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Marketing & Advertising
Social Media’s Effect on Holiday Sales
December 2, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Ecommerce is playing an increasingly important role in holiday sales. But how much of that growth can be attributed to social media? I asked Hitwise, the competitive intelligence service, how much traffic ecommerce sites received from social media. A spokesman for Hitwise responded vi...
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Marketing & Advertising
Facebook Requests Home Page Status; Effect on Ecommerce Merchants
November 24, 2010 • Paul Chaney
When people log onto the Internet, they tend to go one of three places: Google, their email inboxes or, increasingly, Facebook. Now, Facebook is reportedly positioning itself to become the home page for its users. According to articles in TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal, Facebook...
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Marketing & Advertising
LinkedIn’s New ‘Company Pages’ Showcase Products, Recommendations
November 23, 2010 • Paul Chaney
LinkedIn has released a new version of its company profiles called "Company Pages," which provides a place for businesses to "showcase their products, services and associated recommendations," according to LinkedIn. Heretofore, LinkedIn company profiles served only a research purpose ...
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Conversion
3 Group Coupon Companies for Purely Online Merchants
November 15, 2010 • Paul Chaney
A lot of activity is occurring around the group-coupon-deals space in recent days. Facebook launched "Deals," which, according to Facebook, "local businesses will be able to offer you deals when you check in to their place on Facebook." And there's Groupon Stores, which allow merchants ...
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Marketing & Advertising
8 Steps to Social Media Success
November 9, 2010 • Paul Chaney
"How do I get started?" is a question I often hear regarding social media marketing. In this article, I provide eight steps to help. Think of it as a checklist of must-do items that will put you in the best position to integrate social media into your overall marketing mix and take adva...
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Marketing & Advertising
7 Blog Platforms for 3 Methods of Blogging
November 1, 2010 • Paul Chaney
The last time I compared blog platforms on Practical Ecommerce was in 2005. In "Blog Platforms: Choose One that Fits Your Need," I reviewed four of the most used at that time: Blogger, TypePad, MovableType, and WordPress. While those are still popular, others have since appeared. Over...
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Marketing & Advertising
Tips for an Effective Twitter Profile
October 27, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Twitter can help ecommerce merchants. It provides a conduit to connect with their customers and communicate with prospects. Merchants should be careful, however, when using Twitter to market their products, and I addressed that in "4 Rules for Marketing on Twitter." And seemingly mino...
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Marketing & Advertising
4 Rules for Marketing on Twitter
October 26, 2010 • Paul Chaney
In last week's "5 Timesaving Social Networking Tools," I discussed efficient ways to manage your social media engagement efforts. However, social media is not merely a "tool set" to be used any way we see fit. It is also a mindset. For merchants wanting to use Twitter to market their ...
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Marketing & Advertising
5 Timesaving Social Networking Tools
October 19, 2010 • Paul Chaney
A concern I often hear from those new to social networking is the amount of time it takes to manage engagement activities, such as tweeting or posting status updates to Facebook and LinkedIn. While there's no cost to use these channels, time is valuable and, therefore, the more efficien...
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Marketing & Advertising
The 4-Step Twitter Strategy
October 12, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Twitter is the "Swiss Army knife" of social networking because it is a simple tool that can be used in many ways. Businesses are utilizing Twitter for such things as brand reputation monitoring, product promotion, customer service, and sales. The key to maximizing Twitter's value, how...
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Conversion
‘Deal-of-the-Day’ Coupons Help Merchants Attract Customers; 4 Tips
October 6, 2010 • Paul Chaney
The deal of the day group coupon-buying concept has taken the Internet by storm. Forbes magazine called Groupon, the leading deal-of-the-day site, the "fastest growing company ever." The concept appeals mostly to local brick-and-mortar retailers and large retail brands. But ecommerce ...
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Marketing & Advertising
Social Commerce Expert Cautions Against Spending Heavily
September 29, 2010 • Paul Chaney
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Marketing & Advertising
Email Providers Embrace Social Media: 4 Examples
September 22, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Social media has breathed new life into email marketing. And email provides a "push" element to update social network friends, Fans and followers. Email service providers (ESPs) are leading this renewed vitality and interest with the integration of email with social media. In this art...
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Marketing & Advertising
Selling on Facebook: 4 Common Issues
September 15, 2010 • Paul Chaney
There is a growing integration between social media and ecommerce. And there's a new term for this integration: social commerce. Facebook is the leading social commerce platform. Recently I moderated "500 Million People and Growing: The Facebook Conversation Turns to Commerce," a Prac...
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Marketing & Advertising
Social Media: 4 Steps to an Effective Marketing Strategy
September 14, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Many small businesses are experimenting with social media to market their products. Based on my observations, however, most are doing it in piecemeal fashion, without a coordinated, overall strategy. In this article, I present a practical, four-part social commerce strategy that minim...
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Marketing & Advertising
Social Media Improves Online Trust: 4 Tips
September 7, 2010 • Paul Chaney
"Trust" is likely the most defining factor when it comes to selling products online. Consumers will not purchase products from a merchant that they mistrust. Social media can help overcome a consumer's reluctance to purchase products due to lack of trust. It can foster interaction bet...
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Marketing & Advertising
Four Apps to Create Facebook ‘Welcome’ Pages
August 31, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Thousands of ecommerce businesses have Facebook Fan pages. But making those pages stand out from competitors' pages is a challenge. One of the ways to distinguish yours is through the use of a custom landing page, also known as a Welcome tab. In the past, to create a landing page you ...
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Marketing & Advertising
Facebook ‘Places’ Helps Local Businesses
August 24, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Facebook recently rolled out "Places," a location-based sharing application popularized by such startups as Foursquare and Gowalla. Much has been written about Places, but in this article I'll review the possible business uses for it. When a user arrives at a given location–a physical ...
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Marketing & Advertising
Profile: Retailer Spends Little Money for Big Social Media Impact
August 18, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Editor's Note: For the past few weeks, Paul Chaney, our social media director, has addressed the integration of Facebook with ecommerce. He has reviewed a number of applications, including Wildfire and Fan Appz, both of which provide sweepstakes and coupons. He's also reviewed fully-emb...
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Marketing & Advertising
Social Bookmarking Helps with SEO, Product Sharing
August 11, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Social sharing and bookmarking have taken a back seat to Facebook and Twitter. For most of us, using sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, or Reddit rarely crosses our minds. Yet, these and other such services can provide a number of benefits to your ecommerce site, and here’s why....
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Design & Development
Facebook Encourages Ecommerce; App-Makers Respond
August 4, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Facebook designates Fan pages for businesses to engage users. And to help these businesses, Facebook now provides a series of resource guides for Fan page development and Facebook Ads development. It has also greatly improved the Fan page analytics component (called Insights), and it ha...
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Conversion
Ecommerce News Around the Web for July 30, 2010
July 30, 2010 • Paul Chaney
"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants. Ecommerce SSL is Broken, Says Conference Founder - The Inquirer Black Hat 2010 conference founder Jeff Moss is adamant that commerce's secure soc...
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Marketing & Advertising
Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products
July 20, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Editor's Note: This is the third installment in our series on social commerce, the process of linking ecommerce with social media sites, such as Facebook. In the second installment, we reviewed the Facebook apps of a number of shopping cart providers. These apps extend the Facebook reac...
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Marketing & Advertising
Social Commerce: Shopping Carts Extend Reach Into Facebook, Other Social Sites
June 23, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Editor's Note: This is part two of “Social Commerce Spotlight,” our series on the mix of ecommerce and social media. Part one, "Payvment, a Facebook Storefront Provider," we published previously. With the growth of social commerce, especially on Facebook with its 500 million members, a...
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Conversion
Ecommerce News Around the Web for June 11, 2010
June 11, 2010 • Paul Chaney
"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants. Shop.org and NRF Weigh in on Boucher Privacy Bill - Shop.org Online privacy is a hot topic these days, both among consumers and in Washington. Con...
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Marketing & Advertising
Social Commerce Spotlight: Payvment, a Facebook Storefront Provider
June 8, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Social commerce, the use of social media in the context of ecommerce, is becoming commonplace. Over the next few weeks, Practical Ecommerce will examine ecommerce platforms and applications that allow merchants to take advantage of this new trend. In this installment, we will discuss ...
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Marketing & Advertising
6 Facebook Apps to Enhance Your Company’s Fan Page
May 26, 2010 • Paul Chaney
It was only a few years ago that businesses realized they needed a website. Now, everyone seems to be coming to the same conclusion about Facebook, and the best way for a business to establish a presence there is via a Fan page. We typically think of Facebook Fan pages as being a conv...
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Conversion
Ecommerce News Around the Web for May 21, 2010
May 21, 2010 • Paul Chaney
"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants. Symantec Set to Acquire VeriSign Security Business - Symantec Symantec has apparently signed an agreement to acquire VeriSign’s security busines...
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Marketing & Advertising
Practical eCommerce Extends Presence within Social Media
May 18, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Practical eCommerce recently hired me to help the company build a strong presence inside the social media universe. My initial efforts have been focused on building a solid foundation of participation inside Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Even though we are just getting started (or re...
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Marketing & Advertising
Facebook Limits Fan Pages and Introduces Community Pages
April 20, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Facebook Fan pages are changing. This is due to the Facebook's desire to ensure that only individuals and organizations with official permission to do so create such pages. To replace those Fan pages created by, well, fans, Facebook has now introduced what it is referring to as Communit...