Member Article

Social UX: How To Boost User Experience On Social Media

We all know that user experience plays a massive role in business success. Boosting clicks to conversions, prioritising a web-based UX strategy has become a key concern for marketers.

The question is, should we be thinking about our social platforms too? With over 4.7 billion users, social media has become a hub for both socialising and shopping in a mobile-first era.

As a key source of conversions for modern-day marketers, it’s time to make sure your social audience is receiving an optimised platform experience. From personalising platform-specific content to streamlining a shoppable social journey, let’s have a closer look at how you can boost your social UX.

Why is user experience so important?

Over a third of smart marketers claim that an optimised user experience strategy boosts consumer satisfaction and retention.

(Image Source: Super Office)

On the back of a post-pandemic e-commerce explosion, competition is at an all-time high for small business startups. Therefore, if you want your consumers to stay loyal, it’s time to put more effort into improving their site and social experience.

With more competition has come more consumer demands. The site and social content of today must be hyper-personalised, mobile-friendly and fast loading. Digitally active consumers are constantly bombarded with thousands of social posts, trends and ad content, so it’s vital that you find a way to stand out.

In fact, a whopping 63% of social media users will now bounce off of a piece of social content in just 3 seconds if it doesn’t speak to their values.

Moving forward, marketers must ensure that all content creation is optimised for a positive user experience. We’re talking about anything from site blogging to social platform videos. Taking time to perfect each piece of content you put out will see your engagement swiftly on the rise.

Advantages of optimising your social UX

More brands than ever before are moving into a social space. As new platforms open up new targeting possibilities, the competition for content engagement has never been so fierce.

Before we jump into how to optimise your own social content for UX success, here are a few reasons why it could be the next best step for your business.

• Higher levels of engagement: If you take the time to learn more about your target consumer, the content you create is more likely to be clicked on, especially if it speaks to their values.
• Quick conversions: Optimising your social UX could shorten your sales funnel. Providing your consumers with a streamlined platform purchasing experience could speed up the journey from first impression to checkout.
• Increased chance of virality: Every brand wants to go viral on social media. If your content prioritises user experience, higher levels of engagement are likely to send it to the top of the social feed.
• Soaring site success: If you’re adding shoppable links to your social posts, you’ll see your site click-through rate soar. Providing a quick call to action in an optimised social post is key when aiming to boost your site SEO too.

5 ways to boost user experience on social media

There are a number of quick and easy tweaks you can make to your social strategy for a boost in UX success.

From learning more about your demographic’s values and intentions to starting a conversation with your content, let’s dive into five of our favourite social UX strategies.

1. Start social listening

Did you know that 66% of business leaders attribute their content engagement success to social listening?

Engaging in a social listening strategy, marketers can quickly learn more about a demographic, what their needs are and most importantly, the current content trends circulating within their niche.

Taking time to run polls, start brand-focused conversations and discover what truly matters to your audience can significantly impact the type of content you put out.

Knowing your target consumer inside and out can improve the success rate of your targeted content as you’re more likely to address their preferences and values within a platform post.

Personalisation plays a key role in UX success, so make sure your target audience feels heard when consuming your social content.

2. Get platform specific

On the topic of personalisation, let’s turn our focus towards customised platform design.

In any successful social UX strategy, platform customisation is at the top of the to-do list. From Twitter to TikTok, each social platform serves its own diverse demographic and ranks content according to its own personalised algorithm.

This means that you can’t just release the exact same social post on each platform. Instead, your content should be edited to fit each trending post format on your social platforms of choice.

For example, TikTok favours trend-focused video content, sending 15-30 second clips straight to the top of their For You Page. If you were to post the same piece of content on Linkedin, a platform that favours a formal, text-based approach, you’d see a dip in user engagement.

3. Introduce a shoppable experience

A recent study by Sprout Social revealed that 43% of Gen Z consumers are more likely to purchase a product or service if they don’t have to leave a social platform.

Creating a streamlined user experience is all about shortening that sales cycle. Gen Z and Millennial consumers are constantly looking for digital shortcuts and a fast track to checkout. Introducing a shoppable option to your social content is a great way to cut out the middleman and convert directly on the platform.

Whether you jump onto TikTok Shop and engage in live platform shopping events or simply introduce shoppable Instagram posts to your content feed, you’ll quickly see your conversion rates soaring.

One great example of shoppable success is demonstrated by the clothing company, Barbour.

(Image Source: Barbour)

After introducing shoppable features to their content in 2020, Barbour has since seen an increase in social traffic by over 100% and a sale rate boosted by up to 42%.

Taking time to streamline the social sales funnel, has become a must-have for marketers, especially in a competitive e-commerce landscape.

4. Start a conversation with your content

Social media is a social space. Consumers are there to converse, collaborate and create, as well as browse through ad-based content.

In order to truly capture a user’s attention, your content needs to start a conversation. Your social posts must be sharable, and on-trend and feed into an active audience’s interactive needs.

Boosting your social UX is all about creating an experience that your consumer wants to get involved with. Whether you’re newsjacking a viral story or asking a question with your content, make the user feel as if you want them to respond.

(Image Source: Oreo)

Take this great tweet from Oreo as an example. On the back of a global news story that revealed a bizarre plan to raid America’s Area 51, marketers at Oreo used the viral event to boost their social engagement.

Using Twitter’s active platform to humorously react to the viral news event, they started a conversation with their consumers, in turn feeding their audience’s desire for interactivity.

Introducing fresh ways to boost content engagement is a great way to improve your social UX. Bombarded by hundreds of branded posts every day, social consumers are always looking for something new and exciting to interact with.

5. Prioritise consistency

Last but not least, the key to keeping consumers coming back is consistency. If you want to build a long and loyal connection with your social followers, you must keep showing up on their social feeds.

Users tend to favour an experience with a brand that they know and trust. So if you’re a small startup stuck within a wave of competitors, the path to UX success lies in improving brand awareness.

Setting up a consistent posting schedule across a number of social platforms can boost your chances for content engagement. The more you throw your hat into the ring, the more chance you’ll have of being noticed.

The social UX strategies of tomorrow

Moving forward, the social UX strategies of the future will be highly adaptive and constantly changing.

As we step into a social media-dominated world, the emergence of new social platforms will constantly transform content trends and serve new demographics. In order to stay on top, marketers need to be social listening to stay ahead of the content curve.

If you want to boost your social UX, taking time to get to know your audience and the platforms they engage with will put your brand on top in a competitive e-commerce landscape.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dmytro Spilka .