I recently had the chance to give a very short talk on social media in eCommerce. Very high level, nothing too specific as that would have required TONS of time. Showed some good examples of eCommerce companies sort of getting things right. Overview: Choosing which of the hundreds of social media platforms and tools to use as part of your eCommerce marketing strategy is very difficult.

1. eCommerce & Social Media Platforms Which is right for my brand / market? Matthew Bertulli Co-Founder & President @mbertulli

2. Agenda That’s a lot of social! Choice is both very awesome, and very not-awesome. Understanding terminology. The Big Idea My Rules & Guidelines The Big Two (Facebook + Twitter) Noise Case Studies (Good Examples)

3. Yikes! That’s a lot of social! Which of these is the right fit for your business?

4. Understanding Social

5. The Big Idea Social Media is customer service. Choosing the right social media platform / tools is about getting better at customer service. “If you are talking about customer service, you aren’t doing it.” – Blake Nordstrom

7. My Rules & Guidelines The current form of social media is too new for there to be any experts. Just because I’m up here speaking doesn’t make me an expert in your business and how it can work with social. Social Media Marketing is like all eCommerce marketing. It’s about iteration, testing different strategies and scaling those strategies that work. Social Media stinks if you are a “megaphone” marketer. It’s tough out there for eCommerce merchants. You guys actually sell something! Facebook isn’t great if you are B2B play. It’s not horrible, but the general rule is that this isn’t where you want to be. Twitter is pretty good as a communication tool for any business. Twitter is a customer service nightmare. Monitoring is a pain and can be very expensive. LinkedIn – Anybody using this effectively?

8. Which is better for your store(s)?

9. Product Reviews & Ratings This was the first really good application of social in eCommerce. Many stores still don’t allow reviews. Lowest hanging social fruit. ASPDNSF has this out of the box people. B2B Folks – What the heck is the problem!?! To moderate or not to moderate?

10. The Big Two Facebook has largely been about connections you already have. It removes friction. Twitter has largely been about finding new connections.

11. Noise Choosing the right platform is most likely not what you are going to have to think about. It’s about choosing which platform to use for which message. You can blog as often as you want. Daily is best. Weekly is ok. Monthly blogs tend to be forgotten. You can also tweet as often as you like, but people “unfollow” pretty easily. If you use Facebook pages, update them as often as you can. Think about having blog posts auto-feed into Facebook. Be VERY wary about feeding twitter posts into Facebook.

13. They don’t use Facebook as a megaphone.

16. Case #4 – On-Site Social Social Media & eCommerce works when you remove friction!

17. Case #5 – Twitter Coupons?

18. Case #6 - Social Shopping

19. Facebook Commerce There is no question. You need to get social. The only question is where to start.

20. Twitter – B2B Yes, it’s this simple: Great for B2B brand building. Not a great B2B sales tool. Great for B2B customer service quick response. Not great for complicated product discussion.

21. Twitter – B2C Be Careful!! B2C stores can have large customer bases that can quickly become unruly. Almost always ends up being a full time (or large-time-usage) position within your organization. Customers love to complain. “I want to love you, but right now it is not possible.” – Marten Mickos

22. When you do choose, what’s next? Don’t use your company logo as an avatar. Use a picture of yourself (pretty sure we aren’t all cartoons). Re-tweeting someone else’s praise about your store comes off the same way it does in a real conversation. Douche-y. Promote others more than you promote yourself. Disclosure is key. Don’t hide the fact that you work for www.storename.com

23. Tooling – My favorites AspDotNetStorefront – Duh? If you’re going to blog, use a platform that makes content syndication stupid easy (think Wordpress, Blogger). Disqus Comment System is AMAZING! Ping.fm – Multi platform broadcasting made easy. Social Media Measurement Tools Radian6, UberVu, Trackur & 200 others. Google Analytics URL Builder URL Shortneres

24. Conclusion There are no experts. There is no shortage of choice. Test and figure out what works for you. Q&A