In world of e-commerce the need for ability to spread your brand, company’s name and/or its products and/or services by any method to increase exposure to a potential new customer has become paramount. The use of social media to promote and advertise your product and/or service should be one of the tools of a coordinated public relations, marketing, and advertising campaign strategy. The use of social media to get traffic at your website can not be overlooked. That fact that your company can have something go viral on social media for just a little time invested and a few cleaver ideas, sometimes with very little money or time spent is a boon.
The use of social media for e-commerce marketing does not come without its detractors. Some pundits think that social media might not work for their e-commerce venture. In some cases they are right, many B2B types of e-commerce ventures are just suppliers and/or sources of raw materials and/or labor for other companies. These types of companies many times use much more conventional contact and sales methods that just do not lend themselves to social media exploitation.
For the types of companies that are part of B2C and P2P sectors of the e-commerce, social media can create new avenues of product endorsement, promotion, introduction, comparison, and advertising. A very few short years ago before the advent of social media, different media methods and/or product promotion ideas may have been used. With the correct use of social media websites an ad campaign can exist on social media alone at very little cost.
For many larger companies that do e-commerce the use of social media can be one part of an over all media blitz. The ability for augmentation and interaction to peak interest on a personal level that social media can have to boost traffic to your website cannot be understated. Even for large companies that sell mass market goods and/or services a social media campaign can reap big dividends.
The use of social media can be a positive for many businesses. However like many aspects marketing, advertising, customer relations, and customer service each company must find its own way of doing things. What works for one type of company may not for another. The ability to make your efforts in social media work for your business takes the same efforts any other form of media exposure requires. Innovative ideas and concepts, the ability to make them real and tangible, and the resources to execute them into a media concept that works are still part of the equation.
I do believe the use of social media to drive e-commerce will become more important in the future. With more and more persons becoming part of the social media craze, its overall impact will grow quickly in the next few years. Any company that relies on e-commerce should have some sort of presence in social media. The costs are low and rewards that can come from it can be great. It is apparent that social media marketing is a very specialized form, one that comes with its own do’s and do not’s. It is a field that will most likely create more of its own new methods of communications’ like it already has, just like many of the web-based innovations that were new a few years ago and are considered standards today.
Resource Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_commerce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_optimization
http://blog.hubspot.com/ecommerce/what-social-networks-work-best-for-ecommerce
http://socialnetworking.procon.org/
http://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/2014/03/25/social-media-vs-traditional-media-one-business/
http://www.salehoo.com/education/selling-on-your-own-website/4-ways-to-advertise-your-store
http://www.examiner.com/article/new-study-on-social-media-marketing-at-the-movies
http://www.examiner.com/article/a1-uses-facebook-to-break-up-with-steak
http://www.onbile.com/info/social-media-strategiesfor-e-commerce/
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ridiculous-arguments-against-social-media-list
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