General

With the acceleration of the pace of life and the continuous development of the internet, social media has occupied most of people's leisure time. People entertain, interact, learn, and obtain information through social media... Mobile phones can be said to be an extension of people's bodies, and social media is the networking of human social life. It has become an indispensable platform for communication, sharing, and receiving information in people's lives.

According to the 2022 Global Digital Survey, over 4.6 billion users worldwide use social media, with an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes of social media usage time per day, and the time is still growing.

From these data, it can be concluded that social media has become an important channel for Chinese foreign trade enterprises to engage in overseas social media marketing. So as an independent website seller, how can we do a good job in overseas social media marketing?

1、 Understand the styles of different social media platforms

There are many commonly used social media platforms abroad, each with its own platform attributes, user characteristics, and content preferences, which determine the target audience that the platform targets and also determine the marketing plans of enterprises on the platform. The content preferences and styles of commonly used social media platforms abroad are as follows:

Facebook: The social media platform with the largest number of users and extremely active users in the world, which can reach global target customers.

Pinterest: Known as the overseas version of the "Little Red Book", it focuses on image sharing and grass planting, with high purchasing power among users on the platform.

TikTok: Tiktok Overseas Edition, a popular short video social media platform, suitable for young people and fashion goods.

YouTube: A video sharing platform with a strong user base, complete advertising formats, suitable for product marketing and brand building.

Quora: An overseas Q&A platform with high media literacy among users.

After fully understanding the content preferences of each platform, foreign trade enterprises can produce content that both the platform and users like, and improve the effectiveness of social media marketing.

2、 Develop clear and detailed marketing strategies

To be precise, developing marketing strategies should be the first step in conducting social media operations. The formulation of strategies needs to fully consider the marketing goals of the enterprise, the needs of target customers, platform characteristics, and the marketing budget of the enterprise.

The formulation of marketing strategies should be based on the strength of the enterprise itself, and should not be too ambitious or too cautious to try. A clear, detailed and practical marketing strategy will help enterprises achieve efficient marketing and promote long-term sustainable development. At the same time, marketing strategies can also provide reference for solutions when problems arise in a company's marketing activities.

3、 Do a good job of socializing and interaction

The core of social media marketing is social interaction, and if a company only outputs information unilaterally, it will deviate from this core. Remember one thing: The focus of social media operations is to be friends with users, bridge the gap between enterprises and target customers, and enhance mutual trust.

Enterprises can create both enterprise and personal accounts at the same time. The enterprise account can publish more official information and product content, and the personal account can share more life and industry knowledge. Of course, enterprises can also actively participate in and initiate various activities, encouraging users to follow, comment, and interact.

4、 Continuous content output

'Content is the king' is the core that remains unchanged at all times. Foreign trade enterprises must recognize and clarify that in the increasingly competitive social media marketing, the most effective measure to activate potential users and maintain loyal users is to produce high-quality content that meets user needs.

Don't always copy and paste the content of others, but often express and output the company's own views, showcase the unique style and perspective of the company, in order to be remembered by users. High quality content is not just about product marketing, it must be valuable, meaningful, and able to help users solve problems. Moreover, according to the characteristics of social media platforms, these contents are best filled with fun and aesthetics.

Enterprises can promote related products in the form of popular science, regularly share industry related information and cases, and answer common questions and doubts among users. These contents can effectively attract target users and help users solve problems. Enterprises unconsciously promote their products through user reading and interaction, and gradually establish their corporate image.

5、 Complete account information

The first task after registering an account for a company is to improve the account information, complete personal identity authentication and enterprise authentication. This is a crucial task. When other users click on the enterprise homepage and see an officially authenticated account, they will trust the content posted by the account more and have a deeper impression on it. On the contrary, users will doubt the creditworthiness of the enterprise, thereby reducing their trust in the enterprise.

The above is a summary of the strategies we need to adopt when foreign trade enterprises engage in overseas social media marketing.

In the practical process of brand promotion and website promotion in foreign trade enterprises, through communication with the bosses and operators of multiple foreign trade enterprises, we have found that foreign trade enterprises are generally aware of the important role of social media operations in overseas optimization and promotion of enterprises. But companies often face the problem of how to operate social media accounts without effectiveness, with very few channels and conversions, and over time, they have no confidence to continue doing so. After multiple exchanges, we summarized several common problems and details that foreign trade companies often overlook in social media operations, and listed them again for the convenience of foreign trade companies to avoid.

1、 Social media operations are not just about posting

Foreign trade enterprises often have the misconception when operating social media marketing platforms: operation is to regularly post and add friends, similar to brushing faces. Many foreign trade enterprises have already discovered the problem of doing so, often due to account suspension just after registration, or the lack of response to friend applications sent out. It should be noted that social media operation is also a skilled job. Enterprises need to fully understand the several social media platforms they operate, clarify the content that users of the platform like and target users need, learn from the content of peers who operate well, summarize the characteristics of the content that causes forwarding comments, and so on. After understanding these contents, companies can post and add friends more accurately and efficiently.

2、 Content output can be more divergent

The divergence mentioned here refers to foreign trade enterprises not only focusing on product output when operating overseas social media. Social media itself places more emphasis on social interaction, and users of social media platforms naturally hope to gain a certain level of social interaction experience. Therefore, enterprises can output some product related knowledge, industry changes, and other consultations during the operation of social media. This information not only enriches the content output of the enterprise, improves the user experience, but also activates some potential target users.

3、 Maintain basic consistency in the style of various social media platforms

Maintaining a consistent style does not require all marketing materials on all platforms to be the same, but rather requires companies to maintain a consistent background in the use of different materials on different platforms, which showcases the company's culture and values. The consistency of different platform styles can also increase the trust of enterprises in users, establish their brand, and create their image.

4、 Tracking and monitoring data

The tracking and analysis of data is a common issue in overseas digital marketing, which is the key to testing the effectiveness of social media operations and can also help enterprises adjust their operational strategies in a timely manner. Social media platforms usually provide or built-in various analysis tools to monitor and analyze account data, evaluate marketing effectiveness, and provide data reference for enterprises to make strategic adjustments.

The overseas optimization and promotion of foreign trade enterprises is not a simple and short-term task. As a part of it, social media marketing needs to be coordinated with other steps to maximize its effectiveness.