Facebook, Twitter most used social media sites in ecommerce

Ecommerce sites tend to use Facebook and Twitter above other social media sites in their digital marketing campaigns.

This is according to a new survey by Practical eCommerce, which shows that 78 per cent of the US online retailers it polled use Facebook, while 75.6 per cent utilise Twitter for social media marketing purposes.

Almost three in ten retailers cited other social networking sites, including LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace and Google Buzz.

About 11 per cent of respondents revealed that they do not make use of any social media sites at all.

Nearly seven in ten retailers said they intend to up their social media online marketing activity in the future, with 26.8 per cent to keep their campaigns the same.

When asked how social media had helped their businesses, over half said it had had a beneficial effect.

A recent study by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that Fortune 500 companies are increasingly utilising social media marketing.

The number of firms found to be using blogs and social networking websites like Twitter increased significantly between 2008 and 2009, according to the research.

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