SEO Freelancer

Social marketing guide for internet shops

Social marketing for internet shops or e-shops now is on the top. Definitely, social activity is a trend for online shops, but nobody knows what is good or bad, what will work or not.

In my recent interview with some big SEO company their boss asked me: - what you will do if, for example, in some abstract internet shop their marketing dep says we are going to change soon notebook x1 for a latest notebook x2 of the same brand. The question is - what you will do to prepare customers buying activity for that change?

There are tons of questions for an e-shops with a large product line with +10.000 items and more. That is THE question. What you should use - smart linkbuilding, paid online ads, smart targeting for audience, social energy, everything at once, what?

From this point I would like to understand - what tools and mechanics we have to participate in order to increase sales volume.

For now we have next social tools:

• - forum
• - blog
• - twitter
• - addthis bookmarking service
• - comments everywhere
• - ratings
• - RSS

Forum

Forum is old ) linear structure which needs a lot of time to be alived to start working. In my practice - 1 year at least.

+ Open source forum engines are everywhere
- Difficult to make it 'living'

Blog

Blog should be written by specialists and needs a minimum literature skills. Please, ask your client how many ones in staf can really write correctly or have copywriting skills at least. And remember - we are not of copypasting anymore.

+ Again. Fast installation. Good idea, open source (Word Press), but you need a writers and the time to spend
- Writing posts need a time of your specialists

Twitter

Twitter is still a new beast, and some CEO's can't get why we need it. Microblogging is good, but, once again, you need a copywriter to create PR-pointed news, releases, actions, etc. Can you twitter yourself - great!

+ Fast delivering. Can be your #1 tool for for everything: news delivering, customers opinions, mobile shooting
- You need programming, design skills, modern way of thinking

Addthis

Very easy smart solution for every e-shop. Just add a line of JS code and you are in business. Really, very recommended.

+ Fast implementation. A very little need of programming skills
- Design, UI questions

Comments

Oh! Baby, thats it! Comments of separate product, brand is #1 TOP tool. Owning comments (even with negative commentaries of your competitors) you can create a base of your products 'real view'. And don't forget to collect e-mails of your clients.

+ Very recommended. The base of your future development and progress
- Needs programming, efforts to keep it, admin efforts (spam)

Ratings

Ratings ('Please, value this product') are mega tool! Just install with support of your programmer something like jQuery-based rating system and you will be happy to know what is your products like.

+ Very recommented. Ability to know what is your customers love. Can push up sales very effetively
- Needs a programmer

RSS

Sweet old technique to deliver a news, releases, actions, wholesales, pricelists, PR-actions, etc.

+ Fast way to group your customers on brands. Can distribute your pricelist. Enourmously useful!
- You need a programmer

Conclusion

When you start your online business or you have a client with such idea, please, describe all these opportunities. I think all recent CMS's should be equiped with all these functions, without any special add-ons or plugins. Social activity nowadays is your success.

Everything described above I brought to you as thoughts for discussion. Any real experience is welcome.