Social Media Marketing

Social commerce has been bubbling up in all corners of the retail landscape, so it's not surprising that brick-and-mortar stores and their e-tailing counterparts are scrambling to grab as many Facebook "likes," tweets and YouTube haul videos as they possible can. They might still be missing a huge opportunity to ring up even more sales.

With the rapid emergence of visual social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, brands and consumers have drastically changed the way they interact online. Conversations that were previously held with text are now driven by images, creating valuable opportunities for social media marketers to engage with their fans.

The annual back-to-college marketing blitz will be kicked off on Monday by Target with a reality-themed digital campaign that lets online shoppers interact with YouTube personalities who are spending four days in dorm rooms filled with Target merchandise. It's Target's idea for something original this year to capture the rising amount of money parents and students are spending as they head off to college. 

Competing with an e-commerce Goliath like Amazon.com can be a daunting task, but specialty merchants have some distinct advantages, including the capacity to forge strong ties with shoppers through a brand community. Amazon's online warehouse of products offers little to unite customers around a common lifestyle or passion. By focusing on a particular product category, value proposition or audience, you can provide meaningful interaction and a shopping experience to connect your customers with other like-minded consumers.

Brandi Tysinger-Temple, founder and chief executive at Lolly Wolly Doodle, tells Betty Liu how her business grew from fluke sales on eBay to securing venture capital and building its own online sales business. She speaks on Bloomberg Television's "In The Loop."

In the increasingly competitive e-commerce industry, there's more pressure than ever to stand apart from the crowd and stay top of mind for consumers. With retail giants like Amazon.com and Alibaba.com continuing to scale and dominate on price, convenience and selection, the need to retain core customers is essential. Many retailers struggle with how to remain economically relevant and connected to their most influential customers.

In part two of this two-part podcast, Jeff Korhan, author of "Built.in Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business," discusses which social platforms are right for small businesses and offers insight on why personalization is key to your marketing strategy.

In the race for compelling and relevant content, online retailers usually fail to see just how much quality user-generated content (UGC) is created by their existing social fans. The online retailers that are able to collect and display their best photos, videos and testimonials are tapping into an effective content pool that has limitless inventory and drives an increase in conversions because of its authentic, engaging nature.

In comparing Laura Ashley's social networking activity, it is easy to see that Facebook generates a lot more interest than Twitter and Pinterest, put together. But what posts appeal to their fans the most?

Social media is lagging as a traffic source to e-commerce websites and as a driver of online purchases, despite increased brand investment, according to a recent report by Monetate. The Ecommerce Quarterly report, which analyzed a random sample of more than 500 million online shopping experiences in the first quarter of this year, found that social media represented just 1.55 percent of all e-commerce traffic to top sites, far behind search (31.43 percent) and trailing email (2.82 percent). Moreover, social media platforms overall had a conversion rate of less than three-quarters of 1 percent (.71 percent), though this number varied by network.