From Adweek · Justin Chin · · 1m 40s
Social commerce playbook for the AI era
Brands must rethink how they reach consumers across social media, AI platforms, and creators as the purchase journey becomes nonlinear.
In brief
Brands must rethink how they reach consumers across social media, AI platforms, and creators as the purchase journey becomes nonlinear. Success in social commerce now requires coordinating performance media, creator partnerships, and AI-discoverable content across multiple touchpoints instead of treating social as a…
Social commerce is changing fast
Brands still reach consumers on social media, but how they use it throughout the purchase journey is shifting. Companies must adapt their strategies to stay competitive.
Turn creators into demand engines
Iced Media partnered mega creator Mikayla Nogueira to launch Rael's microneedling serum on TikTok. Her endorsement sparked organic creator buzz that turned the platform into a demand engine for the Korean beauty brand.
“It's about these connected systems where you're combining performance media, social commerce, and then thinking about generative engine optimization.”
Think omnichannel, not single channel
Brands should use TikTok to drive awareness across all channels, not just as a standalone sales platform. This connected approach combines performance media, social commerce, and creator partnerships for bigger impact.
“The best thing that we did was look at TikTok as a way to drive awareness to fuel omnichannel growth instead of as a single channel.”
Purchase journeys are no longer linear
Consumers discover products on social media, then research on AI platforms, or vice versa. Brands must create enough content to reach shoppers at every stage and ensure it's discoverable by both algorithms and humans.
“The purchase journey is not linear.”
Give creators freedom to experiment
Boost Engine worked with Bissell to let creators explore different content formats beyond tired before-and-after shots. This approach helped the home-cleaning brand stand out in a crowded category.
“For creators, if you really want to activate them and drive growth, having this mindset of exploring content in different formats and finding the winning format for your brand will be crucial to success.”
Build an army of affiliate creators
Work with thousands of creators at once using scalable systems. Treat them with respect, share your paid media strategy and product assortment, and help them find winning content formats for your brand.
Here's the gist
Success in social commerce now requires coordinating performance media, creator partnerships, and AI-discoverable content across multiple touchpoints instead of treating social as a single channel.
