Sarah Timmerman, Founder and Director of Beginning Boutique will Embrace Everything Retail at Online Retailer Conference & eCommerce Expo, Sydney Royal Hall of Industries and Hordern Pavilion 22- 23 July 2015. Sarah will speak about Becoming the #1 Australian Social Media Brand and provide insight into the power of social media. She will help to uncover what it truly means to have an integrated view for customers across all online channels.

Social media is the ultimate tool in self-publishing for any business. If you are just starting out in business, or even if you have been around for a while, traditional media won’t give you the time of day, nor will it allow you to reach as many potential customers. Social media, on the other hand, can be used as a way to publish yourself or your brand to a mass audience.

Although the number of social media platforms can seem daunting, you simply need to be where your customers are in order to get the best ROI for your business . The first step to assessing which platform to utilise is to see where your traffic is coming from and focus on these mediums. If this is Instagram, then you need to be dedicating time to creating beautiful images, and if this is Facebook you need to be creating engaging and shareable content. Your content strategy should be tailored to the platform you are using.

As well as choosing the best social media platform for your brand, you also need to make sure you know who your customers are. If you will be communicating with them on a daily or evenly hourly basis, you need to make sure that you are engaging and interesting. If you are selling party dresses like Beginning Boutique then your customers will also like things like makeup and heels. You can use this knowledge to leverage your social media engagement. If you don’t know who your customers are, then it’s simple… ask!

Social media provides you with the platform to ask your customers anything, which is something a lot of brands don’t leverage. Recently, Beginning Boutique posted a Pinterest board asking followers to vote for their favourite item with a like or comment, to determine which would be made and sold.  Beginning Boutique also uses Shapchat to send followers sneak peeks of potential new styles, getting them to screenshot their favourite items, which determines what will be bought and sold online. Involving your customers in a constant conversation will keep them engaged as well as provide you will valuable insight into the content they want to see.

Everything comes back to content strategy – with the time and effort you need to invest into social media, you need to have a strategy to back this up. This is what I will be workshopping at the Online Retailer Conference in July. Beginning Boutique is the #1 Australian Social Media Brand and I will be sharing my tips on how to build your community and plan your content. Social media is a promotional gold mine and can be a cost effective online growth opportunity if you understand the importance of creating a comprehensive posting schedule.

Sarah will be speaking at the Online Retailer Conference and eCommerce Expo July 21-23 in Sydney, don’t waste another minute, regietr to the FREE expo or book your conference pass today!

www.onlineretailer.com