Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are important social media sales channels – but there are others that ecommerce entrepreneurs need to consider to capitalise fully on your online marketing efforts. Below, we list of five alternative social networks.
Whether you are looking to expand in emerging markets, or just looking to engage with more consumers online, there are a number of alternative social networks to look at.
Being the fastest social media platform to reach ten million users, Pinterest is now a social network that all ecommerce entrepreneurs must consider using.
For users, the draw is that Pinterest allows them to share and discover beautiful images, videos and products. For ecommerce entrepreneurs, the marketing potential is clear: Pinterest is an ideal platform to increase – and therefore sales – in your products.
Website:
Target market: Global consumers
Once described as “the Twitter of China”, today Weibo offers much wider services than the 140-character microblog.
Weibo is ideal for ecommerce entrepreneurs looking to tap into one of the world’s fastest-growing markets: China. With Twitter and Facebook blocked in China, Weibo is the must-use social network for ecommerce entrepreneurs to use, with a 90 per cent social network market share.
Website: http://www.weibo.com
Target market: China
ORKUT
Google-owned Orkut is another social network service, where users can create profiles, chat with friends and post photos, videos and links.
As Weibo is good for ecommerce entrepreneurs looking to tap into the Chinese market, Orkut is a strong platform for engaging with Brazilian consumers. The social network has an 80 per cent social network market share, with users spending an average of eight hours per month on the site. It’s a lucrative market for ecommerce entrepreneurs – B2C ecommerce sales in Brazil are expected to reach US$21.7bn in 2013.
Website: http://www.orkut.com/
Target market: Brazil
NING
Ning is a do-it-yourself social network, where users can create their own community website. The service has more than 90,000 social websites on its platform, called Ning Networks.
Ning should be considered by ecommerce entrepreneurs as it allows you to create your own community – so if you sell in a particular niche, Ning could be used to create a social website tailored to what you sell.
Website: http://uk.ning.com
Target market: Niche markets
GOOGLE+
Google+ is often regarded as a “failed” social network, yet it still attracts 235 million active users each month. When it launched, it was branded “Google’s version of Facebook”, but the site offers a different experience altogether.
This social network is ideal for social marketing, where brands – and ecommerce sites – can engage with users through the site’s features (Hangouts, Circles, Sparks, etc). It’s also very good for your SEO and connects into all of Google’s other products (YouTube, Google Maps, Images, etc). Your ecommerce site’s Google+ profile could be used to attract users – the social network should not be written off just yet!
Website: http://plus.google.com
Target market: Global consumers
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