71% More Likely To Purchase Based On Social Media Referrals - By Mike Ewing

Ecommerce companies that invest in inbound marketing will greatly increase their opportunity to grow online sales, lower COCA (cost of customer acquisition), and increase new customer retention. Consumers connect, rate, discuss, and consume product information and reviews like never before, making a strong online presence paramount for all sizes of ecommerce businesses. Ecommerce inbound marketing makes it possible for online stores to take advantage of the emerging social revolution by gravitating consumers to their own brands and products, driving organic and social media traffic and sales, lowering COCA, and increasing the adoption of customer retention along the way. Read more: 

 

The 11 Best Social Media Campaigns Of 2011

If you are still asking "What Is Social Media Marketing"  then please read this post. The following gives you real life examples of the best of the best in Social  Media Marketing Strategy.

Written By Steve Richards 

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There are so many different metrics we can use to judge the success of a social media campaign:  views, sales figures, donations, likes, even mentions, but perhaps the most important is the intangible.
Was it memorable? Did it resonate with the audience? I asked around the office for the team’s favourite social media campaigns of 2011.
Our favourites don’t necessarily represent the campaigns that have had the highest impact, or the biggest budgets spent on them. They were just good, different, or downright odd.
Anyway, here are our favourites. We’d be interested to read yours …

Diesel’s use of QR codes

Fashion chain Diesel combined Facebook and QR codes to join up the offline experience of in store customers with their friends online.
This is just one example of what’s possible with QR codes and a brilliant way of incorporating real world content into the customers’ virtual profiles.

 

Read more about the other 10 Best Campaigns of 2011

You Don’t Have To Like Me On Facebook Anymore - Written By Ryan Dunlap

Consumer brands have been very reliant on the like button as part of the sharing experience on Facebook, but soon they might become less so. A whopping 51 percent of consumers said they are more likely to buy a product after liking the brand on Facebook, according to a new study by marketing firm Constant Contact and research company, Chadwick Martin Bailey.
The study also revealed that 56 percent of consumers said they are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after becoming a fan of it on Facebook. Read More

More Small Businesses Extol the Benefits of Social Media - Written By Mikal E Belicove

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The vast majority of small-business owners are discovering that social media doesn't have to be painful. And as a result, those entrepreneurs who are choosing to take advantage of social channels say they're reaping huge rewards besides being able to commune with customers, according to a new report.
The Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey from email marketing firm Constant Contact, shows that small businesses are wising up to their customers' desire for engagement. And they're responding to that desire by actively "listening" to their clients -- on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and company web sites.Here are three benefits business owners cite from their use of social media:  READ MORE

Business Owners: Are You A Mover Or A Head Shaker?

Anchor Advisors, a Chicago-based small business advisory firm, conducted a study on over a 130 business owners to find out what owners of growing companies and those of struggling companies were doing differently. The respondents consisted of mostly founder-led small businesses with sales from less than $1M to over $10M.
We categorized business owner respondents into two areas: “Movers,” owners of growing companies, and “Head Shakers,” owners of companies with flat or no growth.  READ MORE