Brands Must Attract Connected Consumers Through Social Media, Says Punch Communications

As consumers are granted continued ease of access to online stores and social networks through the growth in use of smartphones and tablets, consumer-based brands must adapt their online strategies to make ease of shopping and browsing through a brand’s social media profile as easy as possible.

Research conducted by Zmags has found that a growing number of consumers are looking to either follow or shop with their brand on Facebook, with more than 80 percent of connected consumers now active Facebook users. As a growing number of consumers have an increased inclination to interact with their favourite brands though online platforms, brands yet to alter their strategies to incorporate these elements must do so in the near future to maintain consumer satisfaction with the brand.

To ensure a brand stays on top of these changing trends there are a number of activities a brand can undertake to ensure it retains current customers whilst being able to attract new ones. For a brand looking to implement changes to its Facebook page, the introduction of an online shop within a Facebook tab will allow users easy access not only to a range of online products, but also the ability to allow users to shop whilst remaining on one of the most popular websites on the internet. Incorporation of a Facebook shop will not only help tap into the growing trend for consumers to shop through branded shops on Facebook, but will also allow easy sharing of purchases and interactions between a consumer and their Facebook friends.

Further to this, f-commerce adoption should transcend the above implementation of shopping elements on a brand’s social media profiles, and include the incorporation of social media plug-ins to a brand’s website. Plug-ins allow a user to ‘Like’, share and comment on a brand’s page or about a specific product on the website, rather than having to make a separate visit to a brand’s social media profile. Incorporation of these elements makes sharing and interactions an easy action and therefore appears much more appealing to consumers. Zmag’s research found that 22% of consumers like to share good deals with friends via social networks, so making the sharing process as easy as possible should be a priority for brand’s looking to increase both interactions and acquisition across social platforms.

Clearly the requirement for brands to maintain an equal level between social elements and online shopping is essential to meet the changing demands of online consumers. With Facebook now proving one of the most popular uses of time spent online alongside a growing trend to conduct shopping online, incorporation of these two elements should be essential for any brand looking to maintain and grow its customer base.

By: WoDavis

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Will Davis is an account executive at PR company Punch Communications. Punch is an integrated PR, Social Media and SEO agency. For more information about Punch's integrated approach to digital PR, please visit punchcomms.com