Social Commerce Part 1: 50% of Web Sales to Occur Via Social Media by 2015

Social Commerce…I know I have mentioned this in previous posts however here we are again, discussing the concept of making money through social media channels.

And why not? After all, social media is being used to market brands so wouldn’t the next transitional step be to make the purchase? The goal is to make money, right?

My feeling is: While you have their attention, keep ’em!

While working at one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, I remember having to develop strategies to build awareness through social media for some of our clients. Of course, Facebook was the big win on that front although we did incorporate Twitter as part of the digital play. Although there were many other social tools to use, those were the ones that were most common at the time. With that said, since then, we are seeing the evolvement of other social channels for commerce.

Such statistics as the below make you realize the growing trend and popularity in using social, especially that of Facebook, as a large component of a digital strategy:

1. 86% of small business feel that Facebook is a valuable marketing tool for their brand

2. $3.8 billion of Facebook’s $4.27 billion in 2011 revenue came from businesses advertising their services on Facebook. By the way, this is expected to rise to $6 billion in 2012 (looking forward to seeing those results!)

These statistics noted above as well as many others are included in the following infograph.