With the development of the Internet, the orientation of marketing is also changing, from sales-oriented to relationship-oriented. Consumers play an increasingly important role in this transformation, and “user first” has become the sales philosophy of various major industries.
Traditional marketing is to disseminate product information to consumers through TV, advertising, newspapers and other media. Consumers can only passively accept it and cannot feedback their own needs; with the emergence of the Internet, businesses and The distance between consumers is gradually shrinking, and the limitations of time and space are gradually being broken. The emergence of search engines, emails and other marketing methods have only changed the channels through which consumers obtain information, but they still cannot enable consumers to feedback their needs. If a company carries out offline promotion activities and has zero-distance contact with consumers, the cost issue is the first consideration, and its scope of communication is also relatively narrow.
The rise of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has driven corporate marketing into a marketing era with interaction as the core. So, in the new era of marketing, which social networking sites can companies use for cross-border e-commerce?
(1) Facebook
Facebook is the world’s leading social networking site. According to 2014 data, Facebook has 1.3 billion monthly active users. At the same time, 30 million small companies have registered accounts on Facebook, of which 150,000 companies use Facebook as an advertising platform. The development of Facebook has also attracted the attention of many e-commerce practitioners. Cross-border e-commerce giants such as Lantingjishi and DX have created their own official web pages on Facebook.
It is worth noting that if the target market of cross-border e-commerce is Russia, then VK should be chosen. VK’s influence in Russia and Eastern Europe is equivalent to Facebook’s influence in European and American countries.
(2)Twitter
As a typical application of microblog, Twitter is one of the most visited websites on the Internet in the world. Users can post “tweets” of no more than 140 characters through Twitter. Major companies are publishing product information and marketing on Twitter to attract consumers’ attention and stimulate their desire to shop.
For example, during the 2008 Christmas shopping period, Dell posted product discount tweets on Twitter and gained millions of dollars in sales; Zappos co-founder Tony Hsieh communicated with consumers on Twitter Interact, understand their needs, and make decisions such as free returns and exchanges, warehouse transfers, etc., attracting many consumers.
In addition, cross-border e-commerce companies can also market their products through celebrities’ Twitter accounts. They can comment on celebrities’ tweets immediately or comment multiple times to let consumers know about the company’s Make an impression on the product and eventually become your own customer.
In September 2014, Twitter added a new shopping function to facilitate the development of cross-border e-commerce.
(3) Tumblr
Tumblr, founded in 2007, is currently the world’s largest light blogging website, with more than 200 million blog posts. Light blogging is a new media form that emerged with the development of the Internet. It focuses not only on expression, but also on social networking and personalized settings. Therefore, cross-border e-commerce merchants need to pay special attention to the “expression of content” when marketing on Tumblr±.
For example, when marketing a product, the product information can be hidden in a story. While consumers understand the story, they will also form a certain impression of the product information, and it will be interesting. Consumers are also willing to take the initiative to spread stories, thereby expanding product coverage and increasing brand awareness.
Therefore, when cross-border e-commerce is marketing through Tumblr, it is inevitable to explore some fascinating stories from its own products to achieve branding effect.
(4) YouTube
YouTube is the world’s largest video website, used for users to share videos and short films. Compared with other video websites, YouTube has a wider reach. In 2012, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was widely disseminated on YouTube and attracted worldwide attention.
Considering that YouTube has such huge influence and communication power, cross-border e-commerce companies can market their products on the YouTube platform. For example, open a channel on YouTube and upload some attractive videos to attract users’ attention. Product advertisements can be embedded in the video or opinion leaders can comment on the video to achieve the purpose of promotion.
(5)Vine
Vine is a location-based SNS system similar to Twitter services. It was acquired by Twitter in 2012. Users can post 6-second short videos on Vine± and add text descriptions, which can be shared with friends around the world. In 2014, the social media platform 8thBridge conducted interviews and surveys on 800 e-commerce retailers and found that 38% of merchants would use Vine as a channel to expand market share.
For cross-border e-commerce, product marketing through Vine can not only use short videos to comprehensively display the excellent performance of products, but also use time-lapse shooting to display different products of the same type in a continuous manner. Display them in the form of broadcast photos to increase the visibility and influence of the corporate brand.
For example, a merchant who sells ties can publish an instructional video on how to tie a tie and embed his or her tie brand into it. Similar social networking sites include MixBit, founded by YouTube founders Hao Li and Chen Shijun, which can post videos up to 16 seconds long; Instagram, owned by Facebook, can post 15-second videos.
(6) Pinterest
Pinterest is one of the top ten most popular social networking sites in the world and the largest picture sharing website, with a total of more than 30 billion pictures. Pinterest can be called the picture version of Twitter. Users can save pictures they are interested in on Pinterest, and other netizens can follow or forward them. The Pinterest platform is more suitable for the development of cross-border e-commerce.
For most consumers, before seeing the actual product, they understand the appearance of the product through online pictures. Therefore, e-commerce companies build their own homepages on Pinterest, create beautiful pictures, and upload them to the company’s homepage to attract consumers’ attention.
In September 2014, Pinterest launched its advertising business. Sellers can add product information when creating pictures, and consumers can see the seller’s advertisements as long as they view the pictures. All users’ registration information has been obtained by Pmterest, and a relevant database has been established to analyze consumer preferences, thereby helping merchants accurately place advertisements. In addition, cross-border e-commerce companies can also purchase Pinterest ads to promote their brands. Similar websites include Snapchat, Instagram and Flickr.
(7) Others
In addition to the above major social networking sites, forum marketing, blog marketing, Q&A community marketing, etc. are also common social media marketing methods. These three marketing methods are more suitable for highly specialized products, such as electronics, open source hardware, etc.
For example, DX mainly deals in 3C electronic products. Its threshold is relatively high, not just anyone can operate it, and its degree of specialization is also high, so it can use forum marketing. In addition, if an e-commerce company targets graduates or professionals, it should choose LinkedIn, the world’s largest business social networking site, as a marketing platform, or Google+, the world’s second largest social networking platform.