How to Build an Ecommerce Social Media Strategy in 8 Steps

When you’re trying to increase brand awareness and boost sales for your online store, few things are more valuable than the right ecommerce social media strategy. Although you can definitely boost the visibility of your website with things like SEO and content marketing, social media platforms give you a unique way to capture the attention of a captive audience, and enhance buyer relationships.

In fact, the right social strategy could be the key to attracting and converting modern buyers. Studies show that around 50% of millennial and Gen Z shoppers prefer looking for new products on social media (compared to using search engines). Plus, around 70% of consumers actively research the products they’re interested in on Facebook and Instagram.

The only problem? Creating and implementing a successful strategy can be difficult – particularly for beginners. That’s why we’re here to help, with this step-by-step guide.

How to Create your Ecommerce Social Media Strategy

The exact approach you take to social media marketing will vary, but implementing an effective campaign doesn’t have to be as daunting as it seems. With a little creativity, some planning, and the right technology, you can rapidly increase ecommerce store traffic and conversions.

You can even take advantage of integrations between social channels and platforms like Shopify, to build a comprehensive omnichannel sales strategy. 

Here’s your step-by-step guide to getting started.

Step 1: Set your Goals and Define Metrics

We know the primary “goal” for most companies implementing an ecommerce social media strategy will be to increase sales, but it’s worth being a little more specific before diving into your campaigns. How exactly are you going to use social media to boost your profits?

Setting clear goals will help you to plan the right strategy, and ensure you can keep track of the success of your campaigns with the right metrics. For instance, if you want to increase sales by boosting brand awareness, therefore driving more traffic to your store, you’ll monitor things like post reach and follower count. 

If you want to increase engagement, leading to better relationships with customers, higher average order values, and increased buyer retention, you’ll focus on monitoring engagement metrics like comments, likes, shares, and messages. 

Remember, a strong social media presence isn’t just about increasing conversions, your social strategy can help your business grow in a range of direct, and indirect ways. 

Step 2: Research your Customers

Ideally, you’ll already be conducting plenty of research into your customers so you can provide them with highly personalized and relevant products, shopping experiences, and customer service. Before you start posting content on social media, it’s worth diving a little deeper into the data you have. 

The more information you have about your customers, and the different segments you want to serve, the easier it will be to decide what kind of social media channels you should be using, how frequently you should post, and what content you should produce. 

Gather insights by sending surveys to your existing customers, or conducting interviews with clients. Research the competition and find out who follows them on which channels. You can even dig into your analytics on platforms like Shopify, to learn more about audience demographic details, buyer preferences, and other essential data. 

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Step 3: Choose the Right Ecommerce Social Media Channels

Here’s where things start to get a little tricky. All social media channels can offer value to ecommerce vendors, but not every platform is right for every company. You probably don’t have the time (or the budget), to invest in a comprehensive strategy for every platform. 

That’s why it’s important to focus on the channels where you know you can reach your target audience, and showcase your products and brand in the best light. Again, insights into your competitors, as well as your target audience can help you here, but if you’re not sure where to begin, here are a few top platforms to consider:

• TikTok: Ideal for stores with a younger customer base, TikTok offers a fast-paced way to connect with your customers and demonstrate the human side of your brand.
• Facebook: With the widest reach of any social platform, Facebook is great for boosting your brand’s visibility, and it even allows customers to “review” your store. 
• Instagram: Perfect for showing off your products with images and videos, Instagram can help you drive sales. It even has its own social commerce features. 
• LinkedIn: Great for B2B companies and brands selling technology, LinkedIn can help you reach a wider range of professional buyers. 
• Pinterest: One of the top platforms customers use for purchasing inspiration, Pinterest is a great tool for brands with photogenic products. 

Depending on the results of your research, you might also choose to experiment with options like YouTube, for video advertising, X (formerly Twitter), and even non-traditional social platforms like Reddit. Our advice is to start small with a handful of crucial platforms, and expand over time.

Step 4: Define your Social Content Mix

Once you’ve figured out which channels you’re going to be using, and you’ve created accounts (making sure you fill out your profiles with all the right details), it’s time to think about content. There’s no ideal blend of content that works for every ecommerce social media strategy.

However, it’s a good idea to keep your mixture versatile. Don’t focus exclusively on promoting products. Find unique ways to educate and inspire your audience, demonstrate thought leadership, and earn customer trust. You could even experiment with memes to show your fun side, like Colorpop:

When you’re deciding on your content mix, think about:

• The best content types for each platform: Certain types of content work best on different platforms. TikTok is great for fast-paced, fun and informal content. Facebook is fantastic for more professional videos (in fact, video gets the highest engagement of any content on FB). 
• Your customer’s journey: Consider how you can create content to support every stage of the customer journey. Use demo videos to showcase what your products can do, share industry news to help customers identify you as a thought leader, and offer educational content to help customers make the most of your products and services. 
• What competitors are doing: While you shouldn’t just copy your competitor’s ecommerce social media strategy, you should review what they’re doing. Pay attention to which types of content get the most likes, clicks, and shares on each channel.

Step 5: Define your Content Calendar

With a clear view of your content mix, the next step is figuring out when, and how often you should post on social media. We definitely recommend leveraging scheduling tools like Buffer and HootSuite to ensure you can automate your content strategy, but before you do that, you’ll need to come up with a plan. The right frequency and cadence for your content will depend on a few factors.

First, customers expect to see content more often on certain social channels. HootSuite suggests that you should be adding to your Instagram Stories up to 2 times per day, whereas you can boost LinkedIn content as little as one or two times a week. 

Secondly, you’ll need to think about when your customers are most likely to be active and online, so they’ll actually see your content when you post it. Most social media algorithms prioritize “fresh” content on discovery pages, so get your timing right. 

If you’re not sure which timing and frequency works best for your ecommerce social media strategy, experiment, and pay attention to the insights you gather on your platform. Most social platforms will give you an insight into when posts get the most attention and engagement.

Step 6: Link Your Social Channels and Ecommerce Platform

Social shopping is taking the world by storm. Why force customers to click on a link and visit your store to make a purchase, when you can allow them to buy your products right there within Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram? Platforms like Shopify allow you to directly link your product catalogue to various social media “commerce” solutions. 

All you need to do is add an integration to for the social selling solution you want to use to Shopify, and start tagging your products in your posts. 

Linking your ecommerce site to your social media channels is a great way to boost your chances of sales, and increase conversion rates. It ensures you can give your customers a seamless shopping experience, allowing them to discover, and purchase products without leaving their favorite apps.

You can also take advantage of other integrations, like social media automation tools and pixel options for social channels, to help you run your campaigns, and track your results.

Step 7: Constantly Engage your Audience

Once you have your ecommerce social media strategy ready to go, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can just regularly post content and expect great results. Social media is all about nurturing your audience and fostering a sense of community. That means you need to actively engage your followers.

Experiment with strategies like:

• Offering social customer service: Use a chatbot, or ask your customer service team to monitor social media inboxes and respond to any questions your customers might have. Make sure you respond promptly to questions and comments across all channels.
• Running competitions: Running events like competitions and contests is a great way to keep your audience engaged. It can also help to boost brand awareness and reach, particularly if you ask followers to “tag” their friends when responding to your posts.
• Repost and reward UGC: User generated content is one of the most trustworthy forms of content on the web. Around 79% of people say it highly impacts their purchasing decisions, so encourage your customers to create images and videos of them using your products, or leave reviews on your page, and reward them when they do!

You can also explore a variety of other strategies, such as running polls on social media to gather insights from your customers, or asking questions in your post captions. 

Step 8: Monitor, Adapt, and Iterate

Finally, an ecommerce social media strategy isn’t something you can simply “set and forget”. It requires constant commitment. You need to pay attention to key metrics, and gather insights about how your campaigns are performing, so you can gradually improve your results.

Based on the goals you set for your social strategy, use your website analytics, and social media platform insights to track key metrics like reach, engagement, and conversion rate. Use social listening tools to gather insights on what customers are saying about your company, and monitor when they’re @mentioning or tagging your brand. 

Use pixels on Shopify to monitor exactly how many customers come to your store from different social channels, and which posts earn the most sales. All the data you gather will help you to enhance your campaigns, and increase your marketing ROI. 

Build the Best Ecommerce Social Media Strategy

Social media is an incredible tool for any ecommerce company. It doesn’t just give you a way to boost your brand’s reach and increase traffic to your store. It can help you nurture deeper relationships with your customers, optimize conversion rates, and strengthen your reputation. 

If you need help developing a comprehensive social strategy for ecommerce, reach out to Storetasker. Our marketing experts can help you build a powerful marketing plan, design social media campaigns, and even optimize your conversion rates with data-driven insights. 

Contact us to find your ideal Shopify marketing expert.