Hi Amasty blog readers!
Several weeks ago I was talking to a friend who runs a small e-shop. She and her assistant run social media themselves, as they can’t allow a social media manager, and, frankly speaking, they don’t need one, as their potential audience is not so wide, and the girls are doing a good job. But my friend complained that she run out of ideas.
Indeed, marketers say that we should give our audience something useful, entertaining, something they’ll love or enjoy, something that solves their problems and makes their life better.
What if you’re stuck with content ideas? Really, can you name at least ten unique social media posting types apart from sharing shop news and discounts, blog posts and items you want to promote?
To help you with that, I picked 30 ideas for social media posts that proved to be working as big e-commerce brands used them in their social media campaigns. So whenever you run out of topics, you just open this post and browse through to get some inspiration.
1. Show exclusive/funny/unique items
This Amazon post with the link to a selfie mirror is the point where you know how to tease your audience. The proof is the number of ironic comments. But should you really post only ‘OMG that’s cute’ items? Besides, this particular thing is a great funny present. The result is: comments, shares, likes, traffic and engagement. People engage, express their feelings – that’s what you want.
2. Ask a question
But asking questions is an art too. What I love about this Etsy post:
- It’s unique – and people believe the company cared because they made a special photo for the post;
- The question is relevant, it’s not too simple and does not look like ‘we posted a question because we were told to do so';
- The question is of great use for readers, because they can share nice experience and use this information while shopping.
3. Reshare customers’ posts
It’s not a big reveal that customers share purchases on their social media accounts. And you’re lucky to have instruments to track these posts. Resharing such content kills two birds. First of all, you show that real people trust you, buy from you and are thankful enough to show it. Secondly, you show that you care and are thankful for mentioning.
4. Be creative
I absolutely adore this small video from Gap: it’s cute (forgive me this triviality) and it’s a great idea to combine the worldwide trend on drones with apparel ads. And it’s a potentially viral thing.
A jacket is airlifted by drones that were not originally programmed for this task. http://t.co/8pzP2e2fpG https://t.co/4aFzAryqdH — Gap (@Gap) November 18, 2014
5. Don’t forget national days and holidays
Macy’s not only thanked the veterans, but also shared a link to a charity organization website, where you can donate to help those who served for their country and now are in need. As Macy’s has about 15 billion likes on Facebook, it’s a real instrument of help.
6. Sneak Peeks
Macy’s created a Black Friday Sneak Peek board so the customers can choose items they want to buy in advance. It’s a great way to let shoppers plan their budget and have more satisfaction from shopping. When Black Friday comes, they won’t be looking through all the categories and will go straight to the items they wanted.
7. ‘How to choose’ advice
How to choose tips have two big advantages:
1. It’s evergreen content, and you can repost it from time to time, which also saves your own time spent on social media posting;
2. It’s the content that raise your customers’ satisfaction. By learning how to choose items properly customers eventually make better choices, which makes them happier.
See how Macy’s presents short how to choose videos on their YouTube channels:
8. Be different when sharing products
Sure, the most of the posts by retailers are showing items available at the moment. But everybody in retail social media is doing that, and you have to stand out of the crowd.
Have a look at the strategy Nordstrom is using on their social media accounts. You can just share a link to the item and add its name or even price. Or you can do something like this:
9. Connect with bloggers
Here’s the example: H&M retweeted a blogger’s tweet featuring their brand. There are plenty of ways you can build relationships with bloggers, and the first step is to share relevant posts created by bloggers from your niche.
Just scooped up some “arctic cold weather” travel essentials from @hm for the trip back home! Fuzzy… http://t.co/rMfm4LpoxS
— Haute Off The Rack (@HauteOffTheRack) November 13, 2014
10. Make use of others’ content
11. Host a Twitter chat
Twitter chats are a really nice opportunity to speak to your customers directly. See how Sears is doing it, and by clicking the hashtag you’ll see the rest of the tweets they had to conduct the chat.
Q1: We’re sure you have started planning the menu for Thanksgiving, but do you plan your outfit ahead of time? #HolidayFashion
— Sears (@Sears) November 10, 2014
12. Show how you work
Showing what’s inside your company is a good step to transparency, and it certainly drives attention. Just remember how Buffer went famous for their almost radical transparency. Of course, you don’t need to do disclose your salaries like Buffer did, but showing small things about your work makes your brand look much better. To prove that, here’s a short video about how Overstock employees are using standing desks:
http://t.co/KLfqMRxaNE President @Stormy_Simon Discusses the Benefits of Providing Standing Desk for Employees http://t.co/PN5NS8g9VS — Overstock (@Overstock) October 9, 2014
13. Branding
This is a great viral pic made by Zappos customer, but it also could be made by the brand itself.
Norm’s #ootd. Photo by: @jermzlee A photo posted by Zappos (@zappos) on
14. Inspire
In fact, inspiration is one of the corner stones of retail social media. The way you do it 100% depends on your audience. Have a look at the example by bodybuilding.com. Here’s why it’s the right message for their followers: it’s pushing you. Fitness and bodybuilding are all about achieving aims and hard work. The pic shows something that the readers are likely to strive for, in this particular case – a powerful, strong and magnificent body; it shows how you can be happy with the process itself. Thus, this kind of inspiration message will work for fitness people and certainly won’t work for, say, mothercare.com.
Get up, get going, be GREAT! IT’S TIME TO LIFT! #bestself #bodybuildingcom pic.twitter.com/uRtYksx2hV — Bodybuilding.com (@Bodybuildingcom) November 13, 2014
15. Fun
Fun is fun. Fun is about familiar things, things that you understand or meet every day. Looks like Staples social media manager knows what Monday archetype in the office culture is.
Good luck out there. #CaseOfTheMondays pic.twitter.com/JzMlBlQeGP — Staples US (@Staples) November 17, 2014
16. Quotes
By quotes I mean valuable, unhacked phrases. Not crappy, not too obvious, not like this:
Everyone has the power to inspire and serve the world. #leadfromwithin #leadership
— Lolly Daskal (@LollyDaskal) November 27, 2014
But rather like this:
The weather can get worse or you can get better. #chooseyourwinter — Nike (@Nike) November 17, 2014
17. Holiday schedule
An absolute must for every e-commerce shop! See how B&H Photo designed their schedule to share it with followers:
A photo posted by B&H Photo (@bhphoto) on
18. Consulting
Barnes & Noble announced a session of gift tips, and if you go to the hashtag, you’ll see that they actually give advice on presents.
Officially one week ’til Thanksgiving! Today from 9-9ET, we’re serving up a feast of gift ideas at #BNGiftTip. Tweet us! — Barnes & Noble (@BNBuzz) November 20, 2014
19. Tips on product usage
The next step of the how to choose articles are post ideas on product usage. Here’s a post from cars.com on why not all the windows of the car get condensation of them.
20. Online trends
We’re talking about content relevancy a lot today, and here’s another example: CVS pharmacy combined Movember trend and… A slight ad of the shaving products.
It’s #Movember! Guys, don’t forget to get creative w/ your look. Ladies, are you excited or scared? #TellUsTuesday pic.twitter.com/OiwzuqQySV
— CVS/pharmacy (@CVS_Extra) November 4, 2014
21. New arrivals
22. How it’s made
If you have an opportunity to get the ‘how it’s made’ information from a brand or just find it on the Internet – just go for it!
23. Puzzles and quizzes
24. Ask followers to share
25. Ask for impressions
Ask your customers to share reviews or impressions on products, events, movies or books. Here’s the example of such an engagement rising post from CafePress:
26. Write about industry fans
Does your niche have fans? Maybe they are involved into community and meet each other regularly, maybe they have Google Hangouts, or webinars, or they just chat on subject forums, or probably they organize events and campaigns? Whatever they’re doing, it’s a good thing to talk about enthusiasts in public. Look how AbeBooks tells a story about a bookclub:
In a book club? This Victoria club has read 146 books in the past 20 years. #yyj http://t.co/K4cylMt38E pic.twitter.com/JPfuJ6JzCn
— AbeBooks (@AbeBooks) November 20, 2014
27. Educate
Education is a vital part of any e-commerce social media plan. Abebooks is regularly sharing complicated words connected to books and reading and explains their meaning.
28. Memes
I often hear that memes are the last thing you want to post on e-commerce social media accounts. And I believe that’s not true – here’s why. If you’re doing social media marketing in e-commerce or in any other field, there can’t be too simple, too stupid, too funny content. Or content not serious enough. See how Petsmart is using memes on their Instagram account:
29. Geek stuff
Sweetwater posted a funny and geeky picture, that basically works just like any other geek stuff: there can’t be too much of quality products!
Just a reminder that microphone selection and proper placement are crucial for getting a good snare sound. pic.twitter.com/adlf5pJyaI
— SweetwaterSound (@SweetwaterSound) November 18, 2014
30. Facts about brands
Jo-Ann Stores shared an update on Hello Kitty Anniversary, and you can use this content idea in your e-commerce social media strategy.
That’s a wrap for today, and I hope you’ve found these social media content ideas useful for your e-commerce business. Should you have any questions or additions, please welcome to the comments section.
Thanks for the article, I found some useful tips. My question is – do you have any ideas for inspiration for an office chairs shop? I consider it to be a very boring industry and honestly speaking it is hard to find any memes, or fun stuff, or quotes, or inspirational stuff for the market. Thank you in advance.
Hi Leila, thanks for reading and for your comment!
First of all, it depends on your audience. Are they individuals or companies/people responsible for supplies at companies? I don’t think you can use any of these social media post ideas for the second variant, but when it concerns the first variant, you could use something like that: office jokes (!), tips on sitting and its impact on health, choosing the best chair, office games (like chair rides and stuff). Did you look at what your competitors are doing? Hope that helps.
Wow!!! An excellent article to go through. What about Link feeds and RSS feeds?
Thanks!
Not sure what do you mean – links from these brands, or what?
Awesome post Ksenia- Tips are great but from my personal experience I just find it hard to keep up the momentum. I deal with SEO and I know i should focus on social work but rarely seeing results means the social stuff just falls to the bottom of the pile over and over again! I’ve read that Facebook is primarily shifting towards being a paid platform- is this true? Do those of us with no budget stand a chance?
Hey Maria,
thanks for commenting!
And I perfectly understand your concerns here, I’ve worked with more focus on social media before and see what you’re talking about. Yes, motion is the nature of social media, and we have to cope with it, but in return it also gives us what we can’t have through other channels of communication.
As far as paid marketing is concerned, indeed, it looks like Facebook is secretly pushing companies to pay more, and I can guess it can be their goal partially, but that’s not their primary aim, as their algos are focused on saving users’ timelines from cluttering in the first place.
I do believe there’s no question about chances – businesses do have opportunities on Facebook, and we shouldn’t talk on survival here. I know cases where free marketing on Facebook is working and converting (I mean, in personal and as a customer), and for now the question is how you do it. Luckily, it works if you do it the right way (given that your audience is on Facebook), that’s my opinion.