Mastering Social Commerce: How to Engage Audiences and Grow Sales Through Social Media
- Casey Champney
- Apr 28
- 5 min read
Information for this blog post was obtained from Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Semrush.
Social media has changed the way businesses talk to their customers. Today, brands can share messages, get feedback right away, and let more people know about their products all in one place! Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok use algorithms to help companies show their ads to the right people based on age, location, and interests. They also let brands see what's working and what's not by looking at likes, comments, and shares.
In this blog post, we'll discuss how social media helps businesses get real-time feedback, build brand awareness, and sell more products online. We'll also describe how TikTok can make it even easier for brands to reach new customers.
How real-time feedback and brand awareness are enhanced by social media
Social media advertising allows marketers to deliver content directly to their target market based on interests and demographics. According to Semrush, six advantages of social media advertising are:
Socials help you reach target audiences
Social media platforms make targeting audiences by age, interest, and location easy. In return, your overall consumer engagement by your target audience will increase.
Social ads can be cost-effective
Cost-per-click should be very important to you as a marketer because it tells you the success rate of your content. Since social media has algorithms, social media ensures the right people see your ads.
Socials get real-time feedback
All content posted displays up-to-date feedback based on engagement. Social media makes it easy to test campaigns and change the content quickly.
Social ads enhance brand awareness
Brand awareness is not just recognizing a logo or a tagline. Semrush describes it as the feelings, memories, and associations that come to mind when someone thinks of the brand. Ads on social media allow brands to push brand awareness easily.
Social ads engage through various formats
Social media ads can be formatted like videos, images, or stories to fit your target audience. It is also very easy to experiment with which content your target audience engages with more.
Social ads easily track and create results
Social media platforms have in-depth analytics available, which may be used to create better content for consumers. Each platform has unique analytics, so understanding them is essential for successful marketing.
These are just some advantages social media advertising creates. Advantages 1, 3, and 6 are significant to understand when using social media to sell your products.
How to increase online sales through social media
Social commerce is growing in popularity day by day. Marketers or companies not taking advantage of this opportunity are losing hundreds of customers and, therefore, thousands of dollars. According to Sprout Social, six effective ways to increase online sales through social media are:
Start selling directly on social media platforms
There are a variety of social media apps that have shops built into their platforms. A few platforms that have shops built in are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. These built-in shops make buying products from advertisements extremely easy for consumers, which is very important.
Find your highest-converting social content and make more of it
When your content receives lots of traffic, shares, or engagement, there is a reason it did so well. Therefore, understanding what your consumers enjoy about your content is very important. Making more content similar to your most successful content will continue to drive sales and overall consumer engagement.
Use conversational commerce to nurture buyers on social media
Conversational commerce is very convenient for the consumer and the business as it allows for easy communication. Conversational commerce is a great way to boost sales through social media, but it also is a great way to provide exceptional customer service.
Use social listening to find which topics resonate with your audience
Social listening can be as simple as searching social media platforms to see if people are talking about your brand. Being aware of what people say about your brand on social media is a great way to understand their true feelings about your products.
Leverage employee approval
Having employees share posts and include personal messages about your brand reassures consumers. It is one thing for a brand to make claims, but if others are backing up your claims, consumers will feel even more confident.
Check that you are posting on social media at the right time
Posting content at the right time will increase engagement and conversions. We here at Social Media Marketing University use Buffer to help us schedule our posts to target the correct audience.
TikTok shop
TikTok is one of the most common social media shops and can be very beneficial for marketers. According to Hootsuite, TikTok Shop is a shopping feature accessible directly from the TikTok app. It lets brands and creators display and sell products through videos, live videos, your Shop page, and the platform’s Shop tab.
TikTok is a very popular social media app with millions of daily users. As a marketer, it can be your best friend regarding engagement and sales. Hootsuite says 70% of users discover new brands and products on the platform. As a marketer, you can seamlessly promote your products and drive sales on one app. Therefore, TikTok is an excellent platform for using the six effective ways to increase online sales.
It is easy to start promoting your products on TikTok as these consumers are not interested in boring product descriptions or difficult content. TikTok users are interested in short and sweet messages that occasionally offer some humor. Please don’t wait till it’s too late; let consumers purchase your products from TikTok shop starting today!
Conclusion
Social media provides businesses with many opportunities to grow, connect, and succeed. With real-time feedback, smart advertising, and tools like TikTok Shop, it's easier than ever to reach your target market and boost your brand. When you create valuable and entertaining content targeted toward your audience, you can convert social media followers into loyal customers. Social media increases your brand, leads to more sales, and builds a strong customer base around your product.
Disclaimer: No AI was injured in the production of this content. AI (ChatGPT) was used as a tool to supplement, enhance, and make suggestions in writing this blog post.
References
Lauron, S. (2025, January 9). How to start selling on Tiktok Shop: 5 top tips. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-shopping/
OpenAI. (2025). Chat with ChatGPT about creating an intro and conclusion for a blog post on mastering social commerce. ChatGPT. https://openai.com/chatgpt
Schieren, M. (2025, January 28). 6 effective ways to increase online sales through social media. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/increase-social-media-sales/
Semrush Team. (n.d.). 6 key advantages of social media advertising for brands. Semrush Blog. https://www.semrush.com/blog/advantages-of-social-media-advertising/
Casey, I think you did a great job writing this blog post. I thought you did a great job explaining everything and making it clear and easy to read. This looked like a professional blog post in my opinion. I appreciate how you listed off possible ways with a numbered list. This made it easy to read and understand.
Casey, this post is packed with actionable insights! I especially liked how you highlighted the power of conversational commerce. It’s such an underrated way to build trust and drive conversions 🚀 Have you had any success stories (personally or observed) where employee sharing made a noticeable impact on engagement or sales?