How To Build Social Media into Your eCommerce Website

WHY INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA MAKES SENSE

If you’ve spent any amount of time on Facebook you will ultimately see someone mention a product or service. It might be the latest offering from Apple, the movie coming out this week, or the restaurant that they just visited. The point is these conversations are already happening.

“Social networkers” spend less time viewing traditional media and have more discretionary income and a greater penchant for online shopping than non-social networking site users. Consumers are increasingly wanting to share the purchases and things that they buy with their social circle. (Nelson, 2006).

According to a recent Nielsen survey, social media networks not only claim more users than e-mail but are growing at a faster rate (31 percent for social media versus 21 percent for email) in markets such as the US, Australia, Europe and Brazil. The impact of these social customers can be assessed by the rule of thumb that says while only 10 percent of social media users regularly post, their content reaches 90-95 percent of lurkers.

THE REAL VALUE

The real value in Facebook and other social networks is in their exponentially powerful word of mouth marketing. Where marketing was once an expensive game of cat and mouse that required an investment in costly ad space or air time in an effort to hopefully have your message seen by your audience when they were ready to buy, social networking uses the power of peer recommendations to spread the message to a much more captive and engaged audience.

New research indicates that more than 75% of consumers trust peer recommendations of products and services, while less than 15% trust paid advertising. The opportunity to tap into this trusted form of communication to market your e-commerce business is huge, so it’s important to think beyond your immediate network and find creative ways to encourage fans to spread the message about your business.

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