to connect!
Ask Questions

30. - Yeah Bunny sells
accessories
- Video for reach
- Everyone loves trivia
- We are wired to fill
curiosity gaps!
Asking questions for
engagement and
shared experiences

31. Testimonials
and Social
Proof

32. Tell Stories of
Transformation
What did it FEEL LIKE
before you purchased X
What did it FEEL LIKE
when you pulled out
your credit card
What does it FEEL LIKE
now having X in your
life.

33. Humble Brag
Simple but eye catching
“100% Biased” Review
stays on brand voice
Great personalization and
humanization of the
brand
Conversational - develop
a personality that your
target audience is fond of.

34. Dollar Shave Club – Entice Followers with Engaging Content
Educational
content and
curiosity can
entice followers
to come back
for more. After
all, people love
to learn
interesting and
unusual facts

35. Show people how to
use your hashtag
Create polls for
engagement
Personality
Comments call to
action
Hashtag humor

36. Polls!
Click as if
you are
tweeting..
Use the
horizontal
graph!

37. U
G
C

38. While you’re not
necessarily creating
on mobile, your
audience is
definitely
consuming there.

40. Quote and
Inspire
Post inspirational,
motivational, entertaining,
educational or funny
quotation with an image of
your product.
Comes across less as
promotional content and
more as inspirational
content
Very Shareable

41. Transparency is
everything
Create Trust
Listen to your
followers, they
show you what to
post!
Be Flawsome

42. Twitter found that when a business responds to
someone who tweeted at them:
They’ll be willing to spend as much as 20% more
based on that interaction.
They’re 44% more likely to share their experience
both online and off
They’re 30% more likely to recommend your brand
to others.
69% of people who tweet something negative about
a business report feeling more positively after that
business responds

43. Never Neglect Notifications!
Follow and respond
to anyone who
tweets at you!
Follow others in
your industry to
increase your
authority in your
field!

44. Develop a
strategy
for
responding
to
customer
inquiries
via social
media.

45. Dedicated Support Accounts
Company
Values
displayed front
and center on
Social Media
Immediate
access =
TRUST

46. Spacing & Impact Characters
Pay attention to blocked text and
“skimability”
280 characters can be helpful or
hurtful thanks to smartphones –
people may have an attention span
of only about eight seconds.
Make the destination match the
posts look and feel to create trust
and future click through

47. Twitter Cards:
Adding images to
your posts or using
Twitter cards is the
equivalent of
sneaking extra
snacks into your post
without costing you
any extra.
https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator

48. Let Your
Customers
Promote The
Brand
We process
images 60,000
times faster than
text.
#asseenonme

49. As a testament to the campaign’s success, the brand
created a separate Instagram account

50. Showing followers
your product in
action will make it
easy for them to
imagine
themselves using
it!
So….Highlight how
your product is
used in everyday
lives!
It’s a great way to
recognise your
customers, and
create raving fans!
Gratitude
Promotions

51. Never Sales
content
What is the
best aspect
or most
unique
experience
can people
have?
Curation as
a strong
content
promoter

52. TOMS – Pull on Customers’
Heartstrings
Think relationships first,
business second
Through emotional
campaigns, you can influence
audiences to have a positive
perception of your brand and
the products you sell.

53. The New York Times published an article in 2011 about the
science behind why people share online.
1. Delight others with valuable &
entertaining content
2. Identify and present ourselves
to others
3. Foster relationships
4. Self-fulfillment
5. Spreading the word about
issues, products, and brands

54. Glossier – Get Stuck in Their
Mind
Glossier shares content in which the people
in their audience can see themselves
#glossierpink
Customers can
easily recall
your brand –
no matter the
reason

55. Behind the scenes content
Anticipation
Understanding the hard work and effort
behind a product or service can make
customers value it even more.
Gamify the content or consider a
countdown
Sneak Peek - your followers get
something exclusive

56. Follow The Trends and Join the Discussion
Research national xyz
days for creative
promotional posts
Set up Google Trends
and Google Alerts
Search trending
hashtags on Twitter

57. Video
Direct Uploads over Youtube
links
You are not asking people for a
commitment
Behind the scenes content
Visual branding
Low cost commercial and
document your process!

58. Pay To Play
Provide valuable insights,
information and service –
and let your ads do the
conversion work for you.
Market the experience
and outcome not the
process
Use organic posts to
inform your boosts

59. Take Action and try it today!
Analyze your audience with
Facebook Insights and
Twitter Analytics
Develop your style guide and
categories
Social batch & stay true
to your brand in every
update

60. Your initial goal is to build
relationships with first-time
customers – not to go for a hard
sell right away.