How to do Social Media for Browsing Consumers

In a recent post, I talked about two different types of searchers: spearfishers and netcasters. Spearfishers know exactly what they want and they are on a mission to find it, while netcasters take a more impulsive, know-it-when-they-see-it approach to discovering products, browsing more than searching and informing themselves along the way. Netcasters can also be thought of as constant shoppers.

The netcaster needs two things to decide to make a purchase: information and inspiration. Social media is a dream playground for combining these two, if you do it right.

Here are five concrete steps you can take to make sure you’re maximizing your social media channel.

1. Make products findable

I’m not talking about SEO. By this I mean giving your consumers the option and incentive to share your products so others can find them and perpetuate the cycle. It’s unlikely your products themselves will go viral (as opposed to, say, a marketing video). But, making sure your products can be easily shown across social networks is step one toward informing and inspiring wandering netcasters.

As a small warning: be careful of adding too many sharing options just for the sake of having them. We’ve seen that this can actually decrease involvement.

2. Make products unobstructed

There are lots of barriers that can stand in the way of a purchase decision, but lack of information is one of the biggest. Is it compatible with my Mac? Does it take a standard type of battery?

Though all these questions can’t be answered directly on most social media platforms, addressing one or two key barriers consumers may have right off the bat will make them a lot more likely to continue learning more. It is then your job to lead them on to this additional barrier-removing information.

3. Make products attractive

Grainy photos will not draw consumers to your products. Netcasting consumers are looking to be inspired, and subpar photography does not catch attention (at least positive attention). Use beautiful and creative photography to make consumers curious enough to explore.

4. Make purchase easy

One problem with social media is that it is entirely possible to get your products in front of consumers and let that be that. But that could have a negligible effect.

To avoid this, you will need useful calls to action. Having consumers vote on their favorite color of your world-famous socks may build brand awareness, but rounding off the voting with a clear way to purchase the socks will only increase your chances of profiting from that interaction.

5. Make products scarce

I don’t mean to contradict my first point. The idea behind making your products scarce is this: inundating your consumers with the same or similar products will remove novelty and lower the “discovery” factor.

Varying offers and switching up types of products and the ways you post will go a long way toward inspiring.