Community commerce, or content commerce, refers to entertaining content on platforms like TikTok, that also happens to feature products and connects viewers to brands. Thousands of brands are already benefiting from community commerce and there’s plenty of room for yours to join that list.

TikTokkers spend about 3% of their month on TikTok(!), giving ample time to spontaneously discover new brands. And they’re not just discovering brands, they’re buying from them too.

Last year, consumers spent $6.2 billion on TikTok and it recently became only the 5th app to ever gross $10 billion revenue. So if you haven’t jumped on the community commerce trend, here’s an overview of what it is, and why you should incorporate it into your marketing strategy. 

Chapters:

1. What is community commerce? 
2. How to get started with community commerce
3. Community commerce strategies 
4. Community commerce examples
5. Win community commerce with social commerce

What is community commerce? 

Community commerce is a type of word-of-mouth marketing driven by creators, characterized by entertaining, compelling content that features products or brands. Also referred to as content commerce, community commerce is embodied by the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag, which has 7.5 million posts and literally billions of views at the time of writing.

A shopping journey that might have taken 19 days before now takes 19 seconds

Ajay Salpekar, Head of Beauty & Personal Care, TikTok Shop

It works like this. You open up TikTok and stumble upon something on your For You page, and you’re inspired by it. You realize this cool new product exists. So you buy it right there in the app. A shopping journey that might have taken 19 days before now takes 19 seconds! Hear Ajay Salpekar, Head of Beauty & Personal Care at TikTok Shop expand on this below.

Shopping has always been a social- and community-driven event. But it’s shifted from shopping with a handful of friends at the local mall to TikTok and other social media platforms with virtual communities, composed of billions of members. 

Now creators — anyone with a phone and TikTok account! — are posting about your brand, adding hashtags, and tagging your products. And the key part is shoppers are discovering these products. 79% of users have discovered new brands through TikTok.

Through community commerce, you have a unique opportunity to build deeper connections with consumers by leveraging creators and their communities. You have a shot at authentically reaching a vast network of users looking for new things or discovering things they didn’t even know existed.

The rise of community commerce is rooted in the acceleration and widespread adoption of social commerce — the buying and selling of products on social media and everywhere social reaches. Social media has disrupted the purchase journey, which is now led by spontaneous discovery and inspiration, and no longer follows the traditional path.

How to get started with community commerce

During the recent Bazaarvoice Summit, Ajay Salpekar (reminder: Head of Beauty and Personal Care at TikTok Shop) talked about content commerce in the age of TikTok, where he outlined his recommendations for brands looking to join the community — whether enterprise level or a smaller team. Here’s his five main priorities for brands that see success:

1. Be willing to experiment. In Ajay’s own words, when it comes to nailing shoppable content, “brands who have a learning mindset or a learner’s mindset tend to do better a lot faster.” By that he means you need to actually be open to testing and implementing new features and journey paths, and have an analytical mindset that can guide you on what’s working and what isn’t
2. Relinquish control. One of the hardest aspects of getting started with community commerce is taking a step back and allowing creators to create in your name. Let creators create — they’re the experts after all! Besides, 67% of TikTokkers say they feel closer to brands that post humanized, unpolished content
3. Partner up with a mix of creators. Creator content is the lifeblood of community commerce but every creator will suit different needs. The mega and celeb creators will have a massive reach for building brand awareness, but tend to see lower engagement. Whereas micro-influencers are fantastic at building authentic, relatable content for their niche audiences. To catch that full myriad of shoppers, work with a good mix of both
4. Develop a holistic content plan. For the brand stewards out there, don’t stick to one content type. Build out your content supply chain with a mix of in-house, agency, and branded content. Don’t just assume one type will work best, use all of the above. And coming back to point #1 above, down the line you can use analytics to decide where to lean into more
5. Don’t work in silos. The final point Ajay makes is an important one — media is still a brand’s greatest amplifier. Community commerce hasn’t changed that. The expertise of agency, brand, marketing, and e-commerce teams all apply but most teams still work in silos. In reality, brands see the most success in the content commerce world when they all partner together for shoppable content

Community commerce strategies 

Social media continues to be a source of inspiration, where consumers learn about new products. The social media community drives product awareness, purchase consideration, and conversion. And it doesn’t just apply to younger generations like Gen Z either! A common misconception, as research shows.

So, it’s no longer enough for brands to simply have a social media presence. You need to engage with consumers, tell a story, and establish your brand as likable. That’s where community commerce comes in. Here’s how.

1. Put authenticity on display 

Community commerce works best when brands and consumers share a sense of belonging and emotional connection. By blending community, entertainment, shopping, and brand messaging, you can inspire authentic but unique product discovery and influence purchases. 

Authenticity is crucial in community commerce. Even the cool kids with sleek branding need to jump down a level or two. On Instagram, you may add highly stylized photos to attract attention, but that doesn’t work on TikTok.

Community commerce is about being real. It’s a chance for your brand to be its authentic self — whether that’s silly, playful, or vulnerable. 

2. Entertainment drives action 

On platforms like TikTok, users don’t want to be advertised to. Instead, they’re looking for unique experiences that are fun and entertaining! Whether it’s a game, funny dance, or a quirky contest or challenge, let your creativity run wild and jump on the latest trends.

Consumers want to discover new content that comes to life — and they don’t care if that content also contains products or showcases brands. That’s the beauty of community commerce content.

Remember when Ocean Spray, the 90-year-old brand, got a big boost after a viral TikTok video a few years back? It showed a man lip-syncing the Fleetwood Mac song “Dreams,” while riding a longboard and swigging the brand’s cranberry juice. 

The more entertaining you are, the more authentic you are. Low-cost airline are well known for this and have amassed a massive following on TikTok with their funny vids.

@ryanair Is your friendship worth €8 #pascal #nicolascage #ryanair ♬ original sound – ghoulia

Their content gets people talking. And more buzz means higher awareness and product discovery, which translates to purchases and consumer engagement. 

3. Tap into creator- and user-generated content  

We’re in a a creator economy. With TikTok’s reach growing, the best way to reach these consumers is by partnering with creators and influencers who are already on the platform. Working with creators (NB: a mix of different types!) will drive awareness of your brand and help you come across as more relatable.

Let your everyday fans be your creators, too. Encouraging user-generated content (UGC), such as videos of consumers using your products, heightens the authenticity factor. Most consumers appreciate the chance to get creative and engage with their favorite brands.

Over half (53%) of shoppers identify themselves as UGC creators, according to our research, and 70% are happy to share their social content with brands when asked.

This approach will help you build new communities. Just encourage everyone to use hashtags related to your brand and product sector, like #beauty or #fashion. Community commerce content is quick to create. TikTok was designed to make content creation easy and expensive, and videos can be uploaded within minutes.

4. Make your content shoppable 

All of the above is pretty superfluous if users can’t purchase directly through the app. Remember, as consumers are watching funny dance or outlandish challenge videos, they’re discovering new products and being inspired to purchase. 54% of TikTok users have purchased a brand after seeing it on the platform. That’s the spirit of community commerce and why #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has billions of views. But they can’t do that if your content isn’t shoppable!

TikTok Shop, for example, lets brands link their Shopify product catalogs, which will show up in the Shopping tab on your profile. Other e-commerce platforms, like Square and OpenCart, will be on board soon. You can also add product links to videos that feature your items. 

And link-in-bio solutions such as Like2Buy make all of your TikToks (and Instagrams!) shoppable without leaving the app.

5. Amplify your message beyond social

Social media shouldn’t be restricted to social! Towards the end of his Summit presentation, Ajay went on to explain that brands that do really well with media on TikTok are the ones that partner deeply with creators, and then very quickly turn on the taps for their media spend to amplify the messages that work well for the brand.

That means syndicating your creator content to everywhere else your shoppers are. Think product pages, emails, paid ads, and even in-store! Getting your content in front of shoppers everywhere they are means purchases can happen anywhere, anytime, instantly. Your bottom line will thank you for it.

Community commerce examples 

Brands are tapping into community commerce, energizing their customers, and driving sales in the process. Here’s three examples of community commerce in action.

Benefit Cosmetics

Benefit Cosmetics is a global beauty brand that decided to partner with TikTok Shop for their launch of Fan Fest Mascara, which was their biggest launch of the year. It was an exclusive launch with TikTok Shop, and they were the first brand to go live for 24 hours.

@gabriella__andrea @Benefit Cosmetics Fan Fest Mascara 9/10 • @Charlotte Tilbury magic cream & setting spray @loréal paris usa lumi glotion @Estée Lauder double wear foundation @tarte cosmetics sculpt tape & pressed powder deep tan (its broken lol) @e.l.f. Cosmetics @elfcosmetics monochromatic blush stick & lip stain @Milani berry amore blush & lip oil @maccosmetics @maccosmeticsusa stufio fix pressed powder @Laura Mercier loose setting powder @NYX Professional Makeup brow pencil @L.A. Girl Cosmetics lip liner @Too Faced an ancient highlight, bronze, blush palette im obsessed with! @Gisou hair oil @Gucci bloom perfume • #grwm #trending #gucci #guccibloom #makeuphacks #benefit #benefitcosmetics #fanfest #fanfestmascara #benefitfanfestmascara #benefitfanfest ♬ hits different speed up – elly

Since launch, they’ve had over 500 videos made featuring Fan Fest, with upwards of 63 million views. But more importantly, sales of the Fan Fest Mascara even outpaced their own e-commerce site with 48,000 units sold.

Maybelline 

In an effort to boost its brand image and emotional connection with Gen Z shoppers, Maybelline worked with TikTok beauty creator @jessica.eid_ and others to promote its Lash Sensational Sky HIgh Mascara and other products. The overall campaign brought in:

• 20 million impressions
• 553,000 engagements
• 20% increase in sales

Not only that, but the mascara went viral, with a 49% increase in sales during the week of the promotion and a 190% increase month-over-month. The mascara also sold out on Ulta Beauty’s website four times over. 

American Eagle

Apparel brand American Eagle partnered with TikTok star Addison Rae on the #InMyAEJeans back-to-school branded hashtag challenge in 2020. The campaign asked TikTok users to make a video with American Eagle’s song while wearing their favorite jeans from the brand.

Using the hashtag #InMyAEJeans for a chance to be featured in a duet with Rae. After the campaign, American Eagle had:

• 432,000 TikTokkers making 800,000 videos
• 7 billion views for the campaign

In another campaign, American Eagle’s Aerie line saw its OFFLINE crossover leggings sell out multiple times after TikTok influencer @hannahschlenker posted a video about them to her more than 800,000 followers. The video went viral, attracting nearly 900,000 likes. 

Win community commerce with social commerce 

Social media offers the potential to reach billions of people and an infinite number of communities. Engaging these consumers depends on creating fun, entertaining content that shows off your products in an authentic, meaningful way. 

Brands are already demonstrating the benefits of community commerce on TikTok. These strategies can help you kickstart your own community commerce strategy — so that you can foster emotional connections with shoppers that inspire them to get to know your brand and make a purchase or two.

And that’s only the beginning. Want to turn social content into shoppable experiences that drive sales wherever shoppers are? Read The ultimate guide to social commerce conversion to discover how.

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Masterclass: Content commerce in the age of TikTok

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Picture this: You’re walking through the store, your stomach is growling, and you’re looking for the perfect thing to eat. Then, out of nowhere, a person shouts, “Free samples!” and hands you a hot bite of pizza just oozing with melted mozzarella cheese. And hey, it’s dinner time…you want more! *Add to cart.*

Now, replace that pizza with anything else — wine, ice cream, a handheld vacuum. Once customers try it, they’re more likely to talk about it, buy it, and share it. That’s why, despite the costs, product sampling marketing is one of the most effective ways of collecting authentic content and increasing conversions on your e-commerce site, social pages, and beyond.

Chapters:

1. What is product sampling?
2. When should you launch a product sampling campaign?
3. Why you should launch a product sampling campaign
4. Product sampling strategies
5. Get started with product sampling

What is product sampling?

It’s the practice of offering goods or services to your audience in exchange for increased brand awareness, brand loyalty, reviews, feedback, and other revenue-boosting user-generated content (UGC). This is a form of experiential marketing because consumers are able to completely absorb and engage with the product prior to buying it.

Quick history lesson: Product sampling is a tried-and-true marketing strategy dating back to the 1850s. Benjamin T. Babbitt, a soap manufacturer, was one of the first people to hand out samples to his fan base. As time passed, the power of this marketing strategy was realized by others and has since become popular in a variety of industries.

Today, there’s several different product sampling methods:

• Traditional sampling means giving away free product samples to customers, so they will feel more confident buying the product
• Digital product sampling is a sustainable sampling method, where customers buy a product in a store or online with a provided coupon, or receive money back after uploading the receipt — no samples need to be shipped meaning no unnecessary packaging waste
• Sampler packs include small or trial-size products. If the customer likes the sample, they are more likely to buy the product at full size
• Mail drops are when you mail free samples directly to customers’ homes
• Limited time samples are free only for a specific amount of time, such as three days, a week, etc. This adds excitement and plays to the psychological fear of missing out (FOMO!)
• Virtual sampling is when consumers are able to try out a product online without visiting a store or receiving something in the mail. This type of product sampling campaign relies on technology like an app or artificial intelligence

When should you launch a product sampling campaign?

You should launch a product sampling campaign when you need to boost word of mouth or get feedback on a new product.

• You have a high-quality, effective product ready for people to test. It’s important to make sure you’re delivering something genuinely good before people’s opinions start flying. A bad product will be all the more maligned by product sampling
• Your budget can handle sampling costs. This includes the cost of the samples as well as shipping, handling, staffing, and marketing. Note: Digital product sampling alleviates a lot of fulfillment costs!
• You need increased brand awareness for an existing product. If your brand isn’t well-known but you have a great product, you need positive word of mouth to increase brand awareness and fill your sales funnel. Just make sure expansion is feasible for you based on your current business model
• You have a new product to launch. Product sampling will help with product development, as well as create some additional buzz. People who sample your product and love it are more likely to buy it, tell their friends, and even create shareable content about it

Why you should launch a product sampling campaign

Product sampling marketing helps brands boost feedback, conversion rates, positive reviews, and social content for both small and enterprise brands alike.

Get valuable product feedback

Product sampling is a way to connect with and get feedback from your audience.

According to Ryan Stewart, a marketing expert and the managing partner of WEBRIS, “We normally ask them questions about their experiences with our services, show how they use them, or even invite them to take part in an online contest that involves using our services.”

You can also use surveys to collect quantitative and qualitative data. This feedback can help you further develop the product into something your audience will love.

Boost sales and conversion rates

Sampling a product makes customers want to buy it. It’s wired into our psychology. Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, knows samples create desire. “If I gave you a tiny bit of chocolate,” he says, “all of a sudden it would remind you about the exact taste of chocolate and would increase your craving.”

Take Costco, for example. An oft-cited study about Costco revealed the grocery store saw a significant boost in revenue thanks to its free food samples. And Stewart confirms sampling is a solid way to increase sales. He asserts, “People who feel like we value their opinions are more likely to buy from us when they need something similar in the future.”

Gathering UGC and reviews from shoppers also gives brands a significant boost in sales. Absolution Cosmetics wanted to support product launches, build brand awareness around their healthy skin care messaging, and boost customer loyalty and engagement to ultimately increase sales. The brand implemented a dual review collection strategy, combining an evergreen sweepstakes on their website, ensuring a constant influx of fresh UGC and reviews, and targeted product sampling campaigns to support new product launches.

As a result, in just a six-month period, Absolution increased its revenue per visitor from 14% to 123%, customer engagement from 28% to 61%, and earned $107K directly attributed to ratings and reviews.

Encourage positive reviews due to a sense of reciprocity

Free samples encourage potential customers to play into the idea of reciprocity. In other words, people who receive the sample want to do something for your brand in return — like posting a positive review on social media.

This by no means every review is going to be positive of course. Neither should that be expected. Product sampling isn’t “we’ll send you a product sample in return for a positive review.” By contrast, reviews should be honest regardless of the sentiment. And even negative reviews provide added authenticity for your brand.

But one of the reasons sampling does yield such positive results is because the right provider (like Bazaarvoice ) can create campaigns for a hyper-targeted audience across demographics, behaviors, preferences, and more. When the recipient is the exact target audience the product is for, the review is much more likely to be positive. Just make sure your sampling provider can accommodate this.

“Product sampling allows us to get our audience involved in the creation of our content, which gives them a sense of ownership over what we’re sharing,” says Stewart.

For instance, after TTI Floor Care North America allowed top brand loyalists to sample Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners for free, they saw an 86% response rate and more than 700 reviews full of positive, authentic UGC. As a result, Dirt Devil product reviews went from 2.8 to 4.5 stars. These reviews not only filled TTI’s own webpage but were also syndicated on major retailers’ sites.

Supercharging brand awareness with social content

You probably already know that social content is an important way to reach consumers. Combining the reach of social media with the effectiveness of sampling gives you a unique marketing campaign powerhouse.

Most Bazaarvoice Sampling customers are brand managers who use sampling to generate and feature content on social media.

“Linking sampling to social is a core tenant of any e-commerce plan,” says Kerry Bridge, Global Director of Advocacy at Bazaarvoice. “You need to be able to collect that great content from social in order to populate your product pages. Plus build your community.”

We’ve pinpointed a few different reasons why social content and sampling go hand-in-hand:

1. New product launches benefit greatly from large amounts of recent UGC. 89% of shoppers check reviews before making a purchase, and 60% of shoppers feel more comfortable making a purchase if they can see product images or videos first. A great way to collect this valuable UGC is to employ sampling
2. Entering new markets helps you expand your reach. Each demographic is different, and over 70% of shoppers are looking for perspectives that reflect their own. Product sampling can help you get your foot in the door and provide UGC that speaks to these new markets in a relatable way
3. Supporting your core SKUs with product sampling allows you to collect quality content at scale. Your core products are hot sellers for a reason — get them in your fans’ hands through a sampling campaign and encourage them to create content. Data from our Bazaarvoice Network of over 12,500 brands and retailers found a 135% increase in conversion rate and a 164% increase in revenue per visitor when shoppers engaged with social content from their peers
4. Working with the right content creators can help you skyrocket your brand awareness and success. Creator collaborations add to your content volume, and by sharing with their own engaged audiences, they also extend your reach

Relaunch your products

There may be times when you want to shift your brand strategy and reformulate or reinvent your product. With the introduction of the FTC’s 2023 review hijacking legislation, reformulating your product isn’t just about tweaking its features — it’s about ushering it into the market as if it’s an entirely new line. It’s a unique challenge, with the daunting task of resetting your review count and content collection to zero. But sampling can help you rapidly rebuild from this new starting line.

• Relaunch your product with fresh advocacy: Successfully relaunch your reformulated product by targeting the right audience, providing an experience, driving UGC from day one, and gaining actionable insights from product samplers
• Combat misleading reviews with authentic content: If the reformulation means the product is “substantially different” in “one or more material attributes” from the prior version (as per the FTC), it would be deceptive to continue using existing reviews. A sampling campaign can generate fresh reviews and customer photos quickly and effectively so you have an arsenal of new social proof you can show off to shoppers

Product sampling strategies

Ultimately, all sampling campaigns help your potential customers get a preview of what you’re selling while helping you get more visibility for your product and brand overall. The individual strategies can take several different forms, from in-store food samples (Costco) or mailed glasses to try on (Warby Parker). The details depend on your business model and campaign goals.

Here’s seven examples from the masters that you can imitate when you craft your own campaign, including the relevant sampling program they used.

Costco nails the traditional sampling strategy

Costco is famous for the traditional, in-store, free sample method. People have gone so far as to tour the sample tables at various Costco stores. The more samples people try, the closer they get to a free lunch. Personal finance and food bloggers have picked up on this idea as well and have even written articles encouraging the practice.

Costco’s store sampling draws people to its stores, thanks to one key message: Going to Costco is fun (and yummy!)

While you might be nervous about handing out “freebies,” the benefits far outweigh the costs. In fact, according to the College Marketing Group, “Interactions — the company that handles Costco’s sampling — found that their efforts led to a 71% increase in sales of beer and a 600% increase in frozen pizza.”

Traditional sampling works especially well for supermarkets like Costco, as well as other brick-and-mortar stores like makeup counters. Just remember that the goal for this type of sampling is to increase sales and positive word of mouth. You probably won’t get a lot of usable content out of it.

L’Oréal gets personal with virtual sampling

Since its target market is focused primarily on beauty, personalization and creativity are everything for L’Oréal. That’s why L’Oréal’s special offers and promotions are tailored to this demographic’s specific preferences and needs in the form of virtual sampling.

Customers simply select a product like hair dye or blush. Once they grant L’Oréal access to their camera, a small window shows them what they would look like wearing that product. It’s kind of like Zoom + the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap Visualizer. But instead of paint, it’s a beauty product.

Virtual sampling is attractive because it’s incredibly scalable, not to mention germ-free. Brands aren’t limited by physical space in stores or the cost of making or shipping the product. Instead, consumers are able to instantly get a good idea of what the product would be like for them without the hassle of applying the sample color to their wrist (eww), applying to a program, handing over their personal info, or potentially wasting a product if they don’t like it.

This technique is also sometimes more helpful and realistic than physical store samples because the tool takes into account different product combinations and how they affect each other. For example, if I dyed my hair bright red, would that red lipstick look good? Hmm… maybe a more subtle shade would be better.

Brands can use virtual try-ons to fill their social media calendars. If you have a tool like this, inspire your customers to post a photo of themselves on social media “trying on” your product. Then collect, store, and track that content using Bazaarvoice’s AI-powered Media Library.

Warby Parker masters the mail drop

Warby Parker prides itself on its choice selection when it comes to new, stylish, and comfortable eyeglass frames. It provides a quiz to help customers determine exactly what type of frames will best suit them and then a personalized selection based on their responses.

After completing the quiz, customers can choose up to five frames that are delivered right to their homes, where they can test them for five days. After finding that perfect pair, customers can buy what they want and ship the rest back. The return shipping is free with Warby Parker’s return label.

For something you have to wear all the time (like glasses), comfort and style are paramount. Warby Parker helps customers feel assured that both needs will be met because customers can literally see the results for themselves at home before buying.

For brands that want a turnkey sampler program, Bazaarvoice offers a white-labeled sampling program to help retailers get their product samples directly into the hands of their community and start generating UGC.

Neuro optimizes product development

Sampling isn’t just to market and sell existing products. Kent Yoshimura and Ryan Chen, co-founders of wellness company Neuro, explain in this podcast one of the key ways they achieved their success: making sure Neuro Gum was as perfect as possible before they jumped into product activation. They gave out free samples of the gum to family, friends, and co-workers to test a variety of key details such as:

• Different ingredients (20 milligrams of caffeine to 80 milligrams of caffeine)
• New flavors
• Different sweeteners
• Hard chews vs. soft chews

After perfecting the product, Yoshimura and Chen surpassed their crowdfunding goal in just three days and ended up selling over 12 million pieces of Neuro Gum. And those people who sample the product became loyal customers.

“Once we introduce that product to somebody, the repeat purchase rate can be up to about 40, 45%,” said Chen. “Our challenge is getting people to try the product. Sampling is a really big opportunity for us.”

Neuro ensured it had a good, high-quality product and an active community of fans, thanks to product sampling. According to Chen, “We’ve grown such a loyal group of customers that they give us feedback all the time. It’s built a community which has been inspiring for us and has given us the motivation to keep going.”

After their initial success, they continued sampling with specific cohorts like the CrossFit community. They’ve also shipped product samples to new distributors to explore a potential new market in Africa.

Using samples and collecting customer responses is the most effective way to get meaningful feedback about your product, so you can improve it and launch with confidence.

Bazaarvoice’s sampling programs can help you learn from sampler feedback and expand into new markets via our robust, global Influenster community.

Home Depot doubles conversion rates with Managed Sampling

Home Depot Canada wanted to increase the volume of UGC, particularly reviews, its brands get on its product pages. So they partnered with bazaarvoice to create the Home Depot Seeds Sampling program.

“UGC is becoming increasingly important. It’s no longer a ‘nice to have.’ It’s a necessity. We see our site as a research tool, so even if people come into the store, they still use their phones to see ratings and reviews and make a final decision.”

Gabriela da Silva, Senior Brand Advocate Analyst, Home Depot Canada

Seeds Sampling is a review-seeding program that puts a brand’s highest priority products into the hands of its shoppers, in exchange for honest reviews on HomeDepot.ca. Since the program’s inception, it’s already led to some brands doubling their conversion rates on HomeDepot.ca.

It’s not just legacy products either. WiZ, a brand featured on HomeDepot.ca, used Seeds Sampling to generate buzz for new products and earn that UGC before they’d even launched. 

It worked, too. The conversion rate for the products used in Seeds Sampling was 68% higher than products not part of the program. Not bad at all.

Home Depot isn’t the first retailer to turn to Bazaarvoice for a Managed Sampling program. We’ve built sampling programs for Walmart, Target, and Sam’sClub, to name a few. And you could be next.

Get started with product sampling

Ready to experience the power of product sampling marketing in your own business? Bazaarvoice makes it easier than ever to get your products into the hands of the perfect customers, leading to a surge in reviews, social media buzz, authentic word-of-mouth, and sales.

You can learn more about Bazaarvoice Sampling here, or get started directly below.

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Buyer’s guide: Find the perfect product sampling partner

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• 65% of shoppers use social media for shopping inspiration
• 97% of Gen Zers say social media is their top source of shopping inspiration
• 82% of shoppers make purchases on social media

Sounds great! But collecting, curating, and creating high-performing, authentic social content that drives revenue across all channels is no easy feat. Especially if you’re dealing with internal organizational silos and competing KPIs. 

Fortunately, there’s a way to reap all of the benefits of a strong social media strategy with minimal stress and maximum efficiency. It all starts with a little organization. 

Chapters:

1. What is a social media content calendar?
2. Why your business needs a social media content calendar
3. How to build a social media content calendar
4. How to manage your social media content calendar
5. Get more from your social media content 
6. Examples of social media content calendar success
7. Social media content calendar template

What is a social media content calendar?

A social media content calendar is a one-stop shop for all things social that organizes content ideas, posting times, platforms, hashtags, and more, into a single place,.

You can also use your content calendar to create a consistent social posting strategy that supports your marketing and business goals. Added bonus: a calendar also serves as a single place where team members can collaborate without getting lost in emails and endless Slack messages. 

Your social media content planner can be as simple or advanced as you like. Here’s some common tools teams use to stay organized: 

• Excel/Google Sheets: This is the cheapest and easiest way to get started. Simply open a spreadsheet, create a basic table with the appropriate columns (we’ll explain more in a moment), and start dropping in your content and assets 
• Social media management tools: There’s a slew of social media scheduling and publishing tools that help keep you organized and let you focus your time elsewhere. Some more popular services include Buffer and Hootsuite (and Bazaarvoice )
• Social media content calendar templates: You can find customizable templates like this one to help guide and organize your posting schedule. These are either free or paid resources
• Project management tools: Tools like Asana and Trello can double as social media planners. You can create workflows to assign tasks and manage deadlines, albeit they require a lot more management 

Why your business needs a social media content calendar

A social media content calendar doesn’t just keep you organized. It also helps you stay sane. A content calendar is an essential toolkit for any social media or brand manager. Here’s the top five benefits to brands and retailers:

1. Easier collaboration. Depending on how you manage permissions, multiple team members can view, access, and edit these calendars. You can easily track which posts need to be written or edited and which are ready to go live
2. Be more efficient and proactive. These tools let you batch the content creation and curation process. Rather than trying to squeeze social media in between other projects, you can develop multiple posts at a time and be confident they align with your brand voice and objectives 
3. Maximize marketing and business strategies. A social media content calendar helps you match your social media efforts with bigger business and marketing objectives. Just imagine how much saner Black Friday will be if you have all of your posts planned in advance 
4. Maintain a more consistent posting schedule. We’ve all seen it happen. A brand starts a new social media channel and posts regularly for the first month or so. And then … silence. A month or so later, they’re back, only to fall off again in a few weeks 
5. Eliminate blank page syndrome. One of the hardest parts of writing a social media post is just getting started. By defining your strategy in advance, you’ll always know what topics to write about on a given day, which helps you create and curate relevant posts more easily — and avoid last-minute scrambling 

Social media content calendars aren’t just for big-name brands — smaller teams can especially benefit. Having a centralized location for content, ideas, and important dates makes it easier to maximize limited people power and budgets. 

What to include in your social media content calendar

Whether you build your own social media content calendar in Google Sheets or use an existing service, you’ll want to include the following components in your template:

• Posting date and time. Some tools offer a calendar view, letting you easily see your overall posting schedule
• Platform. You might have a slightly different strategy for each social media platform. A social media planner helps you maximize the benefits of each channel and find opportunities to repurpose content (which saves you additional time and stress)
• Content category. This is a high-level overview of the type of content you’ll post each day. Categories could include customer testimonials, educational posts, carousels, product features, etc
• Photo and video assets. Keeping these organized makes it easy to create more visually engaging posts
• Milestones and important dates. This includes holidays as well as internal dates for upcoming sales and promotions

How to manage your social media content calendar

You’ve created your social media content calendar. Congrats! But now what?

The first step is to go ahead and put it in motion. Or you can save time and hassle and utilize an existing social publishing platform, like our social media management tools, which makes executing your posting schedule effortless.

Once you have your calendar, you want to regularly check in on your engagement and track metrics like clicks, comments, and shares. The goal is to show how your strategy directly affects revenue and ROI, allowing you to prove the value of your social team and their efforts. You’ll also want to make sure to plan the type of content you’ll be posting, not just which platform.

As you measure the performance of your posts, stories, and shoppable storefronts, you can see what works — and use those insights to explore new channels and strategies. 

Get more from your social media content 

Using social media to share customer reviews and other user-generated content about your products is one of the most authentic and trusted ways to drive awareness and conversions. When customers interact with your social media content, they spend up to 15% more per order and spend 380% more time on your site, our own data shows.

When it comes to ROI, sharing this UGC on your social media channels is good. Leveraging these assets across all customer touchpoints is even better.

That’s why our social media tools let you go beyond just scheduling posts and tracking metrics. We also help you collect, curate, and manage content at scale — from getting rights from content creators to empowering you to leverage these assets on your product and category pages. 

Bazaarvoice customers who optimize their product pages with authentic social proof see conversions skyrocket. Those who feature photos and videos from customers, influencers, and partners can drive up to a 172% increase in revenue per e-commerce session.

Using this UGC on your site also helps you rank higher on Google. Most UGC is loaded with rich keywords. All it takes is eight reviews to start getting SEO benefits. 

Examples of social media content calendar success

Here’s a few success stories from customers who have leveraged our social media content calendar tools.

1. Bemz 

Bemz wanted to reach new customers, increase conversions, improve the customer journey across all channels, and boost shopper confidence in its interior design products. 

To help the brand achieve its goals, we leveraged a combination of our Social Commerce tools — including our content calendar Social Scheduler — to showcase the best of its UGC across social media and Bemz’s product pages. 

In the past year alone, Bemz has seen $1.65 million in revenue that can be attributed to on-site use of social media content — a 72.56% increase from the year before. Our social tools also contributed to a 270% lift in time on site, a 290% lift in conversion rate, and a 34% increase in average order value.

2. Iconic London

The digital-first beauty brand Iconic London wanted to drive conversions, increase order value, and build customer connections.

Bazaarvoice’s social tools, including Like2Buy and Bazaarvoice Galleries, helped Iconic London leverage its UGC across its Instagram account and website. This created an uninterrupted shopping experience, encouraging customers to spend more time on the site and engage with the brand’s UGC.

In 12 months, Iconic London saw a 361% lift in time on site and an 11% lift in average order value, leading to a 126% lift in conversion rate. The company also used UGC to discover influencers, form partnerships, and build stronger relationships with customers.

3. Samsonite

Samsonite is one of the most well-known travel luggage brands in the world. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t want to get more customers and sales. To boost brand discoverability, Samsonite planned to increase its brand presence across distribution channels, expand to more distribution channels, and ensure consistency of its branded content across all retail and wholesale channels.

We implemented Bazaarvoice Galleries, which seamlessly integrates UGC collected via Samsonite’s social media channels and distributes this content across multiple websites and partner sites. This allowed Samsonite to share inspirational content and drive product discovery. Bazaarvoice Galleries also helped ensure the messaging was consistent across each distribution channel.

In the end, our suite of social media tools helped Samsonite achieve 4x higher conversion rates, 5x increase in time on page, and a 254% increase in revenue thanks to higher average order values.

Create your own social media content calendar

In addition to helping increase sales and conversions, a social media content calendar makes it easier to plan and execute your strategy, helps your company create a methodology for cross-functional communication, and proves the ROI of your team’s efforts.

But remember, your content calendar is a living document. Just as channels like Twitter (err, X) evolve, so should your strategy. A social media planner shouldn’t just include time for content creation and curation, it should also include a schedule for evaluating the latest trends, as well as your company’s sales and messaging goals.

Doing so helps you ensure your social media channels are optimized to drive sales with a regular cadence of inspiring, authentic social content that’s relevant to all stages of the buyer’s journey. 

Not got the time to create your own social media content calendar from scratch or unsure where to begin? Grab our fully editable calendar template here to get started right away. Or work smarter, not harder, with Bazaarvoice’s Social Content Calendar. Learn more about it here.

FEATURED RESOURCE

A practical guide for social media professionals to drive engagement and commerce

Read here

Shoppable content was a new concept a few years ago, but in internet years that might as well be a decade. According to a survey of 250 business execs, 73% of businesses currently sell products and services on social media platforms, which are inherently content-driven. So, there’s a good chance your brand is already practicing this marketing tactic (or should be ).

As with everything else in the rapidly evolving digital marketplace, you need to continuously innovate if you want to compete. Leaders in the shoppable content space utilize the latest platforms, technologies, and formats available to them.

And in a smarter way than your competition. Whether you’re just getting started with shoppable content or you’ve been doing it from the start, there’s plenty to learn about at the intersection of social content and commerce.

Chapters:

1. What is shoppable content?
2. Best platforms for shoppable content
3. New shoppable content features on established platforms
4. How to add shoppable content to your e-commerce site
5. Customize and curate your shoppable content
6. Test and measure your shoppable content for success

What is shoppable content?

Shoppable content is a digital image, video, article, catalog, or social media post that consumers can purchase from directly, or click through to purchase on the product page.

If you’re behind the shoppable content curve, first of all: it’s never too late to catch up. And even if your brand’s already producing shoppable content, you should still learn how the technology is evolving.

Let’s start by explaining the concept.

Shoppable content is the foundation of social commerce — the selling of products and services on social media platforms and everywhere social reaches. Increasingly, brands are extending their e-commerce business past their websites to their social media channels. Accenture reports that social commerce sales will more than double by 2025, growing, three times as fast as traditional e-commerce.

They predict that millennials and Gen Z will contribute the majority of that growth. Especially the latter, given that 97% of Gen Zers use social media as their top source of shopping inspiration.

Social media is literally built for content, discovery, and exploration. So it’s a perfect fit for consumers to find products that appeal to them, represented by images, videos, testimonials, and descriptions.

But social media isn’t the only space for shoppable content. That’s the beauty of this conversion magnet. With the right tools (shameless plug), you can place that content on your website, partner sites, and even email. 74% of shoppers even expect to see social content on your website nowdays.

And in this stage of the game, there’s more types of content you can enable for shopping than when it first broke onto the scene. Now, shoppable content has expanded beyond static images in social media feeds and blog posts linked to product pages. We already know that works and produces significant results. Just look at Oak Furnitureland, who featured shoppable content across their website and marketing campaigns and saw a 248% increase in conversion rate.

So instead here’s a look at the latest advancements that brands and retailers can explore and use to innovate.

Best platforms for shoppable content

Some major social media platforms have begun to enable social commerce, even though they’ve been around for a while. If your brand already has a presence on these platforms, you’re well-positioned to start testing shoppable content on them. If you’re not already on these channels, now’s your chance to arrive prepared.

TikTok

Shoppable video content is all the rage. TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social platforms, and it reached 1 billion users in almost half the time that it took Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. As it continues to roll out more shopping features, this is a channel that e-commerce brands will want to pay attention to.

Millions of active users around the world burn through hours of their day scrolling TikTok. Videos of people dancing, cooking, goofing off, doing voiceovers, putting on makeup, and basically just living their lives.

This makes it the perfect environment for customers to discover brands and products they’re drawn to in a casual, organic way. There’s even a hashtag dedicated to this very activity: #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, which has literally billions of views.

TikTok Shopping, a suite of in-app shopping solutions for retail and e-commerce brands, is in its early stages. Similar to Pinterest and Instagram, brands with a TikTok for Business account can link their Shopify product catalog, which will appear in a Shopping tab on their TikTok profile. 

Additional partnerships with other e-commerce providers like Square, Wix, Ecwid, and OpenCart are in progress.

Many early TikTok Shopping adopters reflect the most popular content categories, such as beauty and skincare. For example, after Glow Beauty experienced a 600% spike in sales from a viral TikTok post and received a ton of first-time customer traffic from TikTok, they were eager to join the TikTok Shopping beta program.

Twitter/X

Twitter, or X, has joined the social commerce trend and is currently testing and piloting several different shopping features. They include:

• A Shop Module where users can purchase from business profiles
• Shop button linked with product-based tweets that adds items to an in-app cart
• Live Shopping and a Twitter Shopping Manager for merchants

Twitter’s commerce tools are only available to a limited number of brands, as of early 2022. But keep an eye on them as the next big platform to offer shoppable content.

Be prepared for when Twitter expands access to shopping features to more brands by optimizing your Twitter marketing strategy now. Take the advice of successful brands on Twitter by coming up with a brand voice that works for the platform and refining your audience targeting.

Snapchat

Snapchat is another social platform to launch in-app shopping in the past year. With Snapchat’s Public Profiles for Businesses, brands can enable a Shop section of their profile where they can upload products for sale.

With Snapchat’s Verishop collaboration, users can search for items according to their mood — a fun and inventive way for shoppers to explore outfits, makeup, and more. The category themes include mid-century modern, high glam, and free-spirited. This approach is Snapchat’s way of translating the in-person shopping experience for the digital audience.

The key to leveraging Snapchat for shoppable content is to embrace all the features that differentiate the app from its towering competitors. This means creating Snapchat-friendly content using interactive Lenses, artistic Filters, and creative Stories that show tutorials and provide an inside look into your brand. Then, you can complement that content by adding all the products that inspired it in your Snapchat Shop.

Leverage new social commerce features on established platforms

As social commerce continues to grow, so do the opportunities for more shoppable content on the first platforms to offer it. Your audience is already on these platforms to discover products and shop. 70% of the 8.5 million-member Influenster community say they search for products on legacy social platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

Make sure your brand meets them where they are with the shoppable content they’re looking for.

Shoppable Instagram Reels

Instagram was already a social commerce giant. Recently, Instagram added shopping functionality to Reels too, making it an ideal shoppable video content platform. This move came soon after TikTok’s Shopify partnership announcement as a way to compete with their short-form video rival.

Brands and creators that have Instagram Shopping set up can add product tags to their Reels. Then, anyone viewing a Reel with tagged products can tap to learn more. By enabling Instagram Checkout, they can even add-to-cart or buy from within the app.

Reels are a valuable feature for brands that want to level up their social commerce game, and their overall Instagram presence. In addition to displaying Reels within your feed/profile, Instagram may also feature Reels in the Reels tab of the Explore page. And creator partners can also tag your products in their Reels. This last perk presents brands with another way to make the most out of their influencer partnerships.

Brands can use Reels to demo products and show their fun and creative side. Use the music in Reels to your advantage: bust out your best dancing, acting, and performance skills; tell a story and use props and anything else your imagination can concoct.

Facebook Shops

In 2020, Facebook launched Facebook Shops, a way for businesses to have an online storefront on Facebook and Instagram by uploading their product catalog. In 2021, Facebook expanded Shops’ promotion to Facebook Marketing and WhatsApp. More recently, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) announced they would further extend Shops content to other corners of their platform, including Facebook Groups and News Feeds.

Within Groups, Facebook will recommend relevant products based on the topics and discussions within those communities. On WhatsApp, businesses on Facebook can showcase their entire Shops catalog, and users can interact directly with merchants to ask questions and get more information about products.

Pinterest Shopping

Pinterest has supported and encouraged shoppable content for a while now, making Pins shoppable and allowing brands to upload their product catalogs to sell on Pinterest. Those products can link to their corresponding pages on e-commerce sites or, for U.S.-based businesses, are available to purchase directly in iOS and Android Pinterest apps.

Their newest social commerce feature is Shopping Lists, where all the Product Pins saved by users are stored in one place. Pinners who have Shopping Lists will be notified any time there’s an update or price drop on their saved items. According to Pinterest data, Pinners are 7x more likely to buy products they’ve saved.

Make sure you’re primed for shoppable content on Pinterest. Apply to be a verified merchant to increase your brand trust and credibility, post a variety of media types, and create content that appeals to the latest trending interests in beauty, food, fashion, home decor, travel, and other categories.

Livestream shopping

If there’s one way to go and make your video content shoppable it’s livestream shopping. Livestreams are the new infomercials. Except younger, cooler, and better connected. Livestream shopping first exploded in Asia, and the trend is traveling quickly to other parts of the world. Since other major markets like the U.S. are still figuring it out, this is a great time to get in on it early.

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok currently dominate the livestreaming sector of social media. YouTube, which seems like a natural fit, is also getting on board with livestream shopping.

One brand to experience the power of live shopping on Instagram is Clinique. For a livestream event, the makeup brand offered Instagram-exclusive makeup kits, including a very limited, in-demand product. This repurposed product launch accounted for 85% of orders placed through Instagram and Facebook during, and right after, the livestream. This was a 7x faster product launch than what’s usual for Clinique.

Social media livestreams offer brands the opportunity to leverage partnerships with influencers who have large followings. For example, after seeing more success than anticipated with their first TikTok shopping livestream, Walmart partnered with TikTok creator Gabby Morrison, who has millions of followers, to host another livestream.

Livestream beyond social

Social platforms aren’t the only way to host livestreams. The Canadian footwear brand Aldo debuted livestream shopping on their website that achieved great success, including 17,000 pageviews, a 12-minute average time on site, and a 308% engagement rate. Aldo recruited two exciting co-hosts — a celebrity stylist and an L.A. entertainer — for the live shopping event. Attendees could shop the 2021 spring collection right within the livestream.

Adweek reports that more retailers will be following Aldo’s example and hosting livestreams on their own websites, with the help of new tech and startups “that have cropped up to provide the infrastructure for these efforts.”

To do livestreaming right, first you need a likable, knowledgeable, and relatable host. They need to be able to speak authoritatively about products and quickly and thoroughly answer questions submitted by viewers during the livestream. Cross-promoting livestreams on other channels is also key, as are exclusive incentives for livestream attendees, like discounts and bonus offers.

Distinguish your shoppable content with augmented reality

Using a digital camera, AR technology can “yes-and” reality by adding images, sounds, and animation to what appears in real time. This is one of the most innovative and cutting-edge ways brands can set their shoppable content apart.

AR marketing is particularly effective for beauty and apparel brands, and many have seen success in offering virtual try-ons. L’Oreal and Meta have combined forces with AR tech providers to bring virtual try-ons to Instagram.

Snapchat is going all-in on AR. The app is leveraging their trademark filters — dubbed Lenses — that can give you animal ears or turn you into an anime character to carve their niche in shoppable content. Elevating their social commerce capabilities with AR features is how they’ll continue to compete with TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, which have much bigger audiences.

Brands can also invest in proprietary AR, like Home Depot’s Project Color app to test paint colors. Or there’s Target’s See It In Your Space tool to visualize home furniture and decor.

How to add shoppable content to your e-commerce site

Shoppable content can go way beyond the add-to-cart and buy now buttons on your e-commerce website. Step it up with shoppable content on your blog, product pages, and anywhere else that makes sense.

Longform blog content is essential for improving SEO performance, but you can further optimize that content for conversions by adding shoppable images, multimedia, and customer reviews. This will provide a more realistic representation of your products and give shoppers the ability to add-to-cart or buy now with one click.

Or using social commerce tools like Bazaarvoice Galleries, you can upgrade your home page, product pages, or separate gallery pages with beautiful shoppable image and video displays of your products sourced from influencers, shoppers on social media, and your own content.

By bringing user-generated content (UGC) from social media to shoppable website galleries, apparel brand Quiz increased time on site by 276%, average order value by 23%, and conversion rates by 154%.

Read the full case study here to see how they did it.

Customize and curate your shoppable content

It’s not enough just to tag your content with products on your social channels and call it a day. Give that content a fighting chance by planning it strategically.

Carefully select which products you want to showcase in shoppable posts and catalogs. Focus on lower-priced items, or at least offer a range of prices, as shoppers are more likely to make smaller in-app purchases and take more time to research higher-priced items.

You can group your products together in categories on Facebook and Instagram Shops. Curate your product collections based on the types of products that are driving sales and social engagement, as well as what aligns with your product marketing strategy. If certain products aren’t selling that well in-store or on your e-commerce site, try selling them on social platforms. 

You can also organize collections based on what’s in season, what’s trending, new products, and sales you’re promoting.

A proven way to increase engagement, reach, and conversions is to leverage UGC. Whether it’s content on your social media or website, UGC will go the extra mile because it’s created by your customers, many of whom have become brand advocates. They’re sharing their experiences with your brand because it makes them happy or proud.

Repurpose the best images and videos created by your customers, turning them into shoppable content. Repost it (with permission) on your social media accounts and website.

Test and measure your shoppable content for success

There’s many types of shoppable content and many platforms on which to distribute it. But that doesn’t mean you have to use every single one. Create different forms and try different channels until you find which delivers you the most value.

Measure the performance of your shoppable content based on your goals. What’s driving the most conversions, attracting the most new customers, and bringing higher average order values? There’s an easy way to find out.

FEATURED RESOURCE

Masterclass: Shopping on social: From following trends to starting them

Watch here

You can check out the rest of our Long Read content here for more social commerce marketing strategies, tips, and insights.

After all, some of the best performances happen when an artist steps aside and allows someone else to shine. It adds a unique, shall we say, flavor to the entire spectacle.

Social media takeovers, a strategy where you temporarily hand over your brand accounts to someone else, require that you step out of your comfort zone and allow fresh, diverse voices to echo through your social channels. 

These voices, whether they belong to influencers, industry experts, or even your own employees, can captivate your audience in ways you might not have imagined.

Chapters:

1. What is a social media takeover?
2. Why brands should run social media takeovers
3. How to plan and execute a successful social media takeover
4. Examples of social media takeovers in action
5. Unlock the full potential of social media

What is a social media takeover?

A social media takeover is a strategic move where an external influencer, celebrity, or internal team member takes the reins of your brand’s social media accounts for a short period. During this period, the guest takes charge of creating and posting content, interacting with your audience, and essentially representing your brand’s voice on social media.

The concept thrives on diversity and freshness. The guest brings their own style to the table, offering your audience a different perspective they don’t usually see. 

In a social media takeover, your partner typically has the freedom to create content that aligns with their personal brand and your brand’s values and goals. The key is finding the right balance between the guest’s creativity and your brand’s messaging.

Why brands should run social media takeovers

Influencers and other user-generated content (UGC) creators have a lot of sway with consumer audiences. And this influence is shaping how people shop and interact with brands online. According to our internal research, three out of four consumers say their shopping behavior is significantly influenced by social media, with 60% making purchases directly through recommendations or links from influencers.

By taking part in a social media takeover, you tap into creators’ credibility, reach, and ability to impact consumer decisions. It’s an effective way to leverage the trust and rapport that they have built with their audience, translating it into increased brand visibility, engagement, and, ultimately, sales. 

We know consumer attention is fragmented and fleeting. Social media takeovers are an opportunity to capture interest in the midst of all the content and drive consumer action. They provide a platform for you to showcase your products in a relatable and authentic manner, making the shopping experience more engaging and personal for the consumers.

How to plan and execute a successful social media takeover

You can’t just give an influencer free rein to do whatever they want and call it a day. You have a brand to protect. And every action taken under your banner should reflect its values, voice, and objectives.

1. Set your goals

Takeovers are smaller, time-bound strategies that should fit into your broader social media strategy. Before scouring Instagram for the ideal influencer, take a beat to define clear and measurable goals. This will set the foundation for a successful campaign that benefits both you and the creator. 

Are you aiming to increase follower count, boost customer engagement, or generate buzz around a new product launch? Whatever your goal is, it will require a tailored approach. If increasing brand awareness is your aim, you might focus on reaching a wider audience through an influencer with a substantial following.

On the other hand, driving sales might involve collaborating with a smaller creator known for their persuasive product recommendations. 

The more specific your goals, the easier it is to measure success post-campaign. Instead of a vague objective like “increase engagement,” think in terms of tangible metrics — e.g. a 20% increase in interactions on your posts during the takeover period. 

2. Choose the right platform and format

Which of your branded channels should you hand over? The choice comes down to where your target audience spends their time and how they like to consume content. 

Let’s say your audience is on the younger side and prefers visual storytelling. In this case, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok are your best bet. Here, product tutorials or behind-the-scenes stories can generate a lot of attention. For a more conversation-driven approach, X (the blue bird formerly known as Twitter) or LinkedIn are more suitable. These platforms are excellent for hosting Q&A sessions, sharing insights, or discussing trends. 

The format of your social media takeover should also resonate with your audience’s preferences. Do they enjoy live interactions, or are they more inclined towards curated posts? Instagram Stories or TikTok videos are great for dynamic, engaging content, while X threads are ideal for informative discussions.

3. Find the perfect takeover partner

Time to cast the lead role. You can go straight to the source (social media channels where creators are already active) to kickstart your influencer search. Use hashtags and track your brand mentions, or look for micro-influencers that already follow and engage with your brand. 

If you have the budget for it, influencer marketing platforms cut down on the amount of browsing you have to do. They immediately show you relevant influencers to your industry and audience.

Once you have a list of potential collaborators, study their content more closely to avoid mismatches — like a luxury brand partnering with an influencer known for budget shopping. That’s just asking for a one-way ticket to Cancelled City.

While you want someone with healthy engagement metrics, don’t make your choice based on numbers alone. Choosing someone who genuinely appreciates and understands your brand will come across as more authentic to the audience than a cash grab with a very popular influencer.

4. Craft a collaborative content plan

This is where the magic begins to take shape. ​​The part where you blend the influencer’s style with your brand’s message so that the content resonates with both your audiences. 

Start with a meeting between your team and the creator. Discuss themes, ideas, and messages that align with your campaign goals, and decide on the types of content that will be most effective and that the influencer excels at. Will it be behind-the-scenes stories, product demonstrations, or Q&A sessions? 

Once you agree on the content, develop a social media calendar that outlines what will be posted and when, including the announcement of the takeover on both accounts. It should take into account the best times to post for optimal engagement, depending on your audience’s online activity patterns. 

Be prepared to make adjustments based on real-time feedback. It’s great to have a plan to guide the takeover, but if certain types of posts end up resonating more with your audience, consider tweaking your plan to include more of that content.

5. Manage permissions and security

The trickiest part of a social media takeover is deciding how much access to grant your collaborator. You need to maintain control and safeguard your brand’s confidential data while allowing enough flexibility for the influencer to be creative and engaging.

Temporary access is the most balanced choice. Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn all allow you to add collaborators to your account without handing over login credentials. This way, creators can engage directly with the audience via comments, Q&As, and reactions. 

However, these permissions allow collaborators to see analytics and data insights, which might be something you don’t want or the legal team won’t allow. Plus, TikTok doesn’t have the option of adding someone else unless you’re collaborating on ads. You can circumvent this in one of two ways:

1. Have the influencer hand over content (so your team can post it)
2. Share login credentials directly

With a content hand-off, you don’t have to worry about permissions or the influencer seeing more than they should. On the other hand, it keeps them from interacting with your audience in real time, which credential sharing allows. There are more risks associated with this approach, but if you feel comfortable doing so, you can change the password at a later time.

6. Launch the takeover

Before the big day, make sure you and your partner build excitement by announcing the takeover in advance. Share posts on your social media channels (even those that won’t be taken over) introducing the influencer and giving a sneak peek of what followers can expect.

The first post should grab attention, set the tone for what’s to come, and encourage followers to stay tuned. Throughout the takeover, keep the communication between your team and the influencer open so that any last-minute changes or updates are smoothly handled. 

As the takeover unfolds, monitor the engagement and encourage the creator to interact with the audience. Responding to comments, sharing insights, and keeping the conversation going are all key to maintaining momentum. 

Don’t forget to capture the highlights — these can be used for post-takeover content, helping to extend the life of the campaign and providing valuable content for future marketing efforts.

7. Analyze your performance and gather insights for future campaigns

Analyzing the results of your social media takeover gives you a complete picture of what worked, what didn’t, and how you can improve future campaigns. 

Start by examining key metrics related to the goals you first set, such as engagement rates, follower growth, website traffic, and conversion rates. Tools like Google Analytics or using a social media management platform provide a wealth of data on this front. 

Be as granular as possible — look at which posts, stories, or tweets performed the best. Read through comments and messages to gauge the audience’s reactions and perceptions. Did they find the takeover informative, entertaining, and engaging? 

This is also a time to reflect on the partnership itself. Was the influencer’s communication style and content in line with your brand? Did they bring new ideas and perspectives that benefited your campaign? 

Once you gather and analyze the data, create a comprehensive report consolidating all the findings. This document should highlight the successes, areas for improvement, and recommendations for the next takeovers. It will also serve as a blueprint to brainstorm ideas for further campaigns that follow this format.

Examples of social media takeovers in action

Don’t just take our word for it. Check out how three different brands leverage takeovers to keep their content fresh and their followers glued to their social media feeds.

Dripping Gold highlights influencer takeovers on their profile

Dripping Gold, a luxury tanning products brand, knows the power of user-generated content and its effectiveness at promoting authenticity, engagement, and customer loyalty. The brand often partners with influencers to produce a steady content stream that populates their Instagram and TikTok accounts. One of their preferred strategies is — you guessed it — social media takeovers.

Dripping Gold often taps young female influencers to partner with, known for their fashion, makeup, and lifestyle content. Creators like Katie White (pictured above) share long videos on the brand’s Instagram Stories showcasing how the audience can use Dripping Gold’s products to create makeup looks or achieve the perfect tan.

To ensure the longevity of the collaborations (the best content is evergreen content), Dripping Gold pins all of the takeovers to their Instagram highlights. This decision allows followers who might have missed the live events to view the content at their leisure, further extending the reach and impact of the takeovers. 

Stephanie Garber engages with readers through the Barnes & Noble account

Stephanie Garber is a beloved young adult writer. In the days leading up to the release of her eagerly anticipated book, “A Curse for True Love,” Barnes & Noble invited Garber to take over their Instagram Stories for a cool 24 hours. 

Throughout the takeover, the author offered Barnes & Noble’s followers an intimate look into her day, including sneaky book signings and snapshots of her lunch meetings. The day’s highlight was a live Q&A session, where Stephanie allowed fans to engage with her directly and ask about the novel, book recommendations, and her dream travel destinations.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stephanie Garber (@stephanie_garber)

The takeover was a smart move for two reasons: first, it leveraged Stephanie Garber’s personal brand and loyal fan base to drive anticipation for her new book. Second, it provided Barnes & Noble with engaging, authentic content that resonated with their audience of book lovers. 

Fenty Beauty dedicates every Friday to a social media takeover

UGC and influencer content are the pillars of Fenty Beauty’s social media strategy. The brand’s Instagram and TikTok feeds are verifiable galleries of real-life product applications, with actual users and influential beauty enthusiasts taking up more space than branded content.

One of the many ways Fenty Beauty hands over the mic is through takeovers. Back in its earlier days, the brand dedicated Fridays to creators from various backgrounds, where they demonstrated everything from achieving the perfect winged liner to creating a flawless foundation routine (using Fenty Beauty products, of course.) 

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A post shared by Stephanie Garber (@stephanie_garber)

And they didn’t stop at Instagram. Instead of letting the content sit idly by, Fenty extended its life and reach by compiling the best takeovers into YouTube videos for their 900K+ subscribers to enjoy.

Unlock the full potential of social media

Takeovers are a dynamic way to showcase brand personality and keep your content from getting stale. But (there’s always a but) they’re just a fraction of the broader spectrum of strategies that drive consumer action on social media. 

Social commerce is revolutionizing how brands interact with their audiences, blending social media’s immersive and interactive nature with the convenience of online shopping. With shoppable images and videos now a feature of most social media channels, they become more than marketing tools. They become powerful sales channels.

Read this Ultimate Guide to Social Commerce Conversion and hop on the social commerce train before it leaves the station.

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A practical guide for social media professionals to drive engagement and commerce

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It’s understandable for a retailer to focus on metrics that are directly related to sales and profits, but those numbers only give you a small part of the picture. They’re an indicator of the times you did everything right — for customers who are so perfect for your brand that they wanted to find you. 

But they don’t tell you about the customer who clicked through to your site and then bounced because the navigation was weird. Nor do they tell you about the person who blocked your social feed because after liking one ad, they found themselves bombarded with unconvincing content. 

Social media KPIs help you track and understand the success of your entire marketing and sales funnel. They grant you a look into potential customers’ minds and uncover weak points in your company’s shopping experience. 

Here’s the social media KPIs every e-commerce company should be measuring and why they matter. 

1. Awareness metrics
2. Consideration metrics
3. Purchase metrics
4. Going full-funnel with social media KPIs
5. Connection is the future of social commerce

Awareness metrics

Customers will only come to you if they know your company actually exists. Awareness marketing can be hard to make a case for, especially in a revenue-driven outfit. Campaigns to teach people about your company don’t translate into immediate or direct sales. These efforts are further upstream than that — but if they don’t happen, your company won’t get the downstream benefits. 

There’s three major awareness KPIs you can (and should) track to show that your awareness efforts are making a difference on social media. 

1. Impressions

Your impressions, or views, track how many times a post was seen. The number of impressions you get is not equal to the number of people you reach. Some people may see your content more than once, either by revisiting it, seeing it shared multiple times, or even encountering it on different platforms. 

Impressions are useful in determining whether you’re visible to the audiences who want to see you. This metric may fluctuate from week to week, which is normal. But in the long term, you want an upward trend to show that your social output is reaching more people. 

Impressions benchmarks

Industry-wide benchmarks for impressions may not help you because a small e-commerce brand won’t have the same reach as a large multinational corporation. Likewise, a brand that shoots for a niche audience can’t expect the same reach as one that’s going for the least common denominator. 

You could look at your direct competitors’ posts to see how they’re doing, or you could just track numbers internally and compare today’s operations to those of last year.

Increasing your impressions 

The key to reaching more people with your posts is constant engagement with a platform. You should always be posting new content and interacting with your followers. As you do so, you’ll begin to learn what works best for your brand on each platform; following those trends will lead to more impressions. 

2. Followers and community growth

Hopefully, some of the people who see your content (“impressions”) will decide they want to become a part of your community. Follower numbers matter because they represent the people who decide they want to see more from your brand. They’re signing up to hear your sales pitch so you can reach them without paying for ads.  

When looking at follower numbers, keep in mind that some accounts will follow you and then go dormant. Therefore, if your follower numbers aren’t actively growing, your actual audience size is likely shrinking. 

Increasing your follower numbers and community size

Give people a reason to follow your account by being more than just a bulletin board for bland announcements written in brand-speak. Many accounts have success with giveaways, either entering new followers into a raffle or sending a coupon code to those who sign up for updates.

Just know this “hack” only works if you have a plan to keep those followers around. 

3. Social engagement rate

Social engagement tracks how often your audience interacts with your content. Engaged audiences are worth more than passive ones; only those who have some level of emotional involvement will watch your videos and like or share your posts. 

It’s worth noting that certain types of engagement are worth more: Someone who follows a link to your store is more likely to buy your product than someone who watches a short brand video. However, watching that brand video may lead to a future link click, so don’t focus only on the engagements that lead to imminent conversion. 

Social engagement rate benchmarks

According to Rival IQ, the median engagement rate across platforms (per post) is: 

• Facebook: 0.06%
• Instagram: 0.47%
• TikTok: 5.69%
• X (Twitter): 0.035%

Increasing your engagement

As long as you’re not buying followers (don’t ever do this, by the way!), your engagement should increase as your impressions do. There’s a ton of ways to increase your social media engagement and conversion rates, so test out multiple approaches to see what works. 

Two of our favorite tips: first, interact with the people who interact with you. Second, share your community’s user-generated content (UGC). People love it when their posts get attention from an official brand account, and showing a bit of personality makes your brand seem more authentic.  

Consideration metrics

After awareness, would-be customers enter consideration mode — they start thinking about whether they want to buy from you and become the type of person who uses your products and associates with your brand. Some shoppers quickly move from consideration to conversion, but others linger in this phase for a while. 

These are the social media KPIs you can track to learn more about both types of buyers — and how you can win them over more efficiently. 

1. Site traffic

Any person who comes to your site is interested — at least briefly — in becoming a customer. In e-commerce terms, visiting a site is like picking up a product off the store shelf to look more closely or taking a piece of clothing to the fitting rooms. Your site visitors have found enough value in your social media presence to evaluate your brand more closely. 

For specific KPIs numbers, you’ll need to dig into Google Analytics data to determine how much of your site traffic came from your social media efforts and what campaigns drew visitors. 

Site traffic benchmarks

Most online retailers don’t publish raw traffic numbers, much less traffic numbers broken down by source. However, you can use your site traffic data to reverse-engineer your social media click-through rate. Chatdesk published the following click-through rate benchmarks:

• Instagram: 18% (organic posts) and 18% (ads)
• TikTok: 14% (organic posts) and 2.3% (ads)
• Facebook: n/a (organic posts) and 9% (ads)

Alternatively, simply use internal benchmarks for those raw traffic numbers.

Improving your site traffic

Since site traffic depends on your social media click-through rate, you’ll want to focus on the posts that are bringing visitors to your site. Make sure your link cards give an accurate description of your site and include eye-catching imagery. 

Every post with a link should include a clear CTA that tells people what they’ll get by clicking through. And, most importantly, you have to follow through on that promise. Someone who clicks through and has a disappointing experience is less likely to follow your links in the future. 

2. Lead generation

Gathering email addresses or phone numbers of interested shoppers helps you close the deal if they’re not ready to buy quite yet. Winning a social media follower is like getting your foot in the door. Think of someone giving you their contact information as inviting you in for a cup of tea (or coffee — your choice). 

You can continue to nurture leads by adding them to a newsletter that shares your values and highlights UGC to show your product in the wild. Or, you can send them coupons and notifications about sales to convince them to buy. 

Lead generation success benchmarks

No one has benchmarked lead generation success rates, perhaps because it’s a difficult thing to measure (and definitions of “what counts” may vary by company). We do know pop-ups that ask for visitors’ emails have an average conversion rate of 3.8% though. While this data appears to be largely e-commerce-focused, it’s not broken down by industry. 

It may be best to compare your performance to internal social media benchmarks on this one for now. Your lead generation rate KPIS specific to social media followers should at least equal, if not exceed, your overall lead generation rate. 

Increasing your leads generated

Customers often don’t want to give out their contact information (for good reason — how many times have you signed up for an email list and gotten five emails per day about “can’t miss” deals?). 

You can try the dreaded pop-up that promises a coupon or discount in exchange for contact information, or you can request it in a less aggressive manner. There are many clever e-commerce lead generation techniques that start with a useful, and therefore less annoying, interaction. 

If your social media efforts are bringing in a lower percentage of leads, it may be time to reconsider your audience and targeting strategy. A smaller, more engaged audience can be better when you curate a list of followers who are actually likely to buy from you. 

3. Site visits (number of sessions)

How many times does the average person come to your site before buying a product? If you know this, you know how many times you should be trying to get prospective customers to visit. 

Someone who’s been to your site once may not be the best person to retarget with an ad if you can spend that same money on someone who’s already browsed it three times in the past month. 

Site visits benchmarks

Your audience’s behavior is unique, so this is a metric that relies on internal benchmarks. It’s also a number you don’t need to worry about improving — it’s just important to know. 

Pull this information from Google Analytics (or your chosen analytics software) by looking at your user sessions. To get the most valuable data, you’ll have to dig into the session attribution statistics. There, you can see how often people visit before they buy and whether visitors from different sources have different behavior patterns. 

Increasing site visits

Like site traffic, it’s tempting to think this metric is about things outside of your site. After all, you just have to post another link and people will click through, thus taking themselves a step closer to buying from you. Right?

Not exactly. That CTA and link won’t be as effective if someone’s first visit to your site was a pain. Slow-loading pages, confusing navigation, and hard-to-read text can drive visitors away. 

You should think about ways to remind potential customers you exist, but it’s even more important to make sure interacting with your brand is a joy. Shoppers who know they’ll have fun browsing your site are more likely to come back.  

4. Time on site

The amount of time a visitor spends on your site indicates their engagement. Thirty seconds is about enough time for them to scroll down whatever page they landed on and then click away. In a minute, they can browse a category of products and see if you have the type of item they’re looking for. 

Someone who spends ten minutes likely looks at multiple products, reads up on them, and checks out ratings and reviews. (Make sure it’s 10 minutes of activity, though, and not 10 minutes of “let me just check this email really quick in another tab.”) 

Time on site benchmarks

This is another benchmark you can gather yourself using Google Analytics. Google will track someone’s time on page, which is a specific measurement per URL. So, you may see someone spend 30 seconds on your homepage, 15 seconds on a category page, and then three minutes on each of two product pages. 

Altogether, this would give them an engaged time of six minutes and 45 seconds. Both time on page and engaged time duration are important but in different ways.

Increasing time on site

There are two ways to approach convincing people to spend more time on your site. The first is by looking at the average time on page for each of your site’s pages. Are there any outliers? Some page types may lend themselves to shorter visits, but big variations between pages of the same type may indicate differences in user experience. 

Second, ask how you can extend a user’s engaged time. The most important thing to consider here is whether your CTAs match a user’s experience. Someone who clicks through to see your massive clearout sale and then gets bounced to your homepage rather than a catalog of on-sale items will likely bounce.

Purchase metrics

At last, the metrics your CEO probably cares most about — money. Now that you’ve been tracking users through the rest of your marketing and sales funnel, you have the context you need to tell a bigger story using these metrics.

After all, no purchase would happen without the awareness and consideration components you worked on. 

The most difficult part of handling purchase metrics is thinking about attribution. Someone who learns about your brand through Instagram and signs up for your email list because of an Instagram post might end up making a purchase after clicking an email link.

If you’re not using multi-touch attribution, the email campaign would get all the credit for that buy. That’s not fair to your social media efforts and KPIs — nor is it good data to base business decisions on. 

1. Revenue

This metric may be officially in the domain of your accounting team, but there’s no reason you can’t track it as well. When looking at revenue, you can track gross (all earnings) or net (earnings minus expenses) as your company prefers. 

Revenue benchmarks

When measuring the revenue your social posts brought in, you’ll want to look both at past earnings and future projections. Calculate the percentage of revenue you can attribute to social posts, then multiply that number by your company’s revenue predictions to get the benchmarks you’re aiming for. 

Increasing your revenue

Effective CTAs are part of the equation to increase revenue, and you should already be working on those. You also want to make sure customers have a clear path to purchase (and get the deals you talked about, if relevant) either directly through your social channels or when they land on your site.

For paid social efforts, ask how you can decrease your customer acquisition cost. This move won’t impact gross revenue, but it will increase net revenue. 

2. Transactions

Having more buyers is always a good thing. Not only does it bring in more revenue, but it also means you have a wider base of customers to solicit for return business. The number of completed transactions is also a measure of how easy it is for visitors to make a purchase after landing on your site. 

Transaction benchmarks

It’s natural for transaction rates to ebb and flow across e-commerce. The holidays typically see more sales, and various industries have different peaks at different times of the year. You may do best to compare directly across times of year.

For example, did your company process more transactions during December of this year than it did during December of last year?

Increasing your number of transactions

Since many shoppers (and social users) are accessing your site via mobile, you need a mobile-friendly shopping experience. You’ve already done your part to make sure your CTAs are fulfilling their promises. Now it’s time to dig into how your site can best serve your social audience as a whole.

Work with your website team to learn about the transactions that don’t happen. You should be tracking your shopping cart abandonment rate to see why buyers back out at the last minute. Often, convenience is the issue

But, if your abandonment rates are higher among visitors from social specifically, you may want to ask how your posts can better prime shoppers for the checkout experience. If you’re approved for shopping on platforms like Instagram, reassess your digital storefront:

• Are your posts filled with rich visual UGC that entices browsers to shop?
• Do you showcase ratings and reviews?
• Is the in-app shopping experience smooth, or are you forcing people to click through to your website?

All these factors affect a shopper’s decision to follow through with a transaction.

3. Conversion rate

How many of your social media click-throughs turn into purchases? This is your conversion rate, and it’s a number that can tell you a lot about your overall brand perception. 

There’s plenty of reasons a customer might not convert. Maybe your prices are too high, maybe they find your site annoying, or maybe you don’t ship to their country. Not all of these are things you can (or even need to) fix.

But, if the shopping experience is getting in the way of users making a purchase, it’s time to step in.

Conversion rate benchmarks

BigCommerce tells us a good e-commerce conversion rate is around 2-3%. That’s pretty low — but if your social media visitors are buying at that rate, then you’re doing well. 

Increasing your conversion rate

Your conversion rate affects the revenue and transaction metrics you’re measuring, and you improve all three in the same way. A smooth, fun shopping experience is a must if you want customers to convert.

Also, keep in mind that customers coming from a social link are likely responding to the offer in the post. They’re not here to browse, so don’t try to force them through extra steps before they can make a purchase.

If you can steal some more time with your website team, try our top 10 tips to improve your conversion rates. You’ll be able to help each other with these efforts. 

And if you’re selling directly on social, look for opportunities to optimize the experience. Like2Buy, for instance, is a tool that turns your Instagram pictures and videos into informative, directional, or shoppable posts. The transition from liking a post to buying a product from your store becomes a seamless process for shoppers.

4. Average order value

Shoppers often pick up a few tempting extras when they go to the store. Convincing them to mimic this behavior online will help your company. Obviously, more items bought lead to a higher average order value (AOV), which means higher revenue (gross or net). 

Customers who buy more are also putting more trust in your brand. If you deliver on your promises, they’ll be that much more likely to come back the next time they need the type of products you sell. 

Average order value benchmarks

There’s no e-commerce benchmark for this metric because it’s very dependent on your products and customer base. Your accounting team is likely already tracking this metric, so see if they have historical data — and if not, start gathering it now to set an internal benchmark. 

Increasing average order value

Growing your AOV is all about giving customers who are already buying a reason to splurge. Get your social media audience excited to spend by promoting offers that encourage them to .Free shipping over a certain amount? Tell them in the ad. Do loyalty program members get points for every dollar spent? Use your post copy to remind shoppers they can get more by spending more. 

The methods that work best vary based on the type of product you’re selling and your customer profile, so try a few techniques to nail down which is most effective. 

Going full-funnel with social media KPIs

Hopefully, by this point, you can see the direct link between awareness, consideration, and purchase metrics — but you work in marketing. Stakeholders in other parts of the business may not understand these ties as well as you do. As you’ve seen, some of these metrics require cross-department collaboration to gather. They also require collaboration to build.

If your leadership (or other department stakeholders) don’t buy into this approach, it’s helpful to frame it as an examination of today’s market. People don’t find products directly in stores anymore. They go online, do research, and often buy straight from their social feeds. 

Every cent of revenue a brand earns depends on shoppers being able to find your brand when they’re doing that research and then being impressed by what they see. 

Buyers typically have multiple touchpoints with a brand before they make a decision. They’re often navigating the awareness and consideration phases at the same time. Your online presence — social, site, and beyond — must account for this behavior by offering shopping content in places where people go to learn, and educational content in places people go to buy.

Here’s how to bring your efforts together. 

Set shared goals

What KPIs are more important for your social media channels this month — impressions or site traffic? Social engagement or on-site conversion rates? When your company sees these metrics as competitors, you’ll end up shafting efforts that need to be collaborative. 

Get everyone in the same room to talk about foundational goals so you can identify how the metrics you’re tracking work as indicators for other teams as well. With this shared baseline, it’s easier to remind other departments how that action item you asked for to support your goals will also help them meet theirs.  

Take it slow

Creating a full-funnel social content and commerce strategy is a difficult task, and if you’ve never done any of this before, give yourself space to learn and grow. 

Yes, you’ll eventually want to have branded content and UGC at every touchpoint. But when you start with perfecting operations on one platform, you’re making the wise choice to build a foundation that you can scale. Later. 

Appoint a “UGC coordinator”

UGC is central to bringing the awareness, consideration, and purchase behaviors together. That puts it at risk of becoming a secondary issue in each of those areas because no one wants to step on anyone else’s toes. 

Beat this tendency by choosing someone to own UGC efforts, and — this is important! — make sure they have the authority and sway to implement their strategy across multiple teams and departments. 

Bring the social to your site

Social commerce doesn’t only live on social networks. When you integrate UGC into your site, you’re giving people the chance to see what real customers have to say about your products. 

They don’t have to go searching for that valuable social proof, so you’ll see your conversion rate improve. There’s no need to integrate UGC into every product page off the bat. Start with a fun gallery on your homepage to see the promise of this technique in action. 

Build a UGC “treasure trove”

UGC, like any marketing asset, can be used more than once. Set up a central UGC database or library where you share the best pieces of UGC. How you organize this collection is up to you, but make sure you have some way for everyone to search by product type/line, content type, etc. 

Connection is the future of social commerce

With all the content on the internet, people are turning more to one another for trusted advice and reviews. Company-generated marketing materials aren’t dead yet, but they work best when they’re paired with UGC. And when you can integrate your brand communications and your fans’ contributions into the entire marketing and sales funnel, you’ll add authenticity to your communications.

That means your metrics — the social media KPIs and those more related to your site and sales — will keep going up.

Curating UGC can be a job of its own unless you have a strong platform supporting you. Our Social Commerce solutions help you curate the best of the best (now with AI assistance and recommendations!). We track UGC’s performance as part of your marketing campaigns and sales efforts to return full-funnel metrics — like the ones in this piece. In short, it’s easy for you to execute on your strategy and tell stakeholders the story of how your work is important. 

Your social media KPIs are only one slice of the pie. If you’re hungry to learn more about the future of social commerce, check out our social commerce conversion e-book — it’s full of tips to help you integrate UGC into every consumer touchpoint and help you measure the impact of that work. 

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But these KPIs are just the tip of the social media marketing iceberg. Social commerce can improve your metrics throughout the funnel. And with marketing budgets under intense pressure these days, knowing what and how to measure can help you impress your stakeholders and prove your social media strategy’s success. 

Keep reading to learn how social commerce affects key phases of the shopper experience, how to make it easy for social media visitors to become customers, what to look for in a social media marketing tool, and how to tie your social marketing efforts to revenue. 

Social media marketing’s impact on product discovery

When it comes to organic product discovery, social media can be a brand’s best friend. For many consumers, especially Gen Zers and Millennials, social media is one of the most popular channels for discovering brands and products.

Many are even going as far as saying social media is the new search, with a whopping 73% of 18-24-year-olds discovering products through social than any other way.

To jump on this trend and help drive product discovery, the luggage brand Samsonite used collect user-generated content (UGC) about their products from social media. Because these photos and videos were made by actual customers, the content was more authentic and relatable than anything Samsonite could produce in-house. 

The brand’s marketing team turned this UGC into social media posts and experiences that drove shoppers to the brand’s website and partner sites. 

The same authentic and inspirational travel content that caught shoppers’ attention on social media was then displayed throughout Samsonite’s product pages, creating a consistent and engaging shopping experience that increased conversions by 4x and revenue by a striking 250%. 

And it all began on social. 

Social media marketing’s impact on consumer trust 

Because UGC — like ratings, reviews, and user-submitted photos and videos — are created by actual customers, they provide other shoppers with powerful social proof. This increases consumer trust and confidence in your brand and products. 

• 89% of shoppers rely on reviews to learn more about products 
• 85% of consumers say they consider online reviews just as trustworthy as recommendations from friends and family

“People want to buy products and services based on recommendations and inspiration from people they trust. That could be family, friends, and communities, and it can also be authentic influencers they follow on social media.” – Accenture

In general, when shoppers interact with UGC that’s relevant to their product search, brands and retailers can see up to a 145% boost in conversion rates, as well as increases in revenue per visitor and average order value.

For lifestyle brand Villeroy & Boch, incorporating customer photos of products into their website, emails, and newsletter resulted in an even bigger boost to consumer confidence — and sales. The brand used UGC to inspire shoppers by showing how their products can be used in real-life situations. This strategy helped Villeroy & Boch achieve: 

175% increase in time on site

275% boost in conversion rate

29% higher average order value

“We want to show authentic, trustworthy, real-life content from our customers’ lives, their tables, their rooms, and their homes,” said Sabine Kaufmann, Head of E-commerce Operations, Dining & Lifestyle at Villeroy & Boch. “A picture is worth 1,000 words. It can help describe a product far better than any words could.”

Want to increase revenue from social media marketing? Create an easy path to purchase

One of the top reasons people prefer shopping on social is the convenience. They already spend time on sites like Instagram and TikTok. Why not spend money there too?

• 55% of shoppers like to shop directly on social media
• 69% of shoppers have been inspired by social media to make a purchase through another channel

The key to getting the most revenue from your social media marketing is to make it easy for consumers to go from scrollers to shoppers. By creating a seamless path to purchase, you’ll increase key e-commerce metrics from site traffic to, most importantly, sales. 

Make it shoppable, make it measurable

When measuring the impact of a social media marketing campaign, you need to go beyond the traditional metrics of reach and engagement. That’s because social commerce is different from social media. 

There are multiple KPIs to track and optimize throughout the shopping experience (and prove the value of your efforts):

Awareness metrics:

• Impressions. The amount of times your content is displayed (whether actually clicked on or not)
• Social engagement rate. The measure of how much your audience interacts with your social content
• Followers and community growth. The number of social followers and advocates you have

Consideration metrics:

• Visits. Web users who visit your website
• Site traffic. The sum of all traffic to your website (including return visitors)
• Lead generation. Earning the interest of potential customers to increase future sales
• Time on site. The amount of time site visitors spend on your webpages per session

Purchase metrics:

• Revenue. Your income from sales
• Transactions. Number of sales made
• Conversion rate. The ratio of site visits to conversions — whether a sale or lead generation
• Average order value. The average amount of each transaction from purchases made on your site

Each social media marketing campaign is different. And each brand has different goals. By understanding how these KPIs play into your campaign’s success — and your social media marketing revenue targets — you can set goals and adjust your strategy accordingly.

How to measure the impact of your social media marketing

We’ll be real with you: It’s almost impossible to measure your social media marketing impact on your own. There’s so much data to collect, let alone analyze. Fortunately, there are tools out there to help you understand the impact of your social media marketing efforts. Here’s what to look for:

Tools that put an emphasis on ROI. After all, for most marketing teams, measuring the revenue from social media campaigns is the ultimate factor for proving a campaign’s success to higher-ups.

Ability to measure full-funnel metrics. As you can see, there’s more to a successful social commerce campaign than likes and comments. You need a tool that can help you capture and analyze all of the KPIs that matter.

A holistic platform for the full shopping experience. Shoppers may start their journey on social media. But they may then visit your website or partner sites to complete their purchase. Some may also sign up for newsletters or read your blog along the way. You need a tool that can measure your social media impact across the entire buyer journey. 

Robust reporting dashboards. End-of-the-month reports are nice, but dashboards make it easier to see your social commerce campaign performance in real time. With them, you can quickly gauge what’s working (and what’s not) to make fast, data-backed decisions.

Some of the most actionable reporting dashboards include:

• Revenue summary
• Revenue generated per post
• Top-performing contributors
• Engagement and ROI breakdown

Choose the right social management tool

Social media marketing’s impact on e-commerce is undeniable. Brands and retailers that embrace social commerce enjoy higher conversion rates and increased sales. 

But with so many metrics to manage, proving the ROI of your social media marketing efforts can be challenging. 

Using a tool that helps you understand all the KPIs that matter — and track and analyze them —  allows you to develop powerful social commerce campaigns that boost sales (and your reputation around the office).

Bazaarvoice Social Commerce empowers you to turn social content into shoppable experiences that drive sales — in all the places your shoppers hang out. Even better, we give you the tools to develop and measure a winning social commerce strategy. Get in touch to learn more.

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Using this insight, Lindt began giving its followers more of what they wanted. And the move paid off: The chocolate company’s website visits increased by 130%, and its clickthrough rate climbed by 178%.

As a social media manager, you’re well-acquainted with the frustration of decoding what actually resonates with your audience amidst the ongoing changes to Instagram Insights. But whatever your brand’s goal for Instagram — whether it’s to grow followers or increase sales — it’s essential to not only keep an eye on analytics but also to truly understand them.

Knowing what data to look for and how to examine it can help you reach your target audience better, post more engaging content, and develop a more effective social strategy to help you reach your goals and ROI.

This comprehensive guide will take you step by step through Instagram analytics and explain what each metric means and the significance of tracking it, so you can develop a winning Instagram strategy.

Chapters:

1. Why you should use Instagram analytics
2. How to access Instagram analytics
3. Instagram insights you can view
4. Individual post analytics
5. Instagram Stories analytics
6. Instagram product tags analytics
7. Making sense of Instagram analytics

Why you should use Instagram analytics

Instagram analytics helps marketers understand three important things:

1. People: Who’s engaging with your content?
2. Content: What content is engaging?
3. Products: Which products within that content are getting the most engagement?

When you consider these collectively — who’s viewing your posts, how your content is performing, and what value your content is driving — you’ll be able to curate your feed in a smarter way and improve your overall content strategy.

Plus, if you’re not looking at the numbers regularly, you may miss key insights and opportunities. For example, you could be posting too frequently or not enough, targeting the wrong audience, or even overlooking comments or mentions that could lead to future partnerships.

How to access Instagram analytics

Instagram analytics, which is known as Instagram Insights, is available to business profiles only. You can access analytics from your account profile in one of two ways. First you can access Insights directly from your profile by clicking “Professional dashboard.”

This brings you to a dashboard where you can access insights, tools, and other resources for your business account. To access Instagram Insights from this dashboard, click on the individual metrics at the top of the page to see more information about it. For example, if you want to look at your reach, click “Accounts reached.” 

You can also access Instagram analytics by clicking on the three horizontal lines on the top-right corner of the screen and then selecting “Insights” from the list of options. 

If you don’t have a business profile yet, follow these instructions to make the switch. If you only recently transitioned to a business profile, you may not have data available yet on Instagram Insights. Also, keep in mind that Instagram can only provide you with analytics information about posts and Stories that you published after you switched to a business profile.

Up until 2023, you could only see data from the past week. Now, you have the option to look at insights from the past seven days, 14 days, 30 days, three months, six months, 12 months, or two years.

Instagram insights you can view

When you access Instagram Insights, you’ll see three different data groups: reach, engagement, and followers. Within each group, you can dive deeper into even more data.

Accounts reached 

Under “Accounts reached,” you’ll see the total number of accounts reached and impressions made. 

• Reach: How many Instagram accounts your posts reached
• Impressions: Number of times your posts were viewed

At the top, your reach is broken down by followers and non-followers, so you can find out whether you’re effectively reaching your followers. Below that, you can also see an overview of the demographics of the audiences you’ve reached, including their city, country, age range, and gender. (You’ll be able to see a more in-depth breakdown of this information in the “Total followers” section.) 

Under the demographics, you’ll see a “Profile Activity” section. Within this section, you can see how many profile visits and external link taps were made during a specific time period. If you have email, phone number, and/or text options set up from your profile, you can also see how many times those were clicked. 

• Profile visits: Number of profile views for the week
• External link taps: Number of times someone clicked on the link in your Instagram profile
• Call button taps: Number of times your phone number or “Call Now” button was clicked
• Email button taps: Number of times users clicked the “email” button on your profile page
• Text button taps: Number of times your text button was clicked

This data in the “Profile Activity” section provides you with an overview of how your audience interacts with your brand each week. For example, if you find that profile visits and website clicks are growing, it’s clear that your audience is active and engaged with your brand. However, if these numbers remain low or even decrease, you’ll want to adjust your strategy and find new ways to get your audience involved. 

Why the “Accounts reached” tab matters

These numbers provide a good overview of how your content is performing in terms of how many people it’s reaching and how many views it’s receiving. 

You can use this data to try to discern what may have prompted a change in impressions. Perhaps you launched a new product that week, or maybe you hosted a giveaway that enticed users to share a post to increase their odds of winning.

Identifying what’s working — or not working — for your audience empowers you to improve your strategy.

Accounts engaged

When you view “Accounts engaged,” you’ll see the total number of people who have interacted with your content over a specific time period compared to the previous time period. Instagram breaks this number down by followers and non-followers.

Next, you’ll see a section for “Content interactions,” where you can see the total interactions made with your content. Under the total, your interactions are broken down by the type of interaction that people made with your posts, Stories, and Reels. 

For each post and Reel, you can see the likes, comments, saves, and shares. For Stories, you can see the replies, likes, and shares. If you hosted live videos during that time period, you can also see the comments and shares for those videos.

Why the “Accounts engaged” tab matters

Engagement with posts is important because it reveals what type of content is getting your audience’s attention, which allows you to tweak your strategy. For example, if you notice that photos that have a certain style or use a specific filter perform exceptionally well, you may use that tactic more frequently in the future.

Engagement is important for e-commerce brands to track because users who are engaging with your brand are more likely to make a purchase. So, if you have a post that has high engagement, it’s clearly resonating in some way. But can that engagement be translated to conversions? In other words, is there actual engagement with your products?

Total followers

Next is the followers tab. Under this section, you’ll find a more in-depth breakdown of your followers and their demographics. 

You can see your overall growth, including the number of people who followed and unfollowed you in a specific period of time, then compare it to the previous period. 

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find more specific demographics on your audience. You can look at the top locations of your followers by either city or country to find out where the majority of your followers are located. Then you can see the overall age range of your followers or break it down by gender. 

Lastly, you can see which times your followers are most active. Instagram breaks this down by both hours and days so you can pinpoint the best times to post your content. For example, if a majority of your followers are active on Fridays at 4:00 p.m., that’s a good time to post in your story and on your feed. 

Why the “Total followers” tab matters

This data can inform you if you’re reaching your target audience or perhaps if there’s an audience for your content or product that you weren’t previously aware of. For example, if you find your audience is in a younger age range, you may want to post to Instagram or Instagram Stories more frequently because younger demographics tend to be active on Instagram.

Once you understand more about your overall audience, you can look at individual posts to see how your content resonates.

Understanding the data

When interpreting data from Instagram analytics, it’s important to have goals in mind so you can determine if your content is accomplishing them:

• If your goal with Instagram is to build brand awareness, you’ll want to pay particular attention to metrics like your follower count, impressions, reach, and the number of likes and comments your posts receive
• If you’re trying to drive traffic to your website and you have high engagement but no profile clicks, you may want to consider ways to use your posts to entice followers to visit your profile and click

Now that you can compare Instagram data from the previous month and quarter, you can track and monitor more closely whether you’re making progress toward your goals in the long term. 

Questions to consider

Is your follower count growing, shrinking, or remaining stagnant? While some fluctuation in numbers is normal, if you see a sudden increase in followers, it’s worthwhile determining what led to it. Did an influential user tag you in a post? Has the type of content you’re posting changed?

Which posts receive the most impressions or have the greatest reach? Do your posts about products get a lot of attention, or do posts by micro-influencers perform better? Are users engaging with your branded content, or do one-off posts outperform them? If it’s the latter, how can you optimize branded content for engagement?

Are you reaching your target audience? Look at your audience data to determine whether you’re reaching key demographics. If not, what adjustments should you make? What audience are you already reaching, and how might this affect your brand?

How often should you post? Experiment with posting just once a day, and then try posting more often. Compare the amount of engagement that you get at different posting frequencies because different audiences will have different appetites for content.

Individual post analytics

If you want to take a look at how a particular post has performed, you can easily do this by selecting the post and clicking “View insights,” as illustrated below.

Here, in addition to viewing how many likes, comments, shares, and saves a post has received, you’ll be able to delve even deeper into the post’s performance.

Once you’re in the “Post insights” dashboard, you’ll see an overview of the post’s performance. Below the overview, you’ll see headings for “Reach,” “Engagement,” and “Profile activity.” Within these sections, you’ll see how many unique Instagram accounts you reached, how many users followed you from that post, and where the post garnered impressions.

Understanding the data

Drilling down into how a specific post performed can reveal a great deal of information:

• If certain types of posts, such as product photos, lifestyle photos, or graphics, are receiving more engagement, you’ll want to post more of these and see if you can recreate that success
• If your Instagram is shoppable, you may find that close-up photos of your products get more clicks than images featuring lots of different products in a “shop this look” format

Questions to consider

Which posts are generating the most interactions? Which ones are garnering the most profile visits, website clicks, or emails? Which ones are getting the most reach and attracting new followers?

How are users finding your posts? Are they coming to your profile and viewing content from there? Or are they discovering your content through hashtags?

Instagram Stories analytics

There’s a couple of ways you can see how your Stories are performing, depending on whether you want to view data on current Stories or see historical data from Stories after a 24-hour period.

To see historical information about Stories, simply access Instagram Insights the same way: by visiting your account profile, clicking on the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner of the screen, and selecting “Insights.” Then, click on “Content you shared.”

Under the “Content you shared” section, you can narrow the insights down to just story posts and see the number of impressions your Stories received during a certain time period. For story posts, you can choose from six different time periods: the last seven days, 30 days, three months, six months, 12 months, or two years. To see how an individual story has performed, simply select it and then swipe up to reveal more in-depth data.

To access information about an active story, simply tap on the story you’re interested in and either swipe up or tap “Activity” in the lower left-hand corner. From here, you’ll be able to view a variety of data, which is outlined in the following section.

Instagram Stories metrics 

Instagram provides a lot of information about who’s watching your Instagram Stories and how those viewers are interacting with them.

Viewers and Reach

To see who viewed an individual story on your account, click the eye icon (eyecon?). This will display a complete list of every Instagram user who saw the story.

Reach shows you how many total accounts you reached with a particular story post. Under Reach, you’ll also find data for Impressions — or the number of views your story received. This is again broken down by followers and non-followers. 

Engagement 

Beneath Reach, you’ll find a section of data called Engagement, which details the number of accounts reached with an individual story. Here, you’ll find the following metrics:

• Story interactions: How many users: replied to your story, shared your story, liked your story
• Navigation: How many users: tapped back, tapped forward, tapped on your next story, exited your story (tapped the x icon, swiped to another account’s story, returned to their own feed, or closed the Instagram app)
• Product button clicks: The number of times someone visited a product page from your story and then tapped the button on the product page
• Link clicks: The number of times people clicked on a link in your story
• Sticker taps: The number of times people clicked on a hashtag, location, mention, or product sticker in your story 

Profile activity

At the bottom of your story insights dashboard, you’ll find data on your profile activity. This includes the following metrics:

• Follows: Number of users who followed your account from the story
• Profile visits: The number of times someone visited your profile from a story post

Understanding the data

The data you gather from Stories will show you how engaging these posts are for your audience.

For example, if you find that users watch your Story posts when you post behind-the-scenes updates but exit quickly when you promote products, you may determine that users want to engage with your brand but are put off by your sales tactics.

Or if you discover that certain Stories get substantially more clicks back, meaning people are watching the story again, consider what about that content is appealing to users so you can recreate it in future Story posts. When considering your Instagram Stories analytics, again, consider your goals for the platform:

• If your goal with Instagram Stories is to engage with users in a more personal way, pay attention to how many users are sharing or replying to your story posts
• If you’re using Stories to drive traffic to your website, you’ll want to see how many people are swiping up to visit the URLs you’re linking to within your posts

While Instagram now gives businesses access to Stories data from up to two years ago, it’s helpful to be able to see data for as long as you’ve been on Instagram. Having access to all of your data allows you to compare more effectively so you can pinpoint patterns and trends you see over long periods of time and adjust your content according to what resonates most with your audience. 

For what it’s worth, Bazaarvoice offers a solution to Instagram’s limited capabilities:

• Bazaarvoice’s dashboard provides unlimited access to Instagram Stories analytics — the data will never disappear
• You can schedule Instagram Stories in advance based on AI feedback to optimize views

Questions to consider

What kinds of Stories are holding your audience’s interest? Identify which of your posts get the most engagement and look into the reason those are performing so well. Do the posts with the most engagement have stickers? Do they have faces? What is it about the engaging posts that your non-engaging posts don’t have? You can also experiment with a variety of story stickers — videos, polls, Q&As, and more — to determine what works best for your brand.

At what point are users exiting your story? This information can help you develop a strategy for your story posts. For example, if you’re uploading numerous photos or videos to tell a more lengthy or complex story overall, when do viewers lose interest? Would you benefit from keeping your Stories more succinct?

What posts are enticing users to click? When you include links in your Stories, are there certain types of posts that lead to more clicks? If you’re promoting a product, are people clicking to learn more? If you’re teasing a blog post, are people swiping up to read the full post?

Instagram product tags analytics

Product tags on Instagram allow businesses to tag items for sale in both posts and Stories, making them easily shoppable. Users simply tap on the product’s picture to learn more about the item and make a purchase. This has three key benefits:

1. Allows businesses to showcase products
2. Enables businesses to drive sales directly from Instagram
3. Empowers the buyer to quickly and easily make purchases

Product tag metrics

The metrics available for product tags are essentially the same for Instagram posts or Stories, meaning you can see the engagement and reach. However, you can also see how many clicks your product has received. Here are some additional product metrics you can access via Instagram Insights:

• Product page views: The number of times your product detail pages were viewed via product tags in your feed or story post
• Product sticker taps: A metric only available in Stories — it tells you how many times people clicked on your product sticker
• Merchant tagged: Tells you when someone tags your brand in their feed or story post
• Product tagged: Tells you when someone tags your product in their feed or story post

Product launches 

Instagram also helps businesses and creators promote new products by setting up a product launch. Once you initiate a product launch, you can share an alert so people can save reminders for the launch date. You can also allow your audience to preview products ahead of the launch to drum up excitement. You can view all the insights from your product launch in Commerce Manager. 

Understanding the data

This feature provides an additional way to evaluate how your business performs on Instagram by allowing you to see which product posts generate the most interest. However, while Instagram’s native shopping feature enables you to make your account shoppable, Bazaarvoice’s shop tags feature enables you to truly maximize the value of your content by distributing it among various outlets.

Questions to consider

Which products are getting the most clicks? You may find that some of your products simply get more engagement than others. Perhaps expensive items receive fewer clicks than more affordable ones because your audience is more likely to make an impulse buy on a less costly item. Or maybe your top-selling item isn’t getting as many clicks on Instagram as a less popular item, and you need to determine why.

Which types of posts are getting the most clicks? Do your product tags perform better in posts or in Stories? Is there something specific about the post that’s getting your audience’s attention? For example, is the product photo or video appealing for a certain aesthetic reason, or is the product teased or promoted in an intriguing way?

Making sense of Instagram analytics

Clearly, there’s a great deal of analytics information available to Instagram users, and it can be challenging to know where to start when you’re first looking at all of the data and trying to make sense of it.

To help make your Instagram analytics experience easier, first consider getting verified on Instagram. Next, consider what your goals are for the platform. If you’re mostly interested in growing your audience and expanding your brand’s reach, you’ll want to focus on followers. Pay close attention to your number of followers, track how that number changes over time, and consider how your content plays a role in the increase, decrease, or stagnation of that number.

However, if you’re using Instagram for e-commerce, you’ll want to focus on other aspects of analytics and consider how you can increase sales, such as by making your Instagram easily shoppable.

Instagram Insights can only provide so much data, though. So, if you’re serious about delving into your Instagram analytics and genuinely understanding what your numbers mean, Bazaarvoice can provide you with the tools to do just that.

FEATURED RESOURCE

A practical guide for social media professionals to drive engagement and commerce

Read here

It all starts with having a stellar social commerce strategy that blends compelling user-generated content (UGC) from your creator network with memorable (and seamless) shopping experiences. 

This approach helps you stand out on social media, connect with shoppers authentically, drive traffic, and convert at e-commerce. It also gives you plenty of data to measure your success.

But data points alone don’t tell the full story — you need to delve deeper into customer sentiment and what your competitors are doing. You can get the most out of your insights with a social media scorecard.  

Chapters:

1. What is a social media scorecard?
2. The benefits of a social media scorecard
3. What to include in your social media scorecard
4. Social social media scorecard template

What is a social media scorecard? 

A social media scorecard numerically demonstrates the value of your social media marketing efforts. It’s a structured method of tracking your social commerce efforts using true data.

Social commerce refers to integrating social media content and e-commerce. It’s an experience that consumers increasingly want and expect brands to deliver. 

54% of shoppers say they’re more likely to buy a product on social media when they can click the post and get product details right then. Shoppers want to be inspired and entertained by your content — but they also want social experiences to include information that helps them feel confident purchasing. Best-in-class social commerce programs include several essentials: 

• Curated and shareable UGC: Consumers want to see how your products look and work in real life. Collecting content from your most loyal customers — your most authentic voices — about your most popular products will resonate with other shoppers and boost purchases

• Get your content noticed: Amplify UGC by featuring it in your marketing campaigns. Showcasing content from real shoppers heightens your authenticity and boosts engagement. 

• Make content shoppable: Make it easy for people to buy in the moment. Ensure that all your content, including UGC, features a link to buy to increase sales.

Measuring the impact of your social commerce program is vital. But you need to look beyond traditional metrics and focus on contextual data, such as sentiment, customer satisfaction, and how you measure up against your competitors. 

A social media scorecard incorporating this data helps you improve your brand reputation, stay on top of trends, stand out, and create your own niche. 

The benefits of a social media scorecard

CEOs are generally part of a brand’s social/PR strategy, albeit in more of a spokesperson role. But if you want to make the most of your social media strategies and really deliver a worthy social ROI, you and your team need to be actively using social insights and data to guide you.

Using a social media scorecard to track and deliver these insights across teams will enable you to:

• Identify growth opportunities. Social listening insights reveal customer preferences, new trends, and shopper pain points. Using these insights can help you create more focused campaigns and products that drive sales
• Track your competition. Competition is fierce, especially in the social sphere. Combining your own KPIs and metrics against competitor and industry benchmarks can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your rivals, so you can set smarter goals
• Gauge customer sentiment of your brand. Insights are more than just getting a few likes on your instagram posts. Social is an always-on focus group that reveals the customer sentiment about your brand and products. You can discover what shoppers like about your brand, customer service, and products, and use that to guide your offerings

What to include in your social media scorecard 

To tap into the ever-changing social media landscape and grow e-commerce, you’ll need to include these components in your social media scorecard. 

Content collection

No doubt your brand is sitting on a goldmine of social content. Instagram alone sees about 4 million pieces of content posted every hour, and TikTok has one billion monthly users. Collecting and leveraging this content is central to social commerce. 

Comb social media for brand mentions, or simply ask consumers to post about you. 60% will take photos if you ask them to, and 53% appreciate brands telling them what kind of content to post. 

Shoppers consider UGC to be more social, interactive, and authentic than traditional marketing messages. It creates organic engagement, and when you make content shoppable, it drives sales — and you can track both of these metrics. 

Site display and experience 

Displaying social content, like customer photos and videos, creates shoppable features to showcase your products on product pages and anywhere you sell. When you optimize your product pages with social proof (a phenomenon where people mimic the actions of others on social media), sales and revenue soar. 

We’ve found that when shoppers interact with these galleries, you can see e-commerce conversions increase up to 140%. When you display ratings with the gallery photos, conversions jump 5x.

Product sampling campaigns offer unique experiences to shoppers, increase content, and inspire others. Bazaarvoice’s tools help you make this content shoppable by tagging products and requesting rights, enabling you to make data-driven decisions about what content drives the biggest results. 

Marketing amplification

Using paid ads that feature UGC drives conversions. Facebook’s and Instagram’s algorithms give more exposure to ads with high engagement. Each social media platform lets you monitor ad campaigns and offers analytics so you can keep tabs on your return on investment (ROI). 

On Instagram, you can turn any post into an ad to target specific audiences and also create ads across platforms and apps, such as Facebook and Messenger. You can also promote photo, product, and video pins on Pinterest and directly link to checkout pages. Plus, TikTok’s ad options include in-feed ads and video shopping ads. Include every social channel you’re on in your social media scorecard.

Analytics and competitor insights

Social listening — where you monitor keywords, hashtags, and other content surrounding your brand — helps you see how successful your social commerce campaigns actually are. It also helps inform future strategies. 

Delving into customer insights like engagement metrics, feedback, and reviews lets you get the most out of social commerce. You’ll learn what consumers are saying about you and gain a competitive edge. 

You’ll understand what types of content shoppers consider most engaging through Social Analytics. You should also compare your competitors’ social metrics and KPIs against your own, so you’ll know where to focus your efforts.

Social media management

Traditionally, social media marketing and e-commerce teams often work in silos. Each team has its own focus without a complete picture of the full funnel and what entices someone to purchase based on a social media interaction. 

However, working together, these teams can skyrocket social commerce conversions. You’ll be able to collect, curate, and create high-performing, authentic social content — and measure its performance. And the best part? It also saves time and money to streamline social media management. 

Technical health

Consumers’ perceptions about your brand and products should be a key part of your social media scorecard. Gathering and featuring UGC and tracking the engagement offers insights into what consumers think and inspires future social commerce. 

Include customer service metrics, too. Track messages received, responses, reply times, and customer satisfaction. Both brand perception and customer service are crucial for tracking your technical and brand health. 

Earned media value

Make sure to include the amount you would have spent achieving the same level of promotion as your organic social efforts. Your earned media value is essentially how much your brand is saving with organic social content.

Social social media scorecard template

A social commerce strategy is an authentic way to drive sales and heighten customer engagement. Having a social media scorecard in your marketing arsenal can ensure your approach hits the mark — helping you stand out, drive sales, and boost social and web traffic. 

Just make sure your scorecard includes content collection, site display and experience, marketing amplification, analytics and insights, social media management, and technical health. 

An easy way to get started is with Bazaarvoice’s own social media scorecard insights — get full funnel metrics and benchmarks, trending data, and insights into your audience and competitors all from a customizable dashboard. Learn more here.

FEATURED RESOURCE

A practical guide for social media professionals to drive engagement and commerce

Read now

That all sounds great, but how can you possibly know what each of your current or potential customers thinks and wants? The short answer is you just need to listen to them in the spaces where you coexist — your social media channels. Social listening is the launchpad to providing value for your customers, and how you respond will determine your success.

Learn how to listen, what to listen for, the best social listening tools, and what to do with the insights from those customer conversations in our social listening guide.

Chapters:

1. What is social listening?
2. Why is social listening important?
3. What to listen for and how to respond
4. How to set up a social listening strategy
5. Social listening examples in action
6. Manage and streamline social listening with Insights and Reports

What is social listening?

Social listening is all about actively tracking and analyzing the online conversations that matter most to your brand. Whether it’s your customers, competitors, or industry buzz, social listening tunes into these discussions across social media platforms. The goal? To glean insights into customer sentiment, preferences, and emerging trends, and to pinpoint any pain points or problems that need addressing. 

Social listening goes beyond keeping your digital ear to the ground. It’s about diving deep into the data you collect from social media conversations and analyzing it to understand public perception. This involves interpreting the data to uncover patterns, sentiments, and trends. By doing so, you can anticipate market shifts, innovate in response to customer feedback, and develop targeted digital marketing campaigns. 

Take, for instance, a beauty brand that uses social listening to track discussions around skincare routines.

They notice a growing trend in conversations about natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. By aligning their product development and marketing strategies with these insights, the brand successfully launches a new line of eco-friendly skincare products. The result is a product line that resonates well with their target audience, leading to increased brand loyalty and sales. 

Social listening vs. social monitoring

Social monitoring is another marketing tactic related to social listening, but the two are not the same. On the one side, social media monitoring is more targeted, with the goal of directly and immediately responding to a specific occurrence, like a brand mention or customer service question or issue. Whereas social listening is more comprehensive and aims to extract insights from social discussions to inform and shape your overall brand strategy.

Employing both social listening and brand monitoring allows brands to be reactive in customer engagement and proactive in strategic planning. Let’s run with the beauty brand example. While they used social listening to uncover an emerging trend and reshape their broader brand strategy, they might simultaneously use social monitoring to quickly address a customer’s complaint about a delayed shipment, and enhance customer satisfaction. 

Why is social listening important?

Social listening allows you to understand the key factors that affect your company’s success. It helps you become an invaluable presence in your customers’ lives and a force to be reckoned with in the eyes of competitors.

Understand customer preferences

Understanding the preferences of your customers is crucial for delivering products and services that attract and retain them. Through social listening, you can discover what particular features or qualities they love about individual products, your brand presence, and services like customer support, sustainability, and delivery. 

Customer preferences can be about your brand specifically, product categories, or your industry as a whole. By actively listening to and analyzing social media conversations, you gain the ability to pinpoint specific likes and dislikes. This process enables you to fine-tune your offerings, ensuring they hit the mark with your target audience. 

Address customer dissatisfaction

Customers might not always have a great experience with your brand or products, and that’s okay — addressing customer dissatisfaction is always an opportunity for growth and improvement. As we mentioned above, from a monitoring standpoint, social media can be a customer service tool to promptly address specific concerns and complaints before they escalate. 

At the listening level, you can use these instances to uncover the underlying causes of customer dissatisfaction and gain valuable insights into common issues within your industry. 

A clothing brand might discover through social listening that a significant number of consumers are frustrated with the lack of diverse sizing options in online shopping. This insight can prompt them to reevaluate and potentially revamp their sizing options, addressing a widespread customer need, boosting the brand’s reputation, and tapping into a new customer segment. Win-win-win!

Stay ahead of emerging trends

For your brand to stay relevant, it has to be ahead of trends. Social listening essentially serves as a radar for detecting the latest fads and preferences directly from the consumers, whether it’s must-have styles, music, products, or memes. 

Tracking trending topics and hashtags allows you to keep a finger on the pulse of shifts in consumer interests and preferences, so you can adapt your social media marketing, product, and customer service strategies in real-time.

Glean valuable competitor insights

Competition is fierce out there, especially in the world of e-commerce. While the focus should be on your brand, you also need to keep an eye on your competitors, their moves, and customer perceptions about their products, marketing, and customer service. 

Social listening helps you understand the competitive landscape, identifying both the strengths and weaknesses of your rivals, so you can uncover opportunities to outperform in areas where they fall short. It’s essentially an opportunity to capitalize on their missteps by enhancing your own products or messaging in ways that directly address the gaps left by your competitors. 

Find unique collaboration opportunities

Social listening is instrumental in finding potential influencers, UGC creators, complementary brands, and industry or subject matter experts to partner with. 

These individuals and companies are often at the forefront of trends and discussions, making them ideal partners for collaborative campaigns. When reviewing the mentions, hashtags, and keywords you track, you can find active and trusted voices contributing to those conversations.

Teaming up with them on campaigns introduces your brand to new audiences in a way that feels organic. It also aligns your brand with a voice that your target audience already knows and respects. Partnerships with the right creators and brands can cut through the noise, offering the kind of authentic content that builds trust with consumers. 

Enhance brand reputation and crisis management

For all the benefits social media has, it also puts businesses in a vulnerable position. A single misinterpreted tweet can go viral and break a brand’s reputation in a split second. Keeping tabs on what’s being said helps you safeguard the brand’s image and address any potential issues that could evolve into a full-blown crisis — in such cases, a rapid response can be the difference between a minor hiccup and a major PR disaster.

Social listening serves as an early warning system, allowing you to detect and respond to negative publicity or emerging issues promptly, and remain in tune with your audience’s perceptions and expectations. 

Improve your content strategy and marketing campaigns

Social listening takes the guesswork out of what your audience is talking about, feeling, and expecting. Using these insights, you can draw inspiration to craft content that not only aligns with but also anticipates current audience interests, leading to more effective marketing efforts. 

When your content is relevant to the audience, it naturally leads to higher engagement and conversion rates, turning those casual browsers into paying customers. 

Consider a travel agency that uses social listening to gauge the mood and preferences of its audience. They notice a growing interest in domestic travel and seize the opportunity to tailor their Google ads campaigns to focus on local tourism.

This strategic pivot results in a campaign that resonates with the audience’s current desires, leading to increased bookings and a chunkier bottom line. 

What to listen for and how to respond

There’s numerous conversations about your brand, products, industry, and competitors happening on social media, so focusing on everything isn’t feasible or efficient. These key areas of discussion are a good place to start if you want to reap the benefits of social listening.

Topics of interest

Monitor trending hashtags and popular content to align your marketing with your audience’s current interests. Pay attention to current events, big cultural moments, or trending hobbies that can shape your social media presence and interactions.

How to respond: Actively participate in conversations related to the major interests of your audience. Respond to their content or create your own that repurposes relevant content you already have, shares your brand’s perspective, and connects your products to popular use cases.

which side are you on? pic.twitter.com/Q71DeZLoOj

— Swiggy (@Swiggy) July 21, 2023

Invite your audience to share their thoughts — this not only positions your brand as a thought leader but also fosters community engagement.

Personal challenges and goals

Social media is a space where people often share personal challenges and aspirations. Social listening allows businesses to tap into these conversations, gaining insights into the real-life experiences of their audience. Access to these details enables you to offer solutions, support, and products that genuinely help customers.

How to respond: Craft campaigns and messaging that highlight how your products or services can address your customers’ needs or make progress toward their goals. 

Common issues and questions about products and services

Customers frequently turn to social media to seek information and voice their questions about products and services. Identify these common questions that come up when customers tag your brand or use your branded hashtags. This allows you to not only resolve issues quickly but also create permanent solutions and resources to improve the customer experience.

How to respond: Compile and maintain a list of the common questions that arise and use those to create online resources. For example, you can include them in a Questions and Answers section on your product pages, optimize product details with pertinent info, create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) website section, and create social media content that addresses FAQs. 

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This is also valuable information to share with your customer service team and integrate into your live chat technology to prepare answers for these common questions.

Discussions about competitors

Social listening is a nifty tool for competitor research. Follow conversations that mention or tag your main competitors to find out what customers love or dislike about them. 

For example, you might discover sales and promotions, packaging, product details, subscription services, or something else that either works well or isn’t doing the trick. Then, you can use that information to do it better or step up your game in areas where they’re beating you out. 

How to respond: Share the insights you’ve collected about your competitors with the broader marketing, sales, and product teams. Make improvements to products, services, and marketing where needed, and highlight areas where you outshine competitors in your marketing and social media content.

Brand advocates and network partners

Pay attention to the customers who rave about your products and share content about your brand. These brand advocates are the customers who showcase your products in their everyday lives. You can also keep track of other like-minded businesses with products that would interest your audience.

How to respond: Develop relationships with creators and brands that might make good partners in the future. When someone posts quality content about your brand or industry, share it on your own social networks. Initiate deeper partnerships by reaching out to customers or influencers directly to be brand ambassadors.

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Likewise, reach out to other brands to co-host a giveaway or collaborate on product packages. 

Product mentions

Track conversations that call out your specific products and categorize them based on positive and negative feedback. 

How to respond: Evaluate the feedback about your products and identify any patterns that come up. For example, you might discover multiple complaints about certain products but rave reviews about others. Share this information with your product team so they can identify how to improve products or build upon successful ones.

How to set up a social listening strategy

Social listening is like a mind-reading superpower. While monitoring certain areas of interest ad hoc is helpful, executing an intentional social listening strategy can yield far more impactful results for your brand.

1. Define your social listening goals

Start by pinpointing what you want to achieve through social listening, be it understanding customer preferences, identifying pain points, or keeping a pulse on brand awareness. 

Make sure these objectives are specific, measurable, and, most importantly, align with your broader business goals. The latter ensures that every piece of data collected and every insight gleaned serves a larger purpose and drives the brand forward. 

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) related to your social listening goals. These could include metrics like engagement rate, sentiment analysis results, the volume of brand mentions, or specific hashtag performance. Regularly tracking these KPIs will provide you with quantifiable data to evaluate the success of your social listening efforts.

2. Choose the right social media listening tools

From sentiment analysis and trend tracking to influencer identification, social listening tools are designed to cater to different business sizes and needs. The key is to find a tool that not only aligns with your specific social listening goals but also integrates with your existing marketing strategies. 

For small e-commerce businesses, the focus might be on cost-effective tools that offer essential listening features. These tools should be user-friendly and capable of providing insights into brand mentions, customer sentiment, and emerging trends. 

On the other hand, larger businesses might require robust platforms that offer advanced analytics, CRM integration, and data analysis capabilities. These social listening tools can handle larger volumes of data and provide deeper insights, which are key for big businesses with a wider audience reach. 

3. Identify keywords and topics

This step is crucial, as it determines the scope and relevance of the insights you’ll gather. First, identify the core aspects of your brand and industry (these can range from specific product names to broader industry terms). Include variations and common misspellings to ensure comprehensive coverage. 

Depending on your goal, you might expand your keyword list to include competitor brand names and key products. Don’t forget to add buzzwords, industry trends you’re already aware of, and seasonal topics that are likely to generate conversation. For example, if you’re a home decor brand, you might track keywords related to home improvement trends, seasonal decorations, and DIY projects.

To make your tracking more actionable, categorize your keywords into different themes or topics. This categorization can help you segment the data and analyze it more effectively. You might have categories for product feedback, customer service inquiries, and general industry discussion. 

Remember, social media is dynamic, and so should your keywords and topics be. Regularly review and update your lists to reflect new products, campaigns, or shifts in industry jargon. 

4. Determine your social media listening methods

There are various approaches to social listening and different techniques for finding meaningful conversations. Each method will unveil unique insights, and your choice will depend on the goals you originally set.

Track mentions and hashtags

Use a social media management tool to track mentions of your brand and your competitors, as well as the hashtags you designate. This way, you can access conversations on your different channels in one place. 

This is a holistic way to quickly gauge public reaction to new product launches, marketing campaigns, or company news so you can adjust strategies on the fly and ensure that your brand’s messaging aligns with audience expectations and sentiments. 

Sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis measures customers’ perception of your brand and products based on positive and negative feedback and particular opinions expressed. And Sentiment analysis AI tools leverage machine learning that includes natural language processing (NLP) to interpret conversations and determine how people feel about your brand.

This method is particularly effective in identifying areas of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, which are crucial for guiding strategic improvements and maintaining a positive brand image.

Trend tracking

Use your social media management tool or the specific channel’s analytics to reveal trending content and topics. For example, the TikTok Creative Center provides robust insights on trending hashtags, creators, songs, and videos over different time periods. Analytics features included in other channels like X (formerly Twitter) reveal high-volume keywords that inform what’s trending as well. 

Proactive listening

Initiate the conversation by asking your audience for questions and feedback on your social channels. Leverage engagement features like the Questions Sticker for Instagram Stories or ask your followers to respond to your posts as a comment or a video response on TikTok.

5. Analyze and interpret social listening data

This stage is where the raw data transforms into actionable insights.

Start with quantitative analysis, which involves measuring the volume of mentions, the reach of your hashtags, and the frequency of keywords. Social media analytics platforms use automation to provide you with metrics such as engagement rates, sentiment scores, and trend graphs. 

However, quantitative data only tells part of the story. Qualitative analysis is equally important. This involves reading through posts, comments, and conversations to understand the context behind the numbers. Look for recurring themes or sentiments in the discussions about your brand. Are customers consistently praising a particular aspect of your product? Are there recurring complaints or suggestions for improvement? This level of detail can provide deeper insights into customer attitudes and perceptions. 

6. Review and adapt your social listening strategy

Social media is constantly changing, so what works today might not be as effective tomorrow. Plus, your business priorities also change and your social listening needs along with them. Regularly assessing the performance of your social listening strategy keeps it relevant and effective. 

Incorporating feedback loops is also beneficial. Use the insights gained from social listening to make changes in your business, and then monitor social media to see how these changes are received. This approach ensures that your strategy is not just reactive but also proactive in shaping your brand’s presence and offerings.

Social listening examples in action

Social listening isn’t an exact science. It’s a practice that continues to evolve with many different purposes and applications. To better understand how to use the information that’s accessible to you, take a look at these social listening examples for how other professionals have done it with impactful results.

Petco’s branding and services evolution

Petco considers social media and search the “largest focus groups on the planet” and relies on signals and feedback from social to evolve their offerings. For example, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, they expedited a curbside delivery program based on listening to their audience’s preferences on social. 

In addition to offering new services informed by social listening, Petco shifted their focus to be a pet health and wellness company based on the priorities of their audience. Another way Petco leverages feedback and data is by answering customer questions on their website with Questions and Answers.

This feature provides a helpful resource on relevant product pages for customers who want to learn how specific products meet the unique needs of their pets.

Nestlé Canada’s product improvements

By listening to and acting on their customers’ feedback, Nestlé Canada saved a struggling product and returned it to its former glory. The major food brand ruffled some feathers when they modified the recipe for a favorite iced tea product. Within a month of releasing the new version, customers made their complaints known on Nestle’s marketing channels and in product reviews. As a result, their sales and review ratings dropped.

These insights led to action, and Nestlé responded to the negative sentiment by reinstating the original recipe. By finding and implementing customer feedback, they restored high customer satisfaction and raised their average customer rating for the product from 1.7 to 4 stars.

Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” (10-minute version) 

Taylor Swift is not only one of the biggest pop stars of our time but also something of a marketing genius. Social listening is definitely part of her strategy to win over fans time and time again. One example is how the 10-minute version of the fan-favorite song “All Too Well” from her album Red came about. 

After hearing reports of a 10-minute version of the song, fans took to social media to call for its release. Taylor heard these messages and ultimately decided to record and release the complete version on “Red (Taylor’s Version)” along with a music video, which won a Grammy for Best Music Video. This is a great example of Taylor listening to her audience’s requests and responding with a new product release or, in this case, a song. 

Manage and streamline social listening with analytics

Social media teams can only do so much when it comes to conducting social listening. Small teams, multiple channels to review for social conversations, and manual processes limit what’s possible. That’s why automated tools are invaluable for managing and synthesizing large amounts of data.

Bazaarvoice’s Social Analytics tools measure your performance for social media efforts, influencer marketing, and revenue reporting all in a single dashboard. Check out the full capabilities here. Or get in touch below to learn more.