Twitter has officially joined the likes of Instagram and Pinterest by entering the arena of social shopping.
Why Is Twitter Going Social?
Nathan Hubbard, Twitter’s Head of Commerce, predicts mobile social shopping via applications to be the next big wave. As Twitter announces their full launch into the social shopping world, Hubbard shows support for the need for shopping capability on the platform by revealing there are over 50 million tweets per month by users writing to express that they want or need something as well as over 100 million individuals following retailers and brands on the network. It’s an effort for Twitter to enjoy greater engagement as well as more users and revenue.
Shopping Officially Launched on Twitter
While Twitter has had specific tests going on for about a year, this is the very first time the network will officially and fully launch social shopping capability. Their “buy now” buttons make it simple, fast and convenient for users to shop and they allow for American companies of all sizes to sell their products and services on Twitter. Twitter’s social shopping feature differs from those of competing networks as it focuses on both variety and convenience for retailers to sell on the platform integrated with the e-commerce platforms Bigcommerce, Demandware and Shopify. Items may also be listed, shared and sold via Stripe Relay, the means by which Best Buy will be selling on the application. Twitter will profit from the feature by collecting a transaction fee from certain sales.
Is Social Selling for You?
Twitter isn’t alone on its journey towards selling on social and thus far many social media users have expressed interest in taking part in such offerings. The first step is to research your target market to find out what their preferred social media networks are. Once you are aware of the key platforms, it’s important that you delve deeper into your research to see if social shopping is something that appeals to a significant percentage of your market, research competitors to see how users react to their social selling efforts and to find out which of your products and services would be most appropriate for you to sell via social.
If you are satisfied with your results, launch your shopping campaign keeping other considerations of your social media marketing efforts in mind including keywords, hashtags and trending topics. If your budget allows for it, consider launching more than one “buy now” opportunity at a time to test markets, sales promotions, marketing copy and other significant aspects of your campaign.
