Using social media for your Shopify business in 2023-2024 is no longer optional - it's essential.

Social media platforms offer a goldmine of opportunities for Shopify merchants to connect with their audience, build brand awareness, and most importantly, boost sales.

In this article, we'll delve into 14 social media strategies to propel your Shopify sales to new heights whilst building a following and growing your brand awareness.

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1. Know Your Audience Inside Out

Your audience should be at the forefront of everything you do - and understanding your audience is crucial for social media success.

In fact, a study by Salesforce found that 66% of customers expect companies to understand their needs - and customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies who aren’t.

A lot of businesses fall into the trap of creating content they enjoy, but with no reference to the customer. Just because you think something’s great doesn’t mean your customers do.

For social media, it’s important to know:

What platforms they use
What accounts they follow
What content they engage with

You can find this information through a quick survey or by looking at your competitor’s accounts, using your findings to guide your social media strategy.

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2. Choose the Right Social Platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal, with each having its own unique audience and strengths.

For example, Facebook’s largest age group is 25-34 whereas for TikTok, it’s 18-24.

60% of Twitter users are male, whereas only 17% of Pinterest users are male.

So, if you’re pressed for time and resources, use the platforms that’ll bring you the best returns.

Research where your target audience spends the most time and focus your efforts on those platforms. For e-commerce, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok are often particularly effective.

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3. Craft High-Quality Visual Content

Creative, thumb-stopping, and well-designed visual content reigns supreme on social media - no matter the platform.

When we say ‘well-designed’, we don’t necessarily mean seamless and pristine content - we mean content designed for purpose. You need to make sure your content is specific to the platform it’s going out on.

Generally, more lo-fi and UGC-style videos work best on TikTok, whereas more curated and high-quality content works well on Instagram.

Use your audience insight to guide your specific strategy for each platform. Having an overarching strategy is great, but being specific will bring more followers and engagements to each profile, and more traffic to your Shopify store.

You can discover 3 Steps to Creating a Successful Content Strategy for your Shopify store in the linked StoreLab guide, including how to:

Define the right target audience, goals and objectives for your content strategy
Understand what’s involved in successful content planning and creation
Effectively promote and distribute your content to build your audience

Find the article here.

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4. Consistent Branding

Maintaining a consistent brand identity across all your social media profiles is vital to becoming easily recognisable and trustworthy to your audience.

90% of potential customers expect to have a similar experience with your brand across all marketing platforms and channels.

Your TikTok followers should also be able to recognise you on Twitter and vice versa, helping to build a following across multiple platforms and keep your brand top of mind.

Make sure to use the same colour schemes, logos, and messaging to create a cohesive brand image that customers can easily recognize and trust.

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5. Engage and Interact

By its very nature, social media is a two-way street.

Your social profiles should act as a conversation between you and your audience, not just a 'post-and-ignore' relationship.

Not replying to comments and messages can make your audience feel unheard and less-likely to engage with you in the future.

A helpful tip when posting new content is to go back and reply to any comments on your previous post. Not only does this give you dedicated time to respond to your audience, but they also get an alert that you’ve replied, prompting them to go back on your profile and see your new post.

You can also encourage additional engagement by centering your posts around questions, polls, and giveaways. Look for ways to open a conversation with your audience as well as ways to keep that conversation flowing.

The more you interact with your audience, the more likely they are to interact with you.

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6. Leverage Influencer Marketing

Partnering with influencers in your niche can be a game-changer - but it’s all about picking the right influencers to represent your brand.

When picking influencers, it’s much better to have an engaged audience than a big one, so don’t just look at their followers, look at how their followers are interacting with them.

Influencers with high levels of engagement will have followers that trust their opinions. By collaborating with these influencers, you can showcase your products, reach a wider audience, and develop associated trust.

We’d also recommend ensuring there’s a level of authenticity to the post. Modern consumers know when they’re being lied to, so you really need to find an influencer that genuinely likes your product.

It’s no good if someone promotes your brand one week and then a competitor’s brand a week later.

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7. Use Hashtags Strategically

A post using hashtags gets over 12% more interactions than those who don’t.

Hashtags can help increase the visibility of your posts, but similar to influencers, it’s about finding the right ones. The most popular hashtags in your niche might get a lot of views, but they’ll also be highly competitive.

Instead try to find less-known but still popular hashtags in the 10k-100k post range.

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8. Create Shoppable Posts

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok all offer shoppable post features that allow users to purchase products directly from your content.

Utilising these features not only helps to highlight your products to those who may not have visited your Shopify store yet, but creates a more direct purchase experience for your customers.

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9. Analyse and Optimise

Make sure that you’re constantly keeping record of any key statistics to judge the success of your social profiles;

Followers
New followers
Likes
Comments
Total engagements
Clicks

You can then use these metrics to adjust your content and judge how well new-content styles are performing.

For example, if you decide to post more memes and that results in more likes, followers, and comments, then that’s a good sign to introduce more humorous content into your strategy.

It can also be helpful to track your competitor’s accounts to see how you shape up. You won’t be able to get any in-depth analytics, but you can track metrics like total followers.

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10. User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-Generated Content (UGC) refers to any content created and shared by your customers that showcases their experiences with your products or brand.

UGC builds trust between you and your audience whilst fostering a sense of community around your brand. Authentic, unbiased content from customers will be more persuasive than your own messaging, influencing potential customers and helping improve your online presence.

Check out StoreLab's in-depth guide on the power of UGC for Shopify stores.

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11. Consistent Posting Schedule

There’s no one right time to post on social media due to algorithms prioritising content popularity over recency.

However, consistency is key to keeping your audience engaged. Instead of aiming to post at the same time, instead aim to post more frequently. Getting out more content will be more impactful than posting content at an exact time.

Tools like Sprout Social, Buffer, and Later can help to organise, schedule, and report back on your content, making it easier to stick to a consistent posting schedule.

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12. Storytelling

Your audience wants to see more than just your products.

A lot of Shopify stores fail to build up any traction on social media because they focus on showcasing their products opposed to building any understanding of their brand.

Audiences want to feel more connected to you by understanding about your beliefs, opinions, and journey, so try to craft compelling stories around your brand and products.

Share behind-the-scenes glimpses, customer success stories, and narratives that resonate with your audience's emotions and values, establishing a deeper connection between you and your customers.

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13. Offer Exclusive Promotions

Exclusive promotions are great for building up your following and driving more Shopify sales.

Reward your social media followers with exclusive promotions and discounts, whilst letting your other customers know through your other marketing channels about your offer.

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14. Social Proof

Social proof is a term first used in 1984 by author Robert Cialdini in his book Influence.

It’s the idea that people are more likely to do something if they know that others have also done it or if more people have done it. For example, you’re more likely to buy a risky piece of clothing if you see a celebrity wear it - or you’re more likely to buy something with 1,000 reviews over something that has 100 reviews.

Naturally, social media is a great place to build and display social proof, such as customer reviews and ratings in the form of text, images, or videos.

And social media can work as social proof in and of itself. If a customer sees you have a large and engaged customer base, they’ll like your brand more and become more likely to make a purchase.

This is why social proof is one of the essential factors in driving sales, as it builds trust with potential customers and increases brand awareness. You can learn more about the importance of social proof for your e-commerce business here.

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Organic Social Media FAQs

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What is organic social media?

Organic social media, also known as 'organic social', refers to any form of content or engagement that takes place on a brand's social media platforms without paying or advertising. It's purpose is to allow you to naturally connect with your target audience, build brand awareness, engage in meaningful conversations, and create a loyal online community.

When you post organically on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, the people that you can expect to see and interact with your content includes your existing and loyal followers, the followers of your followers, and those who follow your hashtags.

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What is organic social good for?

Organic social is the foundation of many digital marketing strategies today is because it’s one of the best, cheapest, and most effective ways to both create and retain a connection with your customers at scale.

Many Shopify businesses use organic social to build brand awareness, showcasing expertise, driving website traffic, and encouraging UGC (user-generated content).

If you have a mobile app for your Shopify store, you can also utilise organic social for driving more app downloads and sales by offering valuable download incentives.

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What is the difference between organic and paid social?

Even though both organic and paid social have a similar goal - to gain new customers and followers and drive sales by posting quality content - there is a difference between them.

Organic social is where you create and share content on your Shopify store's social media platforms without using a paid promotion. You're building a genuine, loyal following through meaningful interactions and engagement.

Whereas a paid social strategy involves spending money to promote your content through paid advertising, for example. This allows you to share your offerings with a wider, more targeted audience who may never come across your social profile otherwise.

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What are boosted social media posts?

Boosting social media content means using a your marketing budget to promote posts that have previously been organically shared on your profile to increase it's effectiveness.

You can boost any type of content in your social media feed, including new product launches, sale/promotion information, and even user-generated content. By boosting these posts, you're extending their visibility beyond just your current following.

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How do I create a good organic social content strategy?

To learn how to create a successful organic social content strategy for your Shopify store, discover the StoreLab article, What is Organic Social? [Definition & Tips]. Here, you'll find 3 effective, and easy-to-implement tips, including:

Why to follow the 80/20 rule
How to optimise your social content and profiles
Why you shouldn't spread yourself too thin across social

Find the guide here.

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Are you looking to further the results of your Shopify store even more? We've seen that mobile apps can have 9x more purchases vs desktop, see a 2x increase in AOV (average order value), 111x return on investment, and so much more. Plus, 79% of traffic to Shopify stores comes from a mobile device. So if you haven't already thought about creating a mobile app for your Shopify store, now is the time to do so.

StoreLab is the best no-code Shopify mobile app builder as you can have your app up and running in as little as 2 weeks from just $79/per month. Discover more about why you should build a mobile app for your Shopify store here, or book a free discovery call with a member of our team to learn more about our plans.