Websites thrive due to the traffic they receive online, and the biggest challenges for all ecommerce businesses is to find new and innovative ways to drive more and more traffic to their sites. Online marketing endeavors and web publishers use various ways to accomplish this, not all of which may be successful. The idea is to use networks that are growing and have a large membership already. This is where social media comes in. Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter already have millions of members and the numbers are increasing every day. But they are still not being used by businesses to promote what they sell, and only a small section of businesses are exploiting the social media as a promotion tool.

Using Social Media because search engine traffic is not guaranteed

Social media needs to be incorporated into online marketing strategies adopted by businesses for the simple reason that it can spread the name, fame and brand in a short period of time to thousands of potential customers worldwide. It differs from search engines which keep changing their algorithms which in turn influence the search results, and many sites lose their rankings. For instance, the recent inclusion of the Farmer algorithm by Google impacted the ranking of many websites. This translates into loss of potential business and traffic, which websites cannot afford. Hence banking on search engines alone is not the best strategy and alternative sources of traffic have to be incorporated. Social media is one such lucrative source, and if websites can use the right approach, the name of their business will spread virally.

Exposure to a larger audience – current and prospective members with recurring benefits

Social media networks are more popular than most other sites and the average time spent on these sites is worth noticing. Such sites are showing better growth and increasingly people are suing these sites for searching for new links for products and services, since recommended sites on social media are preferred to search engines. Thus a business can cash in on current memberships, potential members and those using social media to search for links.  Additionally, social media links and connections are no a one-time episode, and people keep returning, thus establishing a continuous connection. Members follow businesses and updates on Twitter, and join as fans on Facbook. Businesses in turn, can take advantage of members by staying in touch, sending updates and keeping their presence alive in public memory.

Social media provides references which add credibility

Every search places thousands of results at the user’s disposal, and selecting the best one is bound to be time consuming. Most times, the top few results are randomly selected, and very often, the sites are disappointing and not offering what the person is looking for. This has led many people to look for known sites, known material and save time-this is where referrals come in. getting a reference through social media, helps people get exactly what they want. Such connections click sooner and are remembered for future use as well.

Social media comes free of charge

While search engines post advertisements and use pay per click and Google Adwords to promote businesses, all of which come for a price, social media allows free interaction and communication between business websites and members. Such free marketing initiatives must be used to the fullest especially when they have the potential of reaching millions of people across the globe.

This is a Guest post by Neil Jones, who Specializes in launching ecommerce sites, he is currently plying his trade as head of marketing for eMobileScan. With 18 websites based all around Europe they are on course to be one of Europe’s largest online retailers of barcode scanners and Industrial handheld computers like the  Motorola MC75. Neil has been an online marketer for the past 6 years and in that time he has owned and run a range of sites all built around the ecommerce platform