If you’re an online store owner, you’re aware of the importance of expanding your customer base and increasing your sales. However, accomplishing these goals without spending a large amount of money on advertising or competing with larger brands can be challenging. One cost-effective and efficient way of reaching new audiences is through social media collaboration. This refers to partnering with other brands, customers, or influencers on social media platforms to develop and share content that promotes your products or services. By collaborating on social media, you can enhance your visibility and exposure, develop trust and reliability with your intended audience, create valuable and compelling content that showcases your offerings, and drive traffic and sales to your online store. In this article, we’ll discuss some strategies that you, an online shop owner, can use to improve collaboration via social media.
1. Employ Skilled Social Media Admins
Bringing on board skilled social media admins can enhance social media collaboration in many ways:
- Improved Content Planning: These experts can collaborate with your team to design a comprehensive content strategy that aligns with your marketing objectives. They can also come up with new content ideas and ensure that your social media content is relevant, engaging, and consistent. Additionally, they have the expertise to schedule messages on Telegram, Instagram, and other social media platforms.
- Increased Engagement: Social media admins can help boost engagement on your social media channels by responding to comments and messages in a timely and professional manner. This fosters a sense of community around your brand and encourages your followers to engage more frequently with your content.
- Better Analytics: Social media admins can leverage analytics tools to monitor your social media content’s performance and identify areas that need improvement. By analyzing engagement data, reach, and other metrics, admins can adjust your social media strategy to better cater to your target audience.
- More Efficient Collaboration: Skilled social media admins can improve your team’s collaboration by providing training and guidance on best social media management practices. They can also manage your team’s workflow, ensuring that content is created and published consistently.
To manage and expand social media accounts successfully, an expert social media admin should have both technical and personal skills. This includes having knowledge of specific technicalities like how to add someone to a WhatsApp group without being an admin or how to modify the order of Instagram posts. Additionally, they should be adept in using social media management tools and analytics to monitor performance and enhance content.
2. Partner with Relevant Brands and Influencers
One of the most common and effective ways to boost collaboration through social media is to partner with relevant brands and influencers. This means working with other businesses or individuals who share your niche, values, and target audience.
Partnering with relevant brands and influencers can help you:
- Expand your exposure and reach new potential customers
- Enhance your reputation and trust among your existing customers
- Create valuable content that showcases your products or services
- Drive traffic and sales to your online shop
To partner with relevant brands and influencers, you need to:
- Identify potential partners: Look for brands and influencers who have a similar or complementary product or service offering, a high engagement rate, a positive reputation, and a genuine interest in your brand. You can use tools like BuzzSumo or Upfluence to find partners based on keywords or topics.
- Reach out to potential partners: Contact the brands and influencers you want to work with and pitch them your proposal. Explain why you want to collaborate with them and what benefits they can get from working with you. Be respectful, professional, and transparent in your communication.
- Create a strategy: Define your collaboration goals, budget, timeline, deliverables, expectations, and metrics. Provide your partners with clear guidelines on what kind of content they need to create and how they need to promote it. Provide them with creative freedom but also monitor their performance.
Some examples of social media collaborations between brands and influencers are:
- GoPro and Red Bull: The two brands collaborated on a series of extreme sports videos featuring GoPro cameras and Red Bull energy drinks. The videos were shared on both brands’ social media channels, reaching millions of viewers and generating buzz.
- Glossier and Emily Weiss: The beauty brand collaborated with its founder and CEO Emily Weiss on a series of Instagram posts featuring her personal skincare routine using Glossier products. The posts were authentic, relatable, and informative, attracting thousands of likes and comments.
- Casper and BuzzFeed: The mattress brand collaborated with the media company on a sponsored quiz titled “What Kind of Sleeper Are You?” The quiz was fun, interactive, and personalized, leading users to Casper’s website where they could find the best mattress for their sleep style.
3. Run Contests and Giveaways
Another way to boost collaboration through social media is to run contests and giveaways. This means offering prizes or incentives to your audience in exchange for their participation or engagement.
Running contests and giveaways can help you:
- Increase your followers and engagement
- Generate user-generated content (UGC) and social proof
- Grow your email list and leads
- Drive traffic and sales to your online shop
To run contests and giveaways, you need to:
- Choose your prize: Pick a prize that is relevant to your brand, products, or services. The prize should be valuable enough to attract your audience but not too expensive to hurt your budget. You can also partner with other brands or influencers to offer a bigger or more diverse prize.
- Set your rules: Define the rules and guidelines for your contest or giveaway. Specify the eligibility criteria, entry methods, duration, winner selection, and announcement. Make sure the rules are clear, simple, and compliant with social media platforms’ terms of service.
- Promote your contest or giveaway: Promote your contest or giveaway on your social media profiles, stories, reels, IGTV, etc. Use catchy images and videos that highlight the prize and the rules. Use hashtags, tags, mentions, or ads to increase your exposure and reach.
Some examples of social media contests and giveaways are:
- Lush and ASOS: The two brands collaborated on a giveaway where they offered a year’s supply of Lush products and a £500 ASOS voucher to one lucky winner. To enter, users had to follow both brands on Instagram and tag a friend in the comments. The giveaway was simple, attractive, and relevant, attracting over 100,000 entries.
- Starbucks and Lady Gaga: The coffee brand collaborated with the pop star on a contest where they asked users to share their kindness stories using the hashtag #ExtraShotOfPride. The contest was part of Starbucks’ Pride campaign and aimed to celebrate diversity and inclusion. The contest was inspiring, meaningful, and aligned with both brands’ values, generating over 30,000 entries.
- Sephora and Fenty Beauty: The beauty brand collaborated with Rihanna’s makeup line on a contest where they asked users to create a look using Fenty Beauty products and share it on Instagram using the hashtag #FENTYFACEFRIDAY. The contest was part of Sephora’s weekly challenge series and aimed to showcase the versatility and quality of Fenty Beauty products. The contest was creative, fun, and engaging, generating over 10,000 entries.
4. Engage with Your Customers
A third way to boost collaboration through social media is to engage with your customers. This means interacting with them through likes, comments, messages, stories, polls, quizzes, etc.
Engaging with your customers can help you:
- Build relationships and loyalty with your customers
- Collect feedback and insights from your customers
- Provide customer service and support
- Encourage word-of-mouth and referrals
To engage with your customers, you need to:
- Monitor your mentions: Keep track of what people are saying about your brand, products, or services on social media. Use tools like Sprout Social or Hootsuite to monitor your mentions across different platforms. Respond to positive and negative feedback promptly and professionally.
- Ask questions: Invite your customers to share their opinions, preferences, experiences, or suggestions with you. Use questions stickers on Instagram stories or polls on Twitter or Facebook to ask questions related to your brand, products, services, or industry. Use the responses to improve your offerings or create new content.
- Share user-generated content: User-generated content (UGC) is any content created by your customers that features or mentions your brand, products, or services. UGC can include photos, videos, reviews, testimonials, etc. Sharing UGC on your social media platforms can help you showcase your products or services, boost your credibility, and inspire other customers to create and share their own UGC.
Some examples of social media engagement with customers are:
- Warby Parker: The eyewear brand engages with its customers by featuring their photos wearing Warby Parker glasses on its Instagram account. The brand also encourages its customers to use the hashtag #warbyhometryon to get feedback from other users on which frames suit them best. The brand also responds to comments and questions from its customers on its posts.
- Glossier: The beauty brand engages with its customers by asking them questions on its Instagram stories, such as “What’s your favorite Glossier product?” or “What’s your skincare routine?” The brand also shares the responses from its customers on its stories, creating a sense of community and dialogue among its followers.
- Lush: The cosmetics brand engages with its customers by sharing their reviews and testimonials on its Instagram account. The brand also invites its customers to share their stories using the hashtag #LushCommunity. The brand also responds to comments and questions from its customers on its posts.
Conclusion
Social media is a great platform to boost collaboration with other brands, influencers, and customers. By using the strategies in this article, you can increase your reach, engagement, credibility, and sales for your online shop. However, you need to follow the best practices and tips to create effective and successful social media collaborations.
