This post was originally published on www.iwesocial.com

Don’t think your eCommerce site has a place on social media? Think again. Three out of four people now make purchases online according to a report from ezibedit.

Online purchasing and eCommerce has boomed over the past two years thanks to newer digital marketing trends and tactics like Google AdWords, social advertising, and strong SEO strategies.

Social media has now opened a gateway of opportunities for eCommerce companies. Here are three tips that will boost your eCommerce presence right away.

Facebook Advertising

It’s no longer a secret that Facebook advertising is not only cost effective, but it converts. All different types of industries have started to integrate Facebook advertising in to their digital marketing efforts.

One of the key reasons why e-Commerce marketers love Facebook ads is the ability to target a specific audience tailored to their product or industry. Not only do marketers have the ability to strongly micro-target, it’s also cost effective. It’s been reported, by Shopify, that the average cost-per-click (CPC) for a Facebook ad in Q4 of 2014 was $0.49.

Another reason why Facebook advertising is an effective way to market your eCommerce product is the different ways you can drive traffic to your site from specific call-to-action Facebook ads. Below is a list of key Facebook ads you could use.

Clicks to Website – Pay each time someone clicks your ad or visits your website

Website Conversions – Pay for each conversion on your website.

Page Post Engagement – Pay for engagement on you FB post such as; Likes, comments, shares

Page Likes - Pay to increase the amount of Likes your business page has

App Installs – Pay and bid for each and any app installation

App Engagement – Pay when a user interacts with a specific part on your app

Offer Claims – Pay to promote special offers and discounts

Local Awareness – Pay to show ads to users near your business

Event Responses - Pay to promote an event on Facebook

Video Views – Pay to promote more views to your Facebook video

Dynamic Product Ads – Pay to promote relevant products to users that browsed your eCommerce site.

Engage Online Customers

Social media has given brands and companies a great platform to not only gain new customers, but also engage them. Social media now facilitates most companies’ first interaction they ever have with future/potential customers.

Today, we have the ability to go “where the customers are”. Social media gives us the opportunity to understand and research our customer base. Knowing and understanding your audience is huge, but especially in the eCommerce world when you have to be specific to each individual online product.

Not only does social media allow us to engage and get a pulse on our online product audience, it also plays as a company’s online customer service desk. Reviews are HUGE in today’s online world. Now customers have the ability to give reviews through various online channels, such as Facebook, Yelp, Google, and Foursquare. Unlike years past, eCommerce brands can now be responsive and give real-time customer service to online customers.

Incorporating a social media strategy in your product marketing will automatically increase engagement if you are consistently coming up with valuable, creative content for your online audience.

Create Customer Influence

Referral traffic is critical to any eCommerce product. So much so, that 70% of consumers now look and rely on online product reviews. Like we mentioned above, social media is a key place for online retailers to get positive and influential reviews.

The more quality content you can post, the more consistent, and the more you can engage your online audience, the more you will establish yourself as an Influencer. Social media gives us a direct line to our customers. It gives us the opportunity to build a direct line of trust, establish a product voice, and more than anything social media gives us the opportunity to interact with our customers in our own unique way. This is critical if you product is in a saturated industry or market. The more influence you can create, the more product you will sell. People buy online products based off of influence, reviews, referrals, quality and trust.

If you want to dive more in-depth on how to attract and retain customers to help your eCommerce strategy, download our FREE eBook “How to Attract More Customers through Facebook”.