Conclusion

Top 10 tips for retailers with ecommerce solutions, using social media:

• Objectives not channels - focus on the objectives and overall strategy first as that will determine the right channels to use
• Decide who you want to reach first – analyse your audience and then work out the most appropriate social media channels to reach them
• Measurement is important – as with all marketing, measuring the effectiveness of what you are doing is crucial so make sure you have criteria in place. Use tracking URLs to track clicks and traffic from social media links to your website
• Monitor what is being said – set up alerts so that you can see who is saying what about your brand, and where
• Act and react – if someone has mentioned you on a social network, make sure you reply or take action as quickly as possible
• Be honest – if you make a mistake, own up and put it right; social media is not the place for ‘cover-ups’
• Use social sharing links – add ‘share this’ links to your pages and emails to encourage users to share your content
• Add value – Creating great content that really helps your visitors and customers is absolutely vital to successful social media marketing
• Avoid being too self-promotional – don’t just talk about your own brand and offers all the time; try to include more general content which will interest your target audience as well
• Be part of the community – social media is all about people. So personalise your brand and join in the conversation

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