In this digital age, entering the domain of e-commerce is unavoidable. Not only that, but any business which is not looking to capitalise on the extensive opportunities on offer in the electronic domain may as well be steering their Titanic operations straight for the nearest iceberg. In this day and age - it's not just a matter of keeping up - it's a case of staying in business.

In a nutshell, e-commerce or 'electronic commerce' is the method of doing business using the internet. Many would instantly think about buying and selling goods online, but the e-commerce opportunity goes much deeper than that. Selling services, receiving electronic payments and online marketing are all examples of e-commerce at work. Play the game right and you could be enjoying increased profits, boosted sales and a worldwide reputation.

As well as the ability to reach the world's biggest market base 24/7, e-commerce offers businesses a range of other benefits, most notably in the reduced costs associated with marketing in this way. As an online retailer you are instantly cutting the cost of employing in-store staff, running a building and keeping the store's image up to date. Indeed, while professionally producing an e-commerce website and keeping it maintained may cost a few thousand pounds each year, these costs pale into insignificance when compared to the cost of running and maintaining a customer facing store.

Now 2011 has drawn to a close, e-commerce marketers are beginning to look towards what the next 12 months will bring in terms of opportunities. Looking back over the last decade, online retailing has changed the face of the retail market and has seen companies like Amazon, eBay and Play.com appear from nowhere to become retail giants and household names in a very short space of time. However, even these internet monsters are beginning to feel the pinch, with Amazon reporting sales down in the second quarter of 2011 and other operators such as Overstock.com reporting drops in profits in the same period.

There may be a number of reasons for these reported drops in sales. With the current economic climate leading to pretty much stagnant incomes in most of the Western world, it is hardly surprising that this is starting to have an impact on online growth. In addition to this, with so many new businesses moving into e-commerce every day, online retailers are constantly battling with their peers for the lion's share of the market. In order to stay afloat you not only need to miss that iceberg, you also need to do it at -50% RRP.

» Read more: The e-commerce opportunity

Today, in 2011, we know the Internet as a digital juggernaut that has revolutionised how we approach communications, media, marketing and even shopping. But whilst the Internet phenomenon has its earliest roots in the 19th century and has developed gradually since then, it was only as recently as 1977 when it first truly appeared in the form we know now and only 1989 when it first became commercial. The Internet's expansion and transformation since then has been dramatic.

By 2008 for example, 1.4 billion users had logged on the Internet and the network had spread not only right around the world but also on to an array of platforms, such as mobile phones, for example. Connectivity has reached huge proportions too, as broadband speeds have increased and Wi-Fi has allowed the public expanded access. With so many users on the Internet, marketers have seen the potential to engage with consumers and have used everything from e-mail advertising to campaigns across social media websites to target their desired markets.

The Internet is still changing, however and when the Internet progresses, it does so pretty rapidly. It's not possible to say exactly where the Internet will be in a few years’ time, but looking back on this year alone; a few current trends indicate some of the changes that are likely to be with us soon.

New media formats continue to proliferate across the Internet and some of these will be of use to marketers. For example, podcasts continue to grow in popularity and are easily accessible and not difficult to create. As a result, podcasts are produced by both individuals and companies for a whole bunch of subjects. Marketers can tap into this popularity by creating podcasts as well as targeting podcast listeners in campaigns.
» Read more: The future of the internet

Social media is unavoidable these days. Whether it is celebrities tweeting on Twitter, your friends posting pictures on Facebook or professionals networking on LinkedIn, social media has made a massive impact on how we use the internet. Crucially though, it's also becoming a major factor in how businesses operate and when it comes to marketing, you're ill advised to forget that social media is now a large part of the marketing mix.

Plenty of companies, both small and large, now reach out to consumers and engage across the likes of Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Many brands maintain Facebook profiles and chat to consumers via this page, whilst others develop their own YouTube channel and fill it with unique, appealing content. Other brands still use lesser-known sites like Foursquare to launch innovative marketing campaigns.

Why are marketers engaging with social media? It is because it creates a real buzz, when done well of course, and offers a bunch of other potential benefits too. For a start, social media is extremely popular. Millions of people have Facebook accounts, for instance. So when marketers set out to reach audiences, they have difficulty ignoring the potential audience spread across social media platforms. These are audiences that in some cases aren't watching TV as much and are perhaps turning against print alongside other forms of traditional advertising platforms.

Beyond simple exposure for the business, social media marketing can help garner more specific advantages. For example, a company on Twitter may make contact with a new business lead, or executives can form new partnerships via LinkedIn. More generally, operating across social media, whether it's through blogs or a YouTube channel, can drive up search engine results and offer further business exposure.
» Read more: Top social media tips for business

According to U-Talk Marketing, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a key investor in Facebook, has told the Telegraph that Mark Zuckerberg is likely to choose to float the social networking site next year.

Hoffman has made a name for himself as a major investor in other successful web companies such as Groupon, social gaming company Zynga and location service Gowalla.

For more information visit the U-Talk Marketing website.

Stock Photo

According to NY Times, the public relations industry has decided that it may be a good time for, well, a public relations initiative.

The industry’s largest organization, the Public Relations Society of America, is embarking on an effort to develop a better definition of “public relations,” one more appropriate for the 21st century.

For more information visit the NY Times website.

Photo by Thos Ballantyne

Facebook currently has 800m users, which is slightly more users than those on the internet in early 2004, according to data from Internet World Stats.

For marketeers, the importance of the Facebook as a tool to engage those already online is highlighted in an article by Read Write Web.

According to Read Write Web, active Facebook users make up about 38% of the entire internet population - with the number of internet users in Europe comprising 727m and and Asia 922m.

Visit the Read Write Web.com website for the full story.

Levi’s Jeans have postponed the premiere of their “Go Forth” ad because it features a young man confronting riot police. Click on this link to see the Levi's ad.

The jeans manufacturer said that it has made this decision out of "sensitivity" and that they intended the scenes in the ad "in the spirit of positive action and optimism".

The rioting in England has shown to have hit some brands harder than others, with looters targeting JD Sports stores to get hold of their favourite sporting brands. Car Phone Warehouse has also suffered from the opportunist looting.

Brands need to be careful not to promote the kind of violent crime that has been witnessed in England over the last few days and it is probably with this in mind that the Levi’s ad has been stopped.

The ad was released on Facebook, but the television premier has been postponed. The ad campaign will continue in other countries.

Google is to launch a business version of Google+ later this year, and in the mean time is asking businesses not to use the consumer version for commercial purposes. Online marketing agencies will keenly await news on this matter. Christian Oestlien, Google+ project manager, said, "We are focused on optimising for the consumer experience, but we have a great team of engineers building a similar optimised business experience for Google+." Google is currently testing the incorporation of businesses and brands by inviting a small number of them to take part in tests which will allow feedback from users interacting with brands via the stream, Circles and Hangouts features on Google+. Google+ is still on an invitation only basis. The success of the new service will depend largely on their ability to convert Facebook users.

The All Things Digital Conference in California saw Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, said they had failed to take Facebook seriously four years ago. At that stage the social network had about 20 million active users.

Facebook has come a long way and now over 500 million people make use of the network. Online marketing has come to depend heavily on the social media power of Facebook.

Google is now trying to find better ways of connecting people under the leadership of Larry Page. Mr Schmidt believes that the online industry would be better off with a competitor to Facebook.

Google looses out considerably to Facebook in the social networking market, as Facebook attracts a very substantial amount of advertising.

Facebook has repeatedly turned down Google’s attempts to partner with them, according to Mr Schmidt. He said that they prefer to partner with Microsoft, who own 1.6% of the company.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" oldwidth="500" caption="Google vs Facebook"][/caption]

The Telegraph has reported that advanced talks between Twitter and TweetDeck value the application at around $50million.

Twitter is reportedly close to agreeing on a price for TweetDeck, the add-on application that allows heavy users of the site to track multiple conversations.

The Wall Street Journal says that people familiar with the matter believed advanced talks had settled on a figure of around £31 million.

TweetDeck allows users to arrange themes in different columns, rather than having to search for them on Twitter.com. Twitter lets other sites to interact with it directly via an open application programming interface (API), and it is thought that TweetDeck users account for at least one in five of all Tweets.

Read the full article.
Apply for digital marketing jobs now.