1-3 lists other e-commerce widgets, storefronts, and resources you may want to check out.
TABLE 1-3 Social E-Commerce Apps, Storefronts, and Resources
| Name | URL | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Big Cartel |
http://bigcartel.com
|
Hosted e-commerce website geared toward artists, clothing designers, and bands; capability to set up freestanding e-commerce sites and add to a Facebook site |
| BigCommerce |
www.bigcommerce.com/features/sell-on-social
|
E-commerce platform for built-in selling on Facebook and Instagram, and Google Shopping |
| eBay |
https://go.developer.ebay.com
|
E-commerce badge for your eBay store; free APIs allow selling on eBay from anywhere online |
| E-junkie |
www.e-junkie.com
|
Cart or Buy Now buttons for social media or blog; fee based on size and volume; handles charges for downloaded items (for example, music or whitepapers) |
| Etsy |
www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/social-media-tips-from-an-etsy-expert/22423398853
|
List of third-party apps to sell on Etsy from social media; helpful ideas |
| PayPal |
https://developer.paypal.com/docs/accept-payments
|
Accepting PayPal payments on mobile and social media |
| Soldsie |
https://web.soldsie.com
https://have2have.it
|
App to sell directly on Facebook and Instagram; Have2Have.It feed lets you sell through links in any social profile |
| CommentSold |
https://try.commentsold.com
|
Social commerce platform that integrates with Google Analytics; works with Instagram, Facebook, your website, and mobile sites |
| Wishpond |
http://corp.wishpond.com/social-promotions
|
Apps to run promotions, such as coupons, contests, or group sales on YouTube and Facebook |
Keeping Your Ear to the Social Ground
The onslaught of data from social media sites can be overwhelming. To garner some value from all the noise, you can take advantage of certain tools to monitor what’s being said about your company.
Social media monitoring is about who’s saying what. It’s about your brand, your products, and your reputation. It’s not the same as social media measurement, which deals with traffic statistics, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI). Measurement is covered in Book 9, including chapters about measurement tools specific to particular social networks.
http://shoutbox.widget.me. This feature takes some programming knowledge; if you’re not up to the task, ask your programmer. You can find some monitoring tools for specific types of services in the sections that follow.
Deciding what to monitor and why
If you didn’t have anything else to do, you could monitor everything. That situation isn’t realistic, so you need to set some constraints. Start with your goal and ask yourself what you want to accomplish. For example, you may want to
Track what’s being said about your company and products, both positive and negative.
Conduct competitor or market research.
Stay up to date on what’s happening in your industry.
Watch trends in terms of mentions, topics of interest, or volume of comments.
Gain a competitive advantage.
Monitor the success of a specific press release, media campaign, or product promotion.
Monitor infringement of trademark or other intellectual property.
Obtain customer feedback so you can improve your products and services.
After you decide on your goal, it should be obvious what search terms or keywords to monitor. Your list might include
Your company name
Your domain name
Names of executives and staff who speak with the public
Product names and URLs
Competitors’ names
Keywords
Topic tags
Deciding which tools to use
The number of monitoring tools is almost as great as the amount of data they sift through. Research your options and choose
