Special Resource Section: 10 Best Practices for Choosing the Right E-Commerce Platform Provider

4. Find a provider that knows how to exploit social media. With more than 600 million active Facebook users and almost 200 million Twitter subscribers, social networking is no longer a fad. If you're not actively using these sites to market your brand and products, you're missing out on enormous opportunities. In addition to the fact that these sites are likely where your customers and prospects are to begin with, social networking sites are increasingly acting as points of entry to e-commerce sites and vice versa. More and more online retailers are building loyalty, rating and referral systems tied to social media. Make sure the provider you're considering can help you interact with social networking sites — e.g., how to use social media to engage in immediate and meaningful interactions with consumers; how to use Twitter and Facebook to offer discounts and promotions; how to integrate one-click access to Facebook and Twitter from your own website.