The holiday shopping season is a busy time for consumers, with a lot of eyeballs staring at computers and phones, researching gifts, and looking for the best deals online.

Even with increased competition and decreased organic reach, social media is still key for getting the attention of your potential customers. But, without a solid plan, success may pass your company by.

Here are eight steps for planning a holiday campaign across your social media channels, so that by the time the holidays arrive you can kick your feet back and enjoy a little more time with family.

Get ready to flex your creative genius!

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At WooCommerce we’re passionate about the idea of eCommerce being open. By that we mean open to all budgets and an array of development skill levels, open to all locations, and open to everything from the simplest to most customized business ideas you can throw at it.

Today we’re proud to announce Facebook for WooCommerce, a free integration that opens up Facebook’s audience of more than 1 billion people to Woo store owners. It’s a significant step in our quest to democratize commerce on WordPress.

Read on to learn more about the two powerful ways this extension helps grow businesses.

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When you start an online store, there are hundreds of things that demand your attention. Along with the basics — order fulfillment, customer service, restocking and producing products — there are also tactics designed to grow and improve your business.

Marketing is something that new store owners usually know they need to invest their time and energy in, but struggle to start with. Finding marketing tactics that work is tricky, as is making the time to apply said tactics to your store.

To lend you a helping hand, we’ve collected a few of the most ideal ways that you can spread the word about your new store, along with the WooCommerce extensions that make these methods possible. We’ve also included some info on how to tell if this is a good fit for you, plus additional reading on each tactic.

Keen to kick off your marketing? Have a look at the strategies we’re recommending for you.

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If you’re new to the world of eCommerce, chances are pretty good that you’ve at least considered creating one or more social media profiles for your brand. Social media changes like the wind, and if you think a Facebook Page is all you need to reach your customers… well, you might be in for a surprise.

There are ever increasing possibilities. Each network has its own perks and perils, not to mention guidelines to follow.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to decide which social media platforms are the right fit for marketing your eCommerce business. We’ll cover why it’s so important to choose carefully, and then look closely at major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and more so you can evaluate whether or not they’re a good fit for you.

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So you’ve created a Pinterest account for your online store. By this point, you might have a hundred or so followers, and you’ve likely been able to attribute a few sales back to your boards. Things are good… but they could be better, and you want a bigger piece of the pie.

If you’ve heard about the incredible potential that Pinterest has for brands, and want to better tap into this network’s 47 million monthly active users, it’s time to scale up your strategy. Successfully using Pinterest to attract new customers is going to mean doing much more than pinning beautiful photos and curating content. Luckily, these new strategies won’t take up too much of your time.

If you’re thinking about taking your Pinterest activity to the next level, read on to get some advice on how you can scale your strategy, attract more customers, and make better use of your pins to drive more profit.

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Your customers are creating content about you every day. It may be as simple as a photo on Instagram or a review on your website. Or it may be as complex as a blog post detailing how to accomplish a task with your products. These customer creations are called user generated content (or UGC), and they are highly valuable for brands.

You probably know much of this content exists, but what you don’t know is how — or why — to use it. The last thing you should do is ignore it. UGC is one intensely powerful form of social proof, and it can make your brand look trustworthy, popular, and much more interesting than companies that don’t highlight any user or customer content at all.

Today, we’ll be showing you several ways that you can properly identify and showcase your user generated content. Whether you’ve got a small startup or a booming eCommerce business, these methods will help you engage with your fans and attract new ones, all while boosting confidence in your brand.

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If your brand isn’t yet marketing on Instagram, now is a good time to start. This photo sharing platform was the fastest growing social media network last year, according to the Pew Research Center. About half (49%) of its 300 million monthly active users log in daily, and 53% of adults ages 18-29 say they use the app.

There’s a lot of advice online about using Instagram as a marketing tool, but it can quickly get overwhelming for brands who are brand new to the platform. A huge list of 20 tips might not be very helpful if you’ve just signed up and are staring at a blank screen, unsure what photos to post or how to tie this growing social network into your existing marketing plans.

If your eCommerce company has just joined Instagram and is looking for guidance, we’re happy to help. Here are the five things you should try right off the bat, from posting your very first photo to linking your content to your website.

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You likely already know that social media is important for marketing your consumer electronics brand. But what you may not have realized is just how much your presence on networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest matters to your customers.

According to data provided by the Consumer Electronics Association, approximately 24% of consumers looking to make an electronics purchase “always or almost always” refer to social media before they buy. For consumers in the “high engagement” category, who spend 13.5 hours or more per week on social, their reliance on these networks for purchasing decisions jumps to 65%!

With this in mind, it’s crucial for your brand to have a strategy that makes you look good, sets you apart from your competition, and makes your customers happy. This may sound easier said than done, but we’ve tracked down four companies with amazing social media strategies that will teach you to do all that (and more).

Keep reading to find four ways you can boost your social media marketing and motivate more customers to choose you over your competition.

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Social media has given brands seemingly endless ways to connect with, inspire, and delight their fans. Whether they’re highlighting specific customers or sharing special deals and discounts, brands have been using social media platforms to create goodwill, loyalty, and — ultimately — more sales for several years now.

But with these endless possibilities come just as many difficulties, especially for fashion and clothing companies. With an industry that has long been focused on the retail experience, where the brand’s presentation and messaging can be carefully controlled, the uncontrollable nature of social media can present as much of a challenge as it can an opportunity.

If your fashion brand wants to use social media successfully, but aren’t certain how to connect the dots while still staying true to your ethos, we have some tips for you. Today we’re going to look at five different types of fashion companies. We’ll examine what they’re doing well on their networks, what makes them so successful, and what your company can learn from them.

Ready to learn? Let’s get started!

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If you have social media buttons on your product pages, you probably added them because you wanted your products to be shared more frequently on networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. You know that more shares = more publicity, and more publicity = more new customers making purchases.

However, increasing those valuable shares isn’t always as easy as sticking a few buttons on your store and calling it a day. Your customers need motivation to share your products, and it’s up to you to give it to them.

There are a few methods you can use to motivate a customer to spread the good word about your brand before, during, and after their purchase. Let’s take a look at some ways that you can boost shares of your products on social media and attract even more shoppers.

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Social proof means that potential readers, customers, or followers will make a decision based on a larger group’s previous decisions. Fast Company states that you can narrow down the topic to five different types of social proof:

1. Wisdom from your friends
2. Wisdom from large crowds
3. User social proof
4. Social proof from famous people
5. Social proof from a credible expert

Through the careful use of these different types of social proof, you can reach more potential customers, sell more products online and improve your retention rates.

Let’s take a look at some ways you can use social proof to sell more, along with a few tips for finding the right type of social proof to use for your company.

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Customers have more opportunities than ever to engage with stores they love, and you’d do well encouraging your customers to take full advantage of all the opportunities they have to talk to you.

However, most retail stores are missing the boat when it comes to connecting online shoppers with offline information. They display their locations and hours on their websites, but less than 4 out of 10 provide information on their products and services on social media.

It’s a shame, since the e-store owners who do effectively use social networking have found that it is a very efficient way of discovering what their customers want. They also enjoy more control over their businesses’ reputations, as they can respond to complaints and controversies instantly.

So today, we’ll show you how to leave the first category and enter the second.

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When entering into the world of e-commerce – retail, specifically – it might come as a surprise just how important social media really is.

I mean, you probably understand that you need to have a presence on the major sites like Facebook and Twitter, but did you know that recent research shows that Instagram is a serious engagement booster for online brands? I’m talking a 25% boost here, and that’s definitely not something to sneeze at.

Pinterest is important, too, don’t get me wrong. Especially when dealing in tangible, visually-oriented products. But Instagram is a social tidal wave and it would behoove you to set sail, like, yesterday.

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I know I don’t have to tell you how important social media is to your success online.

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you run; law firms, consultancies, and retailers alike have all found social media to be an invaluable tool for building brand awareness and creating a loyal follower base.

As an online store owner, it’s imperative to have a social presence. But I’m not here to convince you of such. In fact, I’m confident that you know this already. Rather, what I question is whether your social campaign is as effective as it could be. Are you really knocking it out of the park, or could it use some work?

There’s nothing like learning from the best to get your campaign up and running, right? Here are four brands who are absolutely killing it on social media right now. Check out what they’ve done and I dare you to tell me you didn’t walk away inspired!

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