Social media has become an integral part of online marketing and sales strategies. For eCommerce stores, leveraging social platforms can significantly boost traffic, brand awareness, and conversion rates. The WooCommerce Social Share plugin allows your customers to easily share your products on social media, helping you expand your store’s reach without any additional marketing effort.
In this blog, we will explore the importance of integrating social media sharing with your WooCommerce store, discuss the features of the WooCommerce Social Share plugin, and provide a step-by-step guide on how to use it to boost your sales and visibility.
The Power of Social Sharing for eCommerce
With billions of active users across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, social media has become a powerful tool for product discovery. Here’s why social sharing is essential for eCommerce stores:
1. Expands Your Audience
When customers share your products with their social media followers, they introduce your brand to a wider audience. This organic exposure can lead to more website traffic, increased sales, and higher brand visibility.
2. Boosts SEO and Traffic
Social sharing increases the likelihood of your product pages being indexed by search engines, which can improve your SEO. More shares mean more backlinks to your site, driving higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
3. Creates Social Proof
When potential customers see your products being shared by others on social media, it creates social proof—a psychological phenomenon where people assume that if others like a product, they should too. This can lead to more purchases and positive reviews.
4. Engages Customers
Social media sharing encourages engagement and interaction. By offering an easy way for customers to share products they love, you foster a sense of community around your brand and build stronger customer relationships.
5. Encourages User-Generated Content
Customers who share products on their social media accounts often add personal recommendations, reviews, or photos, creating authentic user-generated content (UGC). UGC is highly trusted by other consumers and can serve as a powerful marketing tool for your store.
Key Features of WooCommerce Social Share Plugin
The WooCommerce Social Share plugin is designed to make it easy for your customers to share your products on various social media platforms. Here’s a breakdown of the key features that make this plugin a must-have for your WooCommerce store:
1. Wide Range of Social Platforms
The plugin supports popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and more. This wide range of options ensures that customers can share your products on their preferred platform.
2. Customizable Share Buttons
You can choose from a variety of button styles and placements to match your website’s design. Whether you prefer minimalistic icons or bold buttons with text, the plugin allows you to customize the appearance of the share buttons to align with your brand identity.
3. Shareable Product Pages
Customers can share specific product pages directly from your store, making it easy for others to click the shared link and land on the exact product page. This functionality is crucial for driving targeted traffic to your store.
4. Auto-Share for New Products
When you add new products to your store, the plugin can automatically generate social media posts, sharing them with your followers. This feature helps you keep your social media accounts active and informs your audience about the latest additions to your product catalog.
5. Mobile-Friendly Design
The plugin is fully responsive, ensuring that the social share buttons are easily accessible on both desktop and mobile devices. Given the increasing use of mobile devices for online shopping, this mobile-friendly design is critical for maximizing your product’s social media exposure.
6. Social Share Analytics
You can track how many times your products are shared and on which platforms through built-in analytics. This data helps you understand which products are performing well on social media and allows you to refine your marketing strategy accordingly.
7. Incentivize Social Sharing
The WooCommerce Social Share plugin can also be integrated with WooCommerce coupon systems to offer customers incentives for sharing your products. For example, you can provide discounts or loyalty points to customers who share a product on their social media accounts, encouraging more frequent shares.
How to Set Up WooCommerce Social Share Plugin
Setting up the WooCommerce Social Share plugin is straightforward and requires only a few steps. Follow this guide to start enabling social sharing on your WooCommerce store:
Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugin
- From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for “WooCommerce Social Share” in the search bar.
- Click Install Now and then Activate the plugin once it’s installed.
Step 2: Configure the Plugin Settings
- After activation, go to WooCommerce > Settings > Social Share to configure the plugin.
- Here, you can select which social media platforms you want to enable for sharing. You can also choose where to display the share buttons, such as on product pages, the cart page, or the checkout page.
Step 3: Customize the Appearance
- Under the Appearance section of the settings, you can choose the button style (icons or text), color scheme, and button placement (above or below the product description).
- You can also enable floating social share buttons, which remain visible as users scroll through your product pages.
Step 4: Enable Auto-Share (Optional)
- If you want the plugin to automatically share new products when they are added to your store, enable the Auto-Share option.
- You can select which social media platforms the products will be shared on and customize the post format with hashtags or product descriptions.
Step 5: Save and Test
- Once you’ve configured the settings, click Save Changes.
- Visit one of your product pages to check if the social share buttons are displaying correctly. Test the functionality by sharing a product to your own social media account.
Best Practices for Using WooCommerce Social Share Plugin
To get the most out of the WooCommerce Social Share plugin, consider these best practices:
1. Strategically Place Share Buttons
While it may be tempting to place share buttons everywhere, this can overwhelm your customers. Focus on placing share buttons in high-visibility areas, such as product pages or at the end of blog posts, where customers are more likely to share.
2. Customize the Share Message
Each platform has its own style of communication, so customize the messages that accompany the shared links. For example, a product shared on Facebook might include a brief description and a call-to-action (CTA), while a Twitter share might be more concise with relevant hashtags.
3. Encourage Sharing with Incentives
Offer small rewards like discounts, free shipping, or loyalty points to customers who share your products. Not only does this encourage social sharing, but it also incentivizes customers to complete their purchases after sharing.
4. Monitor Share Analytics
Use the built-in analytics to track which products are being shared the most and on which platforms. This data will help you identify your most popular products and focus your marketing efforts on them.
5. Share Products Regularly on Your Own Channels
While customer sharing is vital, don’t forget to share your products regularly on your store’s own social media accounts. This keeps your audience engaged and can attract new followers who are interested in your products.
Conclusion
The WooCommerce Social Share plugin is an essential tool for store owners looking to amplify their product reach through social media. By making it easy for customers to share their favorite products, you can drive more traffic, increase sales, and build a loyal customer base. With customizable options, analytics tracking, and mobile-friendly design, this plugin provides everything you need to turn social sharing into a powerful marketing strategy.
Install WooCommerce Social Share today and start leveraging the power of social media to grow your WooCommerce store!
