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Social media and e-mail, for all of their popularity, can only offer so much reach to potential customers. You can have the perfect sale at the perfect time using the most pristine analytics possible but lose conversion because your message got lost along the way.

How can you be sure your message will get in front of as many eyes as possible?

1. Consider using some of the most popular retweetable and repeatable words on Twitter and Facebook.
2. Avoid words that will land your message in a customer’s spam filter

The 20 Most ReTweetable Words & Phrases (according to DanZarrella.com) are:

According to spam filter experts, there are at least* 55 words or phrases you want to avoid in your e-mails include:

You may obviously need to use some of the words above in your next e-mail, however, be sure to use the word(s) sparingly and never put a word like Free or Now in all capital letters. Increased frequency or repeated use of these words can highly increase your chances of an email landing in the spam folder.

Many third party email systems like Constant Contact, iContact, and AWeber automatically pre-check your email for you against a spam database and then give it a “spam rating”. The rating is supposed to help you gauge how your email stacks up against other spam and thus provide an idea of whether it will be caught in spam filters or not. I highly recommend one of these types of services if you are not already utilizing a third party system.

*This list was adapted from http://www.marketingforsuccess.com/wordstoavoid.html. For a list of 250 words and phrases to avoid, take a look at Words and Phrases that Trigger Some Spam Filters at http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm

Best Offers: 20 Ways to Increase Sales Using Zen Cart Free ebook revealing proven ecommerce strategies that always increase sales.

With all of the information available about how to make your site appear at the top of a search engine results page, one could assume that as an e-commerce site, you’re pulling out all of the stops to make that happen.

What if you’re doing everything and you’re still not on top? Consider what you’re doing with your social media campaigns.

By now, you should know that the two biggest things you can do with your site to help optimize your site are:

• Make sure you are using the correct keywords and phrases.
• Make sure you are linking to your current content.

Linking to your current content is the perfect entry point for social media.

Consider the upcoming holiday season.

Let’s assume you’re on Twitter and Facebook. Are you posting at least a few times a week to invite people to your site to check out your products or services? Are you online asking questions of your readers or followers? Are you asking them to take action?

Consider hosting holiday specials on your site. Use your Facebook fans and Twitter followers to get the word out about the specials and any contests you may have coming up.

The more you entice potential customers to come to your site, the more inbound traffic you’ll receive. This, in turn, results in higher search engine rank.

I’ve mentioned 1800-Flowers.com before as a best practices site, but other sites that have grabbed the social media ball and have run with it include Lands’ End, Ulta (cosmetics), and Old Navy.

With a simple flick of the wrist and a few key strokes, these brands are reaching out to customers as one of the most pivotal times of the buying year.

Shouldn’t you be doing the same?

Best Offers: 20 Ways to Increase Sales Using Zen Cart Free ebook revealing proven ecommerce strategies that always increase sales.

We’re going to revisit 1-800-FLOWERS.com’s Facebook example to further illustrate how the e-commerce site has integrated Facebook and other social media sites to communicate with its past, present and (hopefully) future customers.

You can see from their Facebook Wall Page that 1-800-FLOWERS.com includes both its website URL as well as its Twitter address right at the top of the page. This is a great idea if you fans or visitors that use both Facebook and Twitter. It also shows that you’re not just limited to one form of social media communication.

1800 Flowers Facebook Wall Page

Notice the top wall post on this screen shot. The article link with supporting text is a great way highlight an exciting sale or promotion taking place on the actual site. Social media users will not stand for e-commerce sites only pushing sales down their throat. If you want to secure a sale, try throwing a dose of human spirit into your posts and not a repetetive “Buy my product now!”. Take a second to also notice how the site didn’t leave its Fan’s “Hey Everyone” post on its own. They’re showing some care and human interaction by responding back even if that’s the only response.

1-800-FLOWERS.com is good to include its Twitter address on its Facebook page and does a great job of interacting with customers on its Twitter page.

1800 Flowers Twitter Page

Again, human interaction is key here. The folks at 1-800-FLOWERS are right on with their fun and appreciative twitter responses. There are very useful Twitter tools available that allow you to keep track of when your Twitter name is being used or written about which is a great way to interact. Imagine what those consumers feel like when they see that their post was heard by the folks at the site they purchased from. You’re almost as good as sold for their next purchase.

Another best practice worth pointing out here is that not every Tweet needs to fill all 140 characters. Notice how some Tweets are as simple as “That’s Fab! Spread the Word Please ” while some include a condolence and thank you for purchasing from the site. A great way to keep your consumers engaged with you and your site can be seen near the top, where a giveaway winner was highlighted and others were instructed to stay tuned for more at a future time.

1-800-FLOWERS.com does a good job of pulling its social media all together by including a link to its Facebook Fan Page right on the front of the site.

1800 Flowers Home Page

While not every e-commerce consumer uses these social media tools, those that do will appreciate the social media savvy.

While 1-800-FLOWERS.com does a good job of integrating its social media, there are two things I noticed about their social media use that I would add or change:

1. Include a link to Twitter on the home page. Avid social media users will appreciate that they can find the site on multiple platforms.
2. Take down the link to the blog our update it with a current link. The blog link found on the Facebook Information leads to a dead blog that appears to no longer be in service.

Have you found examples of good e-commerce social media integration? Be sure to share them in the comments below.

Best Offers: 20 Ways to Increase Sales Using Zen Cart Free ebook revealing proven ecommerce strategies that always increase sales.

In case you haven’t heard yet (although that’s hard to believe), this past Friday Facebook launched vanity URLs to their subscribers.

What does this mean for you?

Well, much like Twitter does already by allowing you to direct followers to a url that looks something like this http://www.twitter.com/VoomVentures so too does Facebook now.

If you have a Facebook profile you can now set a username for that profile and turn your previously long numbered link into a shorter more meaningful one. So what used to be http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1234567890 now might look like this http://www.facebook.com/YourNameHere.

If you have created a Facebook Page then you may have to wait for a vanity url. Currently, Facebook is only allowing Pages to select a vanity url if they have over 1000 fans as of May 31, 2009. Word has it that restriction will be lifted near the end of July 2009 and Facebook will enable anyone with a Page to reserve vanity url.

Statistics show that during the first 3 minutes after launch the site had already reserved over 200,000 names and after 15 more minutes went over the 500,000 mark. After one hour it went over the 1,000,000 mark and that continues to climb.

In short, if you haven’t reserved your url yet you might want to do it (providing the one you want isn’t already taken now). You can reserve your Facebook username here.

Facebook surpassed MySpace as the largest social network last year sometime and continues to explode. Now with yet one more previously missing link added (the ability for Facebook users to choose a unique vanity url) they look poised to stay on top for a while and have now put a stranglehold on Twitter. Both could be considered a form of micro-blogging with Facebook offering a large variety more of “social applications”.

So if you have a store and associated Facebook profile or Page you should consider reserving a username of your choosing before it’s too late. It would be a shame to have marketed your business and developed a name for yourself only to have another person come in and lay claim to a domain with your company name in it.

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Whether or not you’re on social media platforms or not, odds are you’re customers are. They’re 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’ll want to be sure to have a social media presence on your e-commerce site.

Social Media Sharing
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.

A couple of sites worth checking out are ShareThis (http://sharethis.com). ShareThis is a tool you can install on your site that makes it easier for visitors to share with their network. You’ve probably seen some form of ShareThis on news sites. There are typically several icons spread out in a horizontal line or grouped together under a header of “Share.” Installing this tool lets your visitors easily spread the word via social networking sites about a page or website – yours – they like.

Add This (http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php) is very similar to ShareThis. Both require site registration and a little publisher information, but both are also easy to use and do basically the same thing.

Show off your Social Media presence
If you’re on several social networking sites, it behooves you to display them somewhere on your site. For the consummate online shopper, these links show you’re not just an e-commerce beginner. The more sites you’re a part of, the more web-knowledgeable you look.

You can display your social media links either in self-created sidebar module or by using sites like Lijit (http://www.lijit.com). Lijit is similar to ShareThis; however, rather than pushing people out social networking sites, Lijit pulls them into your other sites.

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Welcome to the age of the Recession Shopper. According to research conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates and commissioned by LinkShare Recession Shoppers are the new breed of consumers.

Careful and conscious of what they’re purchasing, Recession Shoppers scour the Internet for good deals as meticulously as Martha Stewart folds hospital corners.

According to LinkShare, “Retailers that offer discounts, special promotions and product comparisons to engage – and keep – these consumers will have more success than those that continue to try striking emotional chords through traditional channels.”

The study also revealed that in order to engage with these consumers e-commerce retailers must change how they think and connect with current and potential customers.

Your e-commerce consumer is going to be an information-based shopper. They are going to click through a lot of websites before making a final decision. They’re going to ask their friends on Facebook, send out a Twitter post and post a question to their online web group.

To separate yourself from your competition, you’re going to need to get into those online channels with them. You’re going to appeal to those Recession Shoppers through social networking.

Facebook. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll know that there are more decision-making purchasers using Facebook than nearly any other tool out there. These purchasers are asking their Facebook friends for opinions on products as well as referrals. If you want to get in — or stay in — the conversation, you want to be on Facebook, too. You’ll want a fan page that your loyal or prospective customers can click to in order to learn more about your site and your products or services. Use your Fan Page to post pictures and announcements about discounts or sales. Consider it a customer service portal.

Twitter. Twitter is closing in on The New York Times as one of the most often clicked-on sites in the United States. Like Facebook, this is another place where your decision-making purchasers are talking. Like Facebook, they’re posing questions and doing research. Creating a Twitter account and using it to connect with your brand loyalists will show you’ve already gone above and beyond your competitors.

YouTube. Given our visual nature, it’s no wonder YouTube has taken off the way it has. Why not serve up a series of how-to videos for current or potential customers. Create a channel dedicated to your site and post tutorials, consumer testimonials or alternative uses to your products. Host a contest that asks people to post a 60-second video on why they love your product. Create buzz and the customers will follow.

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You are part of a community. Right here, on this site, you’ve chosen to be a member of the eCommerce Optimization Community.

See how easy that was? The similar thread all readers of this site share is the hunger for practical how-to information for increasing eCommerce sales. Your customers have the same common thread for your products or services.

Let’s continue the community conversation by digging further into how product and service organizations keep themselves in business.

As mentioned, online communities are not much different than physical ones. To be successful, you need to let folks know who you are and what you sell. Once you’ve got them in the door, you need a plan for turning one-time customers into repeat customers.

The key for turning one-timers into repeaters: Interaction.

You wouldn’t let an in-person customer walk through your store without saying a word to them so why do it online? One of the best things you can do for your E-commerce site is to offer opportunities to interact.

Here are five great opportunities for you to create community interaction on your site:

1. Blog. Post information related to your products, services, staff, life, etc. Keep it as serious or light-hearted as you want. Your goal is to have a space where you can post items that may not be not be considered relevant on the rest of your site. Need inspiration? Check out the Zappos.com blogs as an example.
2. Offer Voting Privileges. Consider adding voting or recommendation capabilities to your site. Allow users to suggest options for other users. Consumers will almost always go with peer recommendations over what they perceive are targeted marketing campaigns.
3. Add Widgets. The name may be cute, but their role on your site could make a huge difference. Add widgets to your front page, your check-out page and other popular pages to promote new products or services.
4. Host Fan Clubs. This can be part of your blog or a separate entity all together. Because your customers are your greatest fans, give them an opportunity to create their own “club.” Create online buttons or catch phrases your customers can use on their own sites, blogs or e-mails. There’s no better advertising than free advertising.
5. Host forums. Depending on your product or service, you may have customers with questions. Creating a space where users can ask and answer questions is a great way see what people think of your products and services as well as your own customer service.

And of course, concoct creative combinations of the previous 5 opportunities. Let your imagination run wild. Let’s say your site sells cat toys. Why not set up a contest where customers vote on the most popular cat toys. Ask your Fan Club members to write reviews for the top five vote getters. Post the reviews on your blog, forum or front page and let the e-commerce begin!

Best Offers: 20 Ways to Increase Sales Using Zen Cart Free ebook revealing proven ecommerce strategies that always increase sales.

In a time not so long ago, the term ‘community’ referred to the neighborhood or town you lived in. From neighbors to businesses, communities always served a role as its residents’ support system.

With the creation of social media, communities became global. Residents didn’t need to have the same zip code, just a common thread.

Social media has afforded e-commerce website the opportunity to not only sell, but also to become part of the community.

Here’s how:

Social Networking Sites. You may have assumed Facebook and MySpace were reserved for high school kids. While Facebook was created as a means to connect college kids, it has exploded into a site that Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Nieces, Nephews and your Third Grade teacher all frequent. Facebook has become the new watering hole where by which we all gather around to exchange stories and catch up with one another. MySpace is run in a similar vein; however, its users trend toward the more creative (musicians and artists) or the young (teen-agers).

Blogging. Web Logging, or Blogging, has become one of the most popular forms of self-publishing in the 21st century. The only tool necessary to blog is an internet connection. Many people and businesses become flustered over deciding whether to blog. Most aren’t sure what to blog about or how much to reveal. One of the advantages of a blog is that unless you are writing under a corporate directive, you can do as much — or as little — with your blog as you want.

Microblogging. Microblogging sites like Twitter and Friendfeed have married blogging with social media to create a finished product that looks something like a community bulletin board. Users friend, follow and post using a “Telephone” game-like principles.

How can social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and blogs translate into dollars for an e-commerce site? If you guessed community, you’d be correct.

All social media sites are created around the tenet that everyone in them is part of a community. Within each community, there are groups and subgroups of users with specific interests. This is true for Facebook and MySpace, where one can joing a group dedicated to a topic of their choice; with bloggers, where like-minded bloggers congregate on similar sites; and with microblogging sites like Twitter, where users tend to follow based on keywords and comments.

For an e-commerce site to be successful in the social media world, it needs to become part the community of which it is trying to sell. Join, or create, groups; launch a blog; begin to Twitter. Each of these social media outlets will bring you closer to where you want to be — in your community.

Best Offers: 20 Ways to Increase Sales Using Zen Cart Free ebook revealing proven ecommerce strategies that always increase sales.