Social Media and E - commerce

Over the years, as the world wide web has grown, it has come to encompass many aspects of a users life. While once it was used for nothing more than sending email between friends, making the rare purchase of an exotic, hard to find item, or venturing into a chat room, there are now billions of ways for people to spend their time online, including one of the more recent, but important, considerations for an eCommerce operator – social media.
Digg, Twitter, Facebook, RSS Feeds, Blogs, even YouTube, are just some of the sites people have used to turn what was once a sea of people looking for connections over the internet  into a community. It’s a paradigm shift in the way we view our social connections, which are no longer limited by geography, time zones, long distance phone costs, or even simultaneous interaction. This is a realm every eCommerce website owner should take some time to understand because, at its heart, it is the feeling you’ve been trying to cultivate – the trusted neighborhood businessperson who’s open 24/7. Making yourself a part of the communities customers already participate in can help with that. Doing so may include incorporating viral marketing, more hits, and occasionally conversions from demographics you may not have even considered. But be careful. Every strategy has its risks, and the last thing you want is for the community to turn on you.