Social Media
Our social media marketing coverage addresses management tools, educational courses, platform tips, social analytics, and strategies for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more. We’ve interviewed merchants who rely on social media traffic, and vendors who provide specialized services.
-
Social Media
4 Ways to Create Social Media Images, for Ecommerce
September 24, 2014 • Samantha Collier
The use of quality images can be the difference between 50 or 500 social media followers. From Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest to Tumblr, the emphasis is now on imagery.
-
Social Media
Pinterest: New Analytics Tracks Ecommerce Engagement, Traffic
September 23, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Pinterest recently launched a new version of its analytics tool. It can help ecommerce merchants connect with their customers and prospects, on and off Pinterest. You must have a business account ...
-
Social Media
6 Ways to Optimize Pinterest for Guided Search
September 17, 2014 • Paul Chaney
In April, Pinterest introduced Guided Search to its mobile app and brought it to desktop users in June. Guided Search is designed to present a variety of options for users to ...
-
Social Media
13 Emerging Social Networks to Watch
September 11, 2014 • Sig Ueland
Up-and-coming social networks can be good places to establish your brand, run an experimental campaign with highly-engaged users, and develop a following before a network reaches mass adoption. Emerging social ...
-
Social Media
Facebook Business Manager Helps with Pages, Ads, Admins
September 9, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Facebook released Business Manager earlier this year. It is the social network’s newest tool to help business owners manage their presence on Facebook. Primarily designed for large companies and advertising agencies that ...
-
Social Media
Twitter’s Tailored Audiences Improve Ad Performance
September 3, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Twitter has developed a way to make its ads more useful by displaying promoted content from advertisers to users who have shown interest. The new feature, called tailored audiences, enables merchants ...
-
Social Media
4 Alternative Social Sites for Ecommerce Merchants
August 29, 2014 • Samantha Collier
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the social media sites most used by ecommerce merchants. Google+ and Pinterest are quickly gaining ground. However, these are not the only social platforms that ...
-
Social Media
How to Install Twitter Buttons, Widgets on Your Website
August 27, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Twitter for Websites is a suite of embeddable buttons and widgets that facilitate sharing a site’s content on Twitter, adding a layer of interactivity to websites that might not otherwise ...
-
Social Media
Using Pinterest to Distribute Instructional Content
August 21, 2014 • Armando Roggio
Pinterest may be an excellent option for publishing instructional (how-to) content aimed at building relationships with customers and, ultimately, encouraging sales. To understand why Pinterest may be a good way to ...
-
Social Media
Facebook Bans Like-gating; How to Overcome
August 20, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Facebook just announced a platform policy change that states it will no longer allow, as of November 5, “like-gating,” the longtime practice of enticing users to like a page by ...
-
Social Media
Twitter Lists: How to Create, Use, and Manage
August 13, 2014 • Paul Chaney
One aspect of Twitter that often gets overlooked is Lists, which is a curated group of Twitter users organized into lists based on interests. Lists can consist of customers, competitors, industry ...
-
Social Media
10 Top Retailers on Facebook, for Ecommerce Inspiration
August 10, 2014 • Sig Ueland
Develop your own Facebook strategy by observing the success of other retailers. Stylophane, a digital marketing agency, provides a free Social Index that tracks the growth and activity of more ...
-
Social Media
12 Ways Twitter Can Grow Your Ecommerce Business
August 6, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Twitter has been in existence since 2006 and has roughly 240 million monthly active users. Even so, many online businesses fail to make effective use of this popular platform as ...
-
Social Media
Google My Business: What You Need to Know
July 31, 2014 • Kunle Campbell
On June 11, Google Places became Google My Business. More than an exercise in rebranding, the name change heralded several important changes. Google+ integration has been improved. Google My Business (GMB) has been integrated with Google+ Local, the business listing that used to appear for local businesses in Google+.
-
Social Media
Instagram vs. Vine: Which Is Better for Ecommerce?
July 29, 2014 • Samantha Collier
Instagram added video to its app in the summer of 2013. This feature came just five months after the launch of Vine, the video-sharing app. Both apps allow the creation ...
-
Social Media
Twitter Revamps Analytics to Include Organic Posts
July 29, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Social media, like any other marketing channel, has to prove itself as a customer acquisition, retention, and sales tool. Analytics is one way to make the case for whether it ...
-
Social Media
Facebook’s New ‘Buy’ Button: Pros, Cons for Merchants
July 22, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Facebook announced last week that it is testing a new feature with select smaller businesses that would allow users to purchase products directly from those businesses without leaving Facebook. Companies included ...
-
Social Media
Pinterest: 5 Big-brand Tactics for Smaller Ecommerce Merchants
July 17, 2014 • Stacey Herbert
With 26,877 Pinterest followers, Brisbane-based fashion brand Black Milk is clearly doing something right. This article reviews five elements of Black Milk’s Pinterest strategy that could be applicable to smaller ecommerce ...
-
Social Media
9 Ecommerce Businesses Using Instagram for Sales
July 16, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Instagram has become a popular destination for retailers to post product photos in hopes of selling their wares. Perhaps the bazaar-like feel or focus on discovery explains its appeal, but ...
-
Social Media
10 Instagram Tools and Apps for Ecommerce
July 9, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Hundreds of third-party tools and apps enable Instagram engagement. They include the ability to track analytics, promote products, and even transact sales directly through the platform. Here’s a list of ten ...
-
Social Media
6 Reasons to Use Instagram for Ecommerce
July 2, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Online retailers use many photos and videos on their websites. With its focus on imagery, Instagram is a place where merchants can showcase their products, build their brands, and increase ...
-
Social Media
Reddit for Ecommerce Marketers: Dos and Don’ts
June 30, 2014 • Samantha Collier
Reddit is a thriving social community based around sharing content. With more than 113 million monthly unique users, you may think this would be the perfect place for ecommerce marketers.
-
Social Media
Facebook’s New ‘Ad Preferences’ Could Help Users, Advertisers
June 26, 2014 • Paul Chaney
In June, Facebook announced the launch of a new feature that allows users to exert more control over the ads they see. Called “ad preferences,” it is a tool accessible ...
-
Social Media
6 New Ways to Use Pinterest in your Ecommerce Business
June 24, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Pinterest helps people find inspiration, pursue their interests, and discover things they may not know about. According to Pinterest, user interests fall into five categories. Passion. Such as music, photography or sports. Profession.
-
Social Media
Pinterest: How to Create Images that Convert, for Ecommerce
June 19, 2014 • Stacey Herbert
Pinterest can drive meaningful traffic to ecommerce sites. That is especially true when merchants use compelling photos. This article will share best practices for creating Pinterest images that drive traffic ...
-
Social Media
Google Places Is Now ‘Google My Business’
June 17, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Google Places, which contained information Google used when listing a local business in search returns, has been renamed Google My Business. There is more to the switch than merely rebranding ...
-
Social Media
How to Use Hashtags on Social Media Posts
June 10, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Hashtag use on social networks is common. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, and others all permit hashtags. Hashtags categorize content of social media posts, and thus facilitate conversations and engagement. For ...
-
Social Media
4 Examples of Hashtags in Social Commerce
June 4, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Hashtags are a staple among social media users as a mechanism for promotion and, more recently, payment. Hashtags help to build communities around specific topics. They also serve as trackable referral ...
-
Social Media
How Social Media Benefits SEO
May 30, 2014 • Jill Kocher Brown
Ten years ago, search engine optimization was fairly straightforward: Make sure the search engines can crawl your site, use the right keywords, and get lots of links. As the engines ...
-
Social Media
Facebook Introduces 3 New Advertising Features
May 29, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Facebook continually makes changes to its advertising platform. Typically, this is little more than user interface modifications in Ads Manager. But on occasion the changes are more noteworthy. Three recent ...