Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 Your social strategy should be more than a means to an end. Your social strategy isn’t a step by step process that leads to a finish line, instead, start thinking of your social strategy as a vital part of the ecosystem that is your eCommerce business. Your social strategy is a four part cycle, consisting of increasing engagement, acquisition, conversion and retention. These four elements make up a complete 360 social solution. Engagement People often think of generating engagement as a first step for social strategies, but engagement is necessary every step of the way for a social strategy to be successful. Every social campaign should be designed with engagement in mind. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or whichever social network that generates the most buzz for your business, engagement should be kept high throughout the year. This can be accomplished with compelling share-worthy content and regularly scheduled social contests. Social contests are a great way to increase engagement, but shouldn’t be thought of as one-offs. Contests can increase followers and likes before a large promotion to ensure that you’ll receive more eyes on a new product launch or summer sale. Acquisition Acquiring new fans, likes and followers ultimately leads to acquiring new site visitors and customers. Despite advertisements, the strongest source of traffic to any business is word of mouth. Online, this same effect occurs with shares and referrals. This can be accomplished with social tools like Refer a Friend and Share & Save. These tools drive highly qualified referrals on site to keep your social strategy moving forward, bringing in new customers. As engagement continually occurs, acquisition brings those new follows and likes one step closer to converting on site. Conversion This tends to be an end goal that is independent from social for most eCommerce businesses, but social strategies can actually help shoppers make that final decision. As referrals start coming in, it is crucial to turn them into conversions. This is where tools like Social Login come into play. Many eCommerce businesses face the issue of shopping cart abandonment which can be caused by long registration forms. Eliminate the need for long tedious forms with a Social Login. Customers can create an account with one click and you’ll receive qualified social data, along with verified email addresses. Social Login works as part of the cycle to capitalize on the results from increased engagement and acquisition. Retention Finally the last part of the cycle is retention. All of these social tools, when combined, ultimately lead to retention. In order to increase retention, eCommerce businesses can implement a loyalty program. These encompass all parts of your social strategy: engagement, acquisition, conversions and retention, and keep them moving in a cycle. Keep your loyal customers engaged with tools like contests and spreading the word about your business with referrals or shares, creating more opportunities for new customers. The oil that keeps these four parts moving well together is keeping all tools unified and under one roof. Keep all the social data you collect from contest entries, from Social Login and from referrals all in one place with a one stop social platform. Easily manage all data and integrate them with existing 3rd party systems for better targeted marketing campaigns. Share and Enjoy Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on Social Annex and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Author: Jay Leonard Jay is a UK-based cryptocurrency expert, specialising in fundamental analysis and medium to long term investments. Jay has a great deal of hands-on experience in analysing financial markets and performing technical analysis. Jay is currently focusing on the institutional adoption of cryptocurrency and what it means for the future of … View full profile ›More by this author:Top Trending Meme Coins: ELON, HOGE, SAMO, TAMA, MARVIN, BABYDOGE, MONAHotbit Exchange Forced to Suspend Service As it’s Under Criminal InvestigationCameo CEO Steven Galanis Wallet Hacked – $231k Worth of NFTs Stolen