Once thought to be a passing fad, and although still relatively new, social media is now taking a firm hold and warrants attention in many retailers’ online marketing efforts.Social Media can be time consuming, but when implemented correctly can add a level to your business that helps build brand loyalty, and awareness which in turn can boost your bottom line.Social media uses Internet and web based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues one to many into social media dialogues many to many. It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.In other words, it is a group of Internet based applications that utilize new web concepts to promote user generated content.Examples of some of the major social applications currently online are Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Twitter can be seen as a micro blog type service that enables you to post short messages of up to 140 characters that are fed in real time to your followers. The power and uniqueness of each provides pros and cons. Because Facebook has a little more of a learning curve to it and because it has a number of options to choose from, I will briefly touch upon that below.They are sharing your URL with their friends on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or MySpace.If you want to engage in social media marketing, you will want to be sure to have that presence reflected on your ecommerce site.There are dozens of sites you can visit that will provide embeddable code which can be used to create social networking icons on your site. These icons make it easy for visitors to share what they like about your site with their social media friends and followers.Both require site registration and a little publisher information, but both are also easy to use and do basically the same thing.

If you are on several social networking sites, it behooves you to display that affiliation somewhere on your site. For the consummate online shopper, these links show you are not just an ecommerce beginner. The more social media sites you are a part of, the more web knowledgeable you look and the greater brand awareness you can build.Customer wants to see how much of your intellectual property will be made available without charges. The customer wants to find out you are a giver. One of their love languages is gift sharing.

Most have concentrated mainly on mainstream traditional media. A giver without string attached always takes the show. Social media, content marketing requires a lot of commitment. It takes time before social media and content marketing make huge impact. Any brand that can show high level of commitment in social media will always carry the day.