Here’s another very good reason for your business to be more active on social media.
A new study of over 1,000 U.S. consumers by Sumo Heavy Industries, a digital commerce strategy firm, has found a 198 percent increase in social media referral traffic to eCommerce sites between 2014 and 2015.
The Rising Success of Using Social Media for Ecommerce Sites
Facebook Continues to Rule
The report revealed that Facebook still has the largest number of social media users (56 percent) who follow businesses online to learn more about their products. It’s followed by Twitter (47 percent) and Pinterest (47 percent).
It’s worth noting that 500 million people watched a collective 100 million hours of video on Facebook. This clearly reflects the social media giant’s power to connect more consumers and businesses.
Significantly, Facebook has undertaken several steps to make its platform more business-friendly. Earlier this year, it launched a new video tool to let businesses make a short introductory video about their company.
But it’s advertising where Facebook leaves its competitors way behind. “Ads you see will be more diverse, and more targeted to you,” Dan Levy, Facebook VP of small businesses told Fortune when asked why the company is investing so much into growing its small business customer base.
Are Chat Bots the Next Big Thing?
With 11,000 chatbots added to Facebook Messenger and 6,000 launched on Kik, it’s likely that they will be the next big thing for businesses, the Summo Heavy study suggests.
What’s more two billion users are actively using messaging apps on a daily basis. And from the looks of it, small businesses are lapping up the technology because of the various benefits it has to offer.
“They’ve helped our business become streamlined and efficient,” Ross Tavendale, head of media at digital and marketing studio Ideas Made Digital told the Guardian about these bots. He also adds that thanks to chatbots the amount of time needed to prepare a website report has been reduced by at least 80 percent.
Evidently for small businesses, chatbots can make a big difference. The key to success lies in using chatbots the right way in your business strategy.
Image: Sumo Heavy
Aira Bongco
I think it is not that surprising because social media is now widely used all over the world and small businesses are now advertising on them.
Unfortunately, the rising number of online seller through social media will increase scammers as well.. that’s a fact!