Why Social Media is so important for online book shops
Whether you run an online book shop or you’re a customer looking to buy the new bestseller from an up and coming author, you will undoubtedly have come across social media in your day-to-day dealings with books. Nowadays, social media is an integral part of everyone’s life, to the point that many of us take it for granted and don’t even realise how much we use it.
From the point of view of a business owner, social media is an incredibly effective tool and can easily earn you additional customers and visitors. In the current social climate, sourcing and retaining customers is of the utmost importance, and if this is something you’re trying to up your game on, you should definitely invest time in social media.
Really, all you need to do to start using social media is to set up a business account on each of the many platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and, just emerging for businesses, Google+. You should have advertising strategies in place and update your social media pages as much as possible, reaching out to the community as well, as the more followers you have the more people will see your posts. Get to know the people who comment on, share or retweet your posts, and work up a good rapport with them.
One of the best ways to use social media is to present special offers specifically for those that are following your pages. This could be anything from free delivery on all orders with the use of a code obtained through the page, a competition which is entered by ‘Like’-ing a page and entering your details, or offering a discount book to all new followers.
You should also encourage customers to post reviews and feedback of your book shop and its service, both on your social media pages and also on external review websites and forums. A great deal of consumers will research your company beforehand to see existing opinions, which will likely sway potential customers into trusting your site.
As a book shop, perhaps the most important aspect of social media interaction is to speak to followers, create lists of the top books that particular month and even recommend other book review blogs. Ask questions, create polls and questionnaires, and announce new book shipments and forthcoming sales, to keep your customers in the know and generate a buzz. The aim of this is to encourage a spike in the number of people that browse and buy from your online shop, and as long as you use your social media pages to the fullest extent you should see a steady increase in new and returning customers.
As the internet becomes ever more social and the popularity of online shopping continues to flourish, the combination of the two can present a great business strategy that could not only bring in more sales, but also ensure that everyone is talking about you.
Read more: Book Review: Google Plus for Business