A multi-platform social media strategy is like a Rubik’s cube, you need to align all the colors to succeed. With each social media platform presenting its own set of unique challenges and opportunities, it is important to work across all of them in unison to be effective and successful.

1. 01
Six ways to grow your multi-platform engagement
A multi-platform social media strategy is like a Rubik’s cube, you need to align all
the colors to succeed. With each social media platform presenting its own set of
unique challenges and opportunities, it is important to work across all of them in
unison to be effective and successful.
Here are some tips that will help you grow your multi-platform engagement:
Choose the right technology partner
Social media is not the space where you can thrive in isolation, it is necessary to
collaborate with experts to better understand the full potential of optimising and
also monetising your content as well as widening the reach of your social media
presence. Always look for the technology partner that best serves your goals and
aligns with your vision as well. Along with collaboration, you can also use the
provided social media plug-ins and use them to garner traffic from different social
platforms. Social media integration with companies that are working on optimising
the content and reaching full optimisation will be a perfectly balanced blend, where
you get to focus more on the creative side of content creation and not worry too
much about content optimisation, post-production.

2. Always cross-promote
One of the best ways to grow your multi-platform engagement is by cross
promoting your brand/profile. You can always leverage your followers or audiences
on one platform to grow your other platforms. Using cross platform promotion will
give you a wider reach, drive faster growth and maximise your overall
engagement. Some ways to cross-promote your content are adding links to all of
your social media profiles on every platform, offering exclusive content on a
specific platform, and promoting content that you have created on one platform on
others to migrate your user base to all your social media platforms. Exclusive
content will undoubtedly create a strong pull towards your other platforms as the
combination of engaging new content and the fear of missing out (FOMO) on the
content will make the content irresistible and in-turn generate more cross-platform
engagement.
Keep a close eye on the changing algorithms and analytics
Today, it is not just enough that you or your brand exist on these platforms. It is
equally important to understand and keep a close eye on all the changing
algorithms followed by these platforms, this way you can be on top of the most
consumed content and remain relevant. Analytics also requires a keen eye as you
need to understand who, what and when the content that you create gets the most
traffic and interest. The reason why social media platforms use algorithms is to
organically filter through the large amount of content that is available on each
platform. Hence, it is important to understand the algorithm changes and also
break-down the analytics to better understand your content consumer base. A
major chunk of content creators are not up to date with the changes in the

3. algorithm which might affect their content and optimisation. So, it is necessary to
be in sync with the algorithms to generate revenue and grow cross platform as
well.
Improve search engine ranking
One of the integral ways to boost your multi-platform engagement is to improve
your search engine ranking. While this is common knowledge, understanding how
to improve the ranking is a little more complicated. It’s clear that much like every
other variable in the creator space, consistency will be the major contributor to
better visibility. With attention spans becoming shorter, it is essential that your
searchability is high to grow your engagement outside of your platform’s bubble,
which will require you to partner with experts who will help you improve your SEO
rankings.
Create quick overview reports
Use your social media analytics to the best of your advantage. Almost all of the
social media platforms provide the options of viewing your analytics. You can track
your performance overview, metrics breakdown chart and also the breakdown of
your post where you can analyse the engagement on the post. This will further
help in evaluating your social media performance and help understand which
content is doing good, which ones are trending and which ones are more suitable
for cross platform optimisation.

4. Deep dive knowledge into sustainable and relevant content
It is necessary to have knowledge on what type of content is sustainable and
relevant. It is easy to be a one hit wonder on social media where everything has a
potential to go viral one time but to grow your presence, visibility and optimise your
content it is important to understand the need for sustainable content. It is also
crucial to know that content validity differs from genre to genre and so does the
duration of the content. So, it is good to be educated on the kind of content that will
work in the long run. It is therefore imperative for creators who need upskilling in
sustainable content and support in optimisation to partner with an expert to enable
growth.
To manifest and magnify the benefits of a multi-platform engagement, you will
need to expand your presence. It is a task to manage cross-platform engagement
but the more you diversify your social media presence, the better will be the impact
you create.
The author is country manager, Jellysmack
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02

5. 11 Smart Ways to Optimize Your Social Commerce Strategy
The trend of social commerce has been around for some time and is going to grow
in the coming years. That’s because the big social media platforms invest in
commerce solutions to compete for advertisers and audiences.
By 2028, the global social commerce market is expected to reach $3.369 billion.
What does the rise of social commerce mean for online businesses? It means that
you need to have a solid commerce strategy to provide the best buyer journey for
your customers.
Unfortunately, social commerce can’t reach these goals without a cohesive digital
experience. In this article, you’ll get your social commerce ready with the top 11
powerful tactics to increase your brand visibility and generate more sales.
Table Of Contents
What is social commerce?
Social commerce refers to activities that support online buying through social
media platforms. It differs from social media marketing as you’re not leading users
to your online store but showing the ability to check out right away within the
network.

6. With 60% of buyers saying they discover new products on social media and 200
million Instagrammers visiting at least one business profile daily, you can’t ignore
the trend. The main thing about social commerce is the opportunity to build a
seamless ecommerce experience within social channels as one of the most
popular places on the web.
Brands educate users about their products, publish content, run ads, collaborate
with influencers, and engage customers to drive online sales. And finally, they offer
users to buy right on the social media platform without redirecting them elsewhere.
Social commerce includes a wide range of additional channels to sell products
directly:
Shopping via mobile apps
Shopping integrated into social media
Group buying
Retailers adding social features
Social shopping

7. And although social commerce has been around for the last 15 years, it’s only in
the previous five that it’s rising.
The rise of social commerce
The global COVID-19 pandemic and the related mitigation efforts forced you to
use online shopping, instantly providing your customers special promotions and
new products while staying safe at home. Scott Galloway, the marketing professor,
states that the pandemic has accelerated that change by around five years.
That’s incited social media platforms to integrate their ecommerce efforts and
invest in multiple in-stream product discovery and purchase forms. Now online
marketers need to adapt to the existing trends and enhance the shopping
experience for customers through social media channels.
11 smart practices to nail your social commerce strategy
As you can see, the social commerce competition is fierce, and the key to success
in 2022 is to build out a cohesive social shopping experience for your business.
Here are ten hands-on tactics you should consider:
1. Select the right social platform

8. Not all social media platforms fit ecommerce purposes. But some of them,
including Instagram, act as discovery engines for online businesses. Users engage
in different actions, from searching for inspiration from brands and people and
direct messaging for opinions while making social media purchases.
It would be best to consider focusing on your customers’ channels and engaging
with them the most. Then, select two or three platforms to achieve your goals and
increase your online presence on these channels.
For example, if you sell clothes or beauty care products, Instagram will win sales
among other channels. At the same time, tech products and gadgets might do well
on Twitter or Facebook. To find out the right one, check your social media analytics
to see the most engagement for your brand.
Another great way is to survey your target audience on different platforms. For
example, take a look at the table of social media platforms where most of all online
shoppers would make purchases as of April 2021:
2. Define your social media persona
You can’t start building your social commerce strategy without defining your social
media persona. It’s a fictional representation of your ideal customer, including their
demographic data (age, gender, location), buying patterns, desires, and pain
points. To gather your outstanding customer data, you can use Shopify’s customer
reports or your social media analytics.

9. To know your customers better, you can listen to what others are saying on social
media platforms or get direct feedback through customer surveys. It will help you
gain valuable insights into your customers’ experiences and perceptions and build
a holistic view of all their interactions with your business. (See what lessons you
can learn from unhappy customers).
Make sure to create a document listing all the mentioned aspects; you can even
include a good picture. Then, you can always get back to this ideal social media
persona whenever in doubt while crafting content tailored to their preferences and
needs. For example, see a template that shows what a complete social media
persona looks like:
3. Collaborate with influencers
There are many benefits of collaborating with influencers. 89% of marketers
confirm that collaboration with influencers generated a comparable or frequently
better return on investment (ROI) than other marketing channels.
Working with influencers can support a social commerce strategy by these three
benefits:
Association: connect your brand with an influencer’s positive reputation.
Affinity: the ability to build brand alignment and creativity with an influencer

10. Reach: using the target audience of an influencer
Specifically for Instagram, Mariano Rodriquez, CEO of LawRank, said that the
channel had positioned itself as a “one-stop-shop” where businesses can solicit
influencers by spotlighting a new product, sharing reviews up to purchase.
Teaming up with affordable, relevant, and authentic influencers can be an excellent
way to attract new or existing customers and increase your brand awareness. But
it doesn’t always cost a lot. There are a massive amount of micro-influencers with
laser-focused accounts and friendly audiences.
Before investing in collaboration, analyze the followers of an influencer with whom
you’d like to collaborate. Make sure that their following aligns with your target
audience.
To learn more about collaborating with influencers and the types of influencers,
check out our recent Influencer Marketing Guide for Ecommerce.
4. Create a seamless shopping experience
Customers like convenience, speed, and ease when shopping on social media.
Try to speed up online shopping by creating quick and straightforward purchasing
paths. Fortunately, you can do it, thanks to the valuable features offered by social
media platforms.

11. For example, Instagram allows you to set up Instagram Shops and tag shoppable
products in posts, Stories, and Reels. Eligible businesses from the United States
can already use Instagram Checkout, which allows them to purchase products
without leaving the platform. With post-purchase surveys, you can define the
problems that frustrate shoppers to remove friction from their experiences.
If you don’t have access to Instagram Checkout just yet, create a seamless
transition between the social platform and your retail store. For example, add links
to specific product pages whenever you post about them and include a link to your
ecommerce store in your bio.
Make sure that customers don’t experience any issues outside the social media
platforms. For example, provide multiple payment options and an option to buy
without registration.
5. Engage your followers with live shopping
Live shopping gained massive popularity during the global pandemic. Using video
shopping can provide customers with an experience similar to in-store shopping:
you can showcase your products and talk to your customers in real-time. But, most
importantly, they can ask questions, review new products, and even place orders
during the live session.
Live shopping is an excellent way to add a personal touch and immediacy to social
commerce. You can organize live videos whenever you have a new drop of
products or a sale (Here’s how to do an Instagram live stream using your PC). In

12. addition, you can go live on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat to interact
with your users, answer their questions, and help them make decisions.
P.S. To get some shopping inspiration for your live videos, Depositphotos is a great
place for that. You can find many different videos about product reviews that you
can use to make your video content compelling.
6. Create shoppable content
Instagram allows brands to tag products in their posts. The tags are clickable by
enabling users to visit a product listing and discover details such as the price and
shipping options. From there, they can move straight to the checkout or save the
product to get back to buy it later. It’s an excellent facilitation tool for discovering
new products.
A similar option is available on Pinterest. By adding links to your Pins, you cut the
distance to the checkout for your customers. Make sure to direct them straight to
the product page.
7. Use the power of social proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon; it occurs when people get inspired
and copy the actions of others. People usually follow those they admire in the
steps: friends, relatives, and influencers.

13. Testimonials, user-generated content, customer stories, and reviews all fall under
the power of social proof. The main thing is to use them correctly within the
customer journey.
To enhance the phenomenon of social proof, show appreciation towards those
who post pictures of your products: share their publications and thank them either
in a comment or a message. In this way, you’ll increase the chances that they’ll
mention your brand again.
8. Experiment with chatbots
According to this research, customers prefer to spend more when their shopping
experience is personalized. Chatbots can facilitate the shopping experience for
your customers. In addition, they can give quick and straightforward answers to
customers’ questions, save time and money, and build credibility even with some
limitations.
Chatbots are pretty intelligent and can assist your customers almost as well as
human advisors. So, if you’re brave enough to experiment, they will help you
increase your social sales. One example of how a chatbot can help you are LEGO.
Its bot is always available to help customers select and buy the ideal toy based on
your kid’s age and interests:
Read more: What is Live Chat and Why Is It So Important?

14. 9. Build a visual social storefront
Instagram pointed out that 60% of people find new products and services on their
channels and want to buy something right away if it’s visually appealing. So,
creating a visually attractive social storefront on Instagram or Facebook is one of
the first steps you should take to optimize your social commerce strategy.
If you have products that visually stand out from users’ newsfeeds, this will
strengthen the fact to build an online presence on social channels such as
Instagram. For creating impressive designs and videos, VistaCreate (ex-Crello) is
a great (free) tool to keep all your projects consistent with your brand identity. You
can use different templates and animated designs for Facebook, Instagram,
Pinterest, etc.
The next thing to consider is Instagram Shopping, where you can show your
specific products. Set up a Facebook Shop first because Instagram Shopping
extracts all data from your Facebook catalog.
One more way to highlight your products is to use shopping tags within Instagram
Stories and the newsfeed. That allows users to get necessary information about a
product and purchase it instantly.
10. Provide a personalized experience

15. Today customers want personal interactions with brands, so it is crucial to reach
them with the right products. For example, you can target your customers with
personalized ads based on their previous browsing and purchasing behavior.
Take a look at some valuable tips to follow:
Use the native targeting options of the social media platforms. Retarget those
users who have previously visited your product page with an ad.
Analyze user behavior on your page. You can create heat maps to determine what
elements on your website stimulate interest most frequently.
Speak the language of your customers. A keyword suggestion tool like WebCEO
can help you determine which keywords generate the highest search volumes
among your target demographics and use them for advertising purposes.
Use emails lists to segment your audience and send more personalized
communications. You can target them to grow your business and get new
shoppers with the correct email marketing tools. Learn more about email
marketing for ecommerce.
11. Find the ideal price
The competition in social commerce is fierce. You need to compete with
alternatives available on the market to stand out from the crowd. To succeed, you

16. should create an excellent pricing strategy to maximize profits on sales of your
products or services.
The best price can affect the customers’ buying decisions. That’s why it’s essential
to benchmark your costs with competitors to understand better how your brand fits
into the marketplace. If your rivals have the same quality of products for an
unbeatable price, you can take losses.
Try to make a list of your main competitors, keep an eye on their products, and
define their best prices regularly. Then, ensure to adapt those prices to your
industry standards with exclusive discounts.
Bonus tip: use analytics
Analyzing your results is a crucial element of any social commerce strategy. If you
don’t track the results of your efforts, you’ll never know how you’re doing and what
you should change to achieve better results.
The social media channels like Instagram and Facebook have their native
analytics sections to track the progress of your business. Once you start
monitoring user and performance metrics, you can quickly identify possible trends
and problems and make changes accordingly. In addition, you can use social
media engagement tools like NapoleonCat to extract detailed information about
your activity to get advanced analytics.

17. Final words
Social media platforms constantly evolve and introduce new commerce-friendly
features. As a result, social commerce creates an incredible shopping experience
and attracts new customers to the places that matter.
But to get success in social commerce, you need to build a cohesive strategy and
find the proper channels to engage with your target audience. Fortunately, the tips
mentioned above can help you increase your social and content marketing efforts
in social commerce.
03
Five Ways To Make Social Media Work For Your Business
Yvethe Tyszka is a creative and dynamic global marketing executive at Zesty
Paws & Solid Gold Pets.
getty
Think back to the last time you decided to purchase something. Chances are you
either heard about the item on social media or looked up reviews online prior to
your purchase. In fact, in 2019, Facebook IQ released data showing that 87% of

18. survey respondents took action, such as making a purchase or following a brand,
after seeing product information on social media.
Beyond being a way for people to stay in touch with friends and family, learn about
current events or find entertainment, social media has also weaved its way into the
shopping experience. Throughout my career, I have seen it evolve from a “nice to
have” to an integral part of a business’s strategic marketing plan.
At first glance, social media can be intimidating with new platforms around each
corner and constantly shifting algorithms rewriting the rules of the game, but there
are five things I see working for brands that may help to navigate the social media
space:
1. Create more video content.
In addition to the continued rise of TikTok, Instagram is now a video-first platform,
solidifying video as a vital component to a successful social strategy driving the
growth of video content across all platforms. According to Sprout Social, half of
social media users said they prefer video content, supporting why so many
platforms are prioritizing this shift in their algorithms.
While video content can sometimes prove to be a costly investment, striking a
balance between highly produced videos and organic and authentic video is
something smaller brands can leverage and bigger brands should explore, as
social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram offer opportunities to create more

19. content with a lower investment. By testing various strategies to determine what
leads to the best results for your brand, you can adjust your goals and budgets
appropriately, making sure you’re investing in the programs that prove successful.
2. Tap into social commerce.
Nearly every social media platform has an integrated shopping feature, making it
easier than ever for consumers to make a purchase in-app. And now, with
“phygital” marketing strategies popping up, businesses are beginning to
investigate these hybrid online and offline shopping experiences using social
media as the bridge.
Sprout Social recently found that 98% of consumers plan to make at least one
purchase on social media this year. According to an Accenture study, social
shopping will be a $1.2 trillion channel by 2025. With these rising trends and
statistics in mind, it’s clear that now is the time to make sure you maximize your
brand’s presence and engagement on social media.
3. Experiment and test.
You’ll find hundreds of people claiming to know the secret to social media success
on the internet, but the hard truth is there is no one formula that works for every
audience or brand. What your audience is interested in and what resonates with
them is unique to your brand.

20. That’s why it’s important to test content types, captions, hashtags and other
strategies regularly so you can figure out what works for your business. At Zesty
Paws, we are consistently testing new things, online and offline, and closely track
the analytics to support our findings. This allows us to optimize our
content-creating efforts to ultimately influence engagement and ROI.
4. Leverage influencer partnerships.
With the influencer market projected to be worth over $15 billion by the end of
2022, businesses can expect influencer strategies to be part of the discussion year
over year.
Consumers look to influencers for recommendations on where to eat, what to do
and what products to buy. And as with our brand, even if our influencers have four
legs and are covered in fur, this third-party validation from a trusted source can
help a potential customer bypass the consideration stage and skip right to
purchase.
The key to success is picking the right influencer for your brand and setting the
right goals for the partnership. In addition to validation, influencers provide
authentic and relatable content that you can cross-promote on your channels.
These partnerships prove invaluable to business goals like expanding customer
base and building brand awareness.
5. Foster a community.

21. Through community engagement, like replying to customer comments, interacting
in social “stories,” resharing positive feedback and responding to incoming
messages, businesses can meet the customer where they are and begin to form a
relationship.
Social media is one of those marketing tactics where the more you put into it, the
more likely you are to see results. Invest in your strategy, test your content and
grow your community, and you’re likely to see a return.
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