It’s very important to measure sentiment on the internet of your brand / company. Are people saying good things about you? Are people saying bad things about you? Are your marketing efforts paying off in a positive way? If you have an online reputation management campaign, is it working effectively? These are all questions you have to be asking yourself as your company grows and as an internet retailer, on the web, you know, image is everything.

So, how can you have a grip on what is being said about you? Here are some tools to help you figure that out and see the big picture.

SOCIAL MENTION: Social mention is an online web based tool that analyzes content from around the web including blogs, tweets, comments, images, video and much more. This gives you actual stats on sentiment around the web and also other metrics which are just cool to look at.

PEOPLEBROWSER PLAYGROUND: PeopleBrowser Playground is another web based tool that allows you to analyze tweets, blogs, news sites and other channels of what is being said about your brand. It’s keyword based relevant. Very cool tool to check out.

VIRTUE SOCIAL MEDIA INDEX: Allows you to compare to brands side by side and gives you different metrics. I personally like graphs a lot but this one is just a quick snapshot to look at and do just that, take a quick look. Worth to check out.

TWEET FEEL: Tweet Feel is a real-time Twitter analysis that allows you to enter a keyword and searches Twitter. Sentiment is realized by green and red markings. Red marking negative sentiment and green marketing positive sentiment which is scored percentage wise. Very cool tool to used. The fact that is real-time is great.

Does your brand / website have a positive or negative sentiment online? If you have more of a negative sentiment online, it’s time you start an online reputation campaign as well as just campaigns in general to raise brand awareness such as contest, etc.

Brands and and business are in a constant struggle to figure out how to really leverage a Facebook fan page or get more fans and likes to their pages, stories, etc.

So, how can you create an awesome effective fan page for your ecommerce business? Is there a formula?

BRAND YOUR URL:  If you have a facebook fan page that is www.facebook.com/fh87867fh then you’re already hurting brand wise. Make sure you set up your Facebook vanity URL to make it easiers for consumers to find you. This should be www.Facebook.com/yourbrand. Before you had to have at least 25 fans or likes to set this up, now it’s open to anyone as soon as you get a username.

CREATE A LANDING PAGE FOR YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE:  Remember when landing pages became a MUST in the internet scene, especially if you were doing PPC. It’s a cardinal rule today, that if you run a PPC campaign, you take users to a good landing page for better conversion rates. Well, now Facebook is like that too. You don’t want to drive users directly to your wall for the first time. They really won’t prompt any action from them, right? If you look at the bigger brands and what they are doing on Facebook, you’ll see they have a dedicated page (TAB) to direct first time users which usually prompts you to hit the LIKE button for a discount, promotion, etc.

ENGAGING POTENTIAL FANS: Make sure that once you start getting fans on your facebook page that you actually engage them. Put status updates that prompt responses or likes. Make sure you contribute and add content that will be of value to your users such as product news, industry news, statistics, etc.

SELL ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE: If you have shopping cart software like FORTUNE3, the software is already built in with features for you to add your store into Facebook in a matter of minutes, yes, it’s that simple. This is becoming a crucial step in Facebook as more users are actually buying directly through the platform.

A: Fortune3 DOES NOT work with any other third party or affiliated with any SEO companies to serve its customers for search engine optimization. At Fortune3, we have our own search marketing and search engine optimization team to help our customers with their online marketing needs.

Fortune3 highly recommends that you perform searches and due diligence before engaging in business with any 3rd party, particularly with “marketing” companies that contact you, as these are known to be largely fraudulent or scams, charging excessive amounts of money for unnecessary and worthless changes, and no results produced. Performing a Google search for Ecommerce Positioning will provide you with their BBB ranking of D- for having a large number of complaints and several horror-like stories on sites like ripoffreports where customers have been ripped off to the sums of tens of thousands of dollars.

If you are looking for better rankings for specific keywords, Fortune3 offers several search engine optimization packages that can really boost your rankings and give a nice kick start to your business.

See the Fortune3 SEO packages.

We work very hard at providing our customer base as well as educating the ecommerce world / industry with online marketing strategies through blog post which are created to really help maintain an understanding and keeping up with the latest strategies and tactics that are current with todays search engines.

SEO Ecommerce category that contains great information for internet retailers on SEO.

Let’s list the 5 ecommerce seo fundamentals for your website which will lead to more traffic.

1. Choosing the right keywords: One of the core basic fundamentals of SEO is the use of keywords. Keywords are the holy grail to SEO and basically without using the right keywords, you’re doomed from the start. Do your keyword research for each important page and products on your website. Make sure the content is adequate and not ‘thin.’

2. Unique Meta Tags: Meta tags still play a huge role in SEO. While some may think they carry no weight (and maybe the keyword tag is dead) Google and other engines place heavy focus on Title and Description tags. These tags really help the engines for relevance. For every page, make sure your title tag and description tag are unique and carry the most important keywords of that specific page.

3. Search Engine Index: As basic as it may sound, of course, you need to make sure the search engines are able to crawl and index your website. The best way to do this is by creating an html or xml sitemap to ensure it crawls and indexes every possible page on your website. While the engines may not index every single page for one reason or another, its crucial they do index your most important pages and best sellers so make sure that is happening. Sign up to Google Webmaster tools.

4. Link Building: Links play a huge role in search engine optimization. Content is king and links are queens. The trick about link building is not the quantity of links but the quality of links. If you get links from high profile (authoritative) websites, they’ll make a big difference instead of getting 30 links from very small websites. You can start by buying some links from directories such as business.com, Yahoo, BOTW and others.

5. Avoid Duplicate Content: Avoid duplicating content at all cost. While this has always been an issue, in the past year, Google has made it more clear than ever that it does not like duplicate content from algorithm changes in Panda and other algorithm changes that happened in mid-late 2011. Make sure all your important pages and every single page on your website does not duplicate content from any other website on the web or even your own.

With these 5 fundamental seo basics for ecommerce, you’ll surely start ranking in the search engines and hopefully rank well for the keywords you want to rank well for. SEO takes work and patience. In due time, you’ll start seeing positive results.

In late December 2011 and early Jan 2012, Fortune3 did a survey of around 270 ecommerce merchants on online marketing for ecommerce in 2012. We asked the following questions and got the following responses:

1. Where Will Your Primary Online Marketing Focus be in 2012?

A: Out of 270 respondents, more than half, 56% said they will primarily focus on search engine optimization. That’s more than half of ecommerce merchants to focus more on SEO than anything else in 2012. Social media marketing came in second place with 15% as well as Pay-Per-Click with 15% of votes. Email marketing next with 7% and video and affiliate marketing both with 4%.

2. Where Did You See Your Best Return on Investment in 2011?

A: Out of the 270 respondents, 30% said Search Engine Optimization. 22% said they saw no return on investment from any online marketing channel and 19% said they saw their highest ROI through PPC (pay-per-click.)

Affiliate Marketing: 15%
Social Media: 7%
Email Marketing: 7%

3. Where Will The Majority of Your Budget Be Allocated in 2012?

A: Out of the 270 respondents, 26% said they will allocate most of their budget to Search Engine Optimization. 22% said they will allocate most of their online marketing budget to PPC followed by 19% to affiliate marketing.

Web Design: 15%
Social Media: 11%
Email Marketing: 7%

In the last question we asked ecommerce merchants where they think most of their traffic will come from. With all the talk about social media in the last year, merchants still believe most of their traffic will come from search engines with 56% of respondents giving us that answer. 30% say social media and another 15% from display advertising.

Given the results of this online marketing survey for 2012, we can conclude that ecommerce merchants still see search engines and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as the more powerful form of online marketing for their business, not only for sales, but for traffic and return on investment.

We can also gather from this data that either ecommerce merchants don’t really believe in the power of social media toward their business when it comes to investing money or they don’t understand the power of social media and the impact on their business when it comes down to deciding what and if to budget for social media.

There are some critical steps to understand and do before launching your ecommerce website. I know you’re eager to get started but take some time and do the following as you’re preparing your ecommerce website. You can do these steps simultaneously as you start building your website.

1. Competitive Research: Analyze your top competitors from “head to toe.” Look at exactly what they are doing and where.

-What title tags are they using?
-What categories are they breaking products down into?
-What type of content are they writing?
-How many images does each product page have?
-What trust factors do they have for consumers? (Review websites links, etc.)
-What products do they feature?
-What type of advantage sales points do they use? (Free shipping over “X”, etc.)
-What are the best sellers?

2. Keyword Research: Keywords in search is everything. If you want to be truly successful in search and have good search engine optimization, DO YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCH EARLY. If you type “X” into the Google keyword research tool and only has 1k searches a month but then you see that “Z” has 5k searches a month, most likely, you will want to optimize a specific page for “Z” or a variation of the keyword “Z” so that it may be a little less competitive and you can rank better. If you have some understanding of how the search engines work, you already have a competitive advantage over others starting a website. If you don’t, you can always get a good service to help you with this at first to get things going:

-Search Engine Optimization Service
-Search Marketing Service

3. Credit Card Processor: This point may be over looked or not understood by many who start an ecommerce business. It’s not that hard either. The whole key here is to get the credit card processor that charges you the least percentage on your transactions. You will almost HAVE TO offer PayPal as a payment option as its wise to have but shop around for credit card processors. At Fortune3, we offer the best possible rates if you’re still shopping around. These credit card fees cut into your bottom line so its wise to do some research on it.

4. Online / Marketing: Just because you’re building a website and now its on the internet doesn’t mean magic happens overnight and you start getting sales. You should see activity but the truth is that any business needs to market itself to get off the ground, even if its word of mouth or whatever it is, it takes a spark to get the ball rolling. As you build your website, think about what channels of marketing you will use to start getting traffic to your website. See how your competitors are marketing.

-Type their name into the search engine and see what results come up
-Go to Facebook and Twitter and see what they are doing there
-Sign up to their newsletter!

As you start thinking about these components of starting an ecommerce, simultaneously begin building and designing your own ecommerce store. You can download the Fortune3 shopping cart software free!

OK, so what is branding? Your brand is a message and also a promise to your customers. Your brand is who you are, what your company stands for, why you may be different from your competitors, who you are perceived to be! Your brand is everything. It can keep taking your business to other levels as your brand grows.

So how will you develop or think about your branding strategy? What exactly does branding mean and how can you start branding?

Your brand strategy should be how, what, where and to who you plan to communicate your branding message. Currently, the best way to brand yourself online is through social media, right? This channel allows you to engage directly with consumers.

Why is having a brand so powerful? Think about this example. When you’re in the supermarket shopping for soda, you always have the option (almost always at least) to shop between Coca Cola or generic soda. Me, personally, I always choose the real thing (that’s actually their tag line or was at one point…taste the real thing.) Why? Because Coca Cola is a brand that I trust. Coca Cola is a brand that has been instilled with me forever as being the best taste of that specific flavor of soda and the ones that do it best.

The very basics of starting to really brand your ecommerce (company) should be:

1. Define your company’s mission.
2. Why should people choose YOU over competitors?
3. What do you want consumers to associate with your company?

It’s very important to stay consistent with your brand. While that is hard at the beginning, for some, consistency helps build a strong brand image. If you’re changing all the time, you’re not sending a clear message to consumers about who you are and what you stand for.

What are some of the biggest issues for products in your niche? How is your brand tackling these issues? What are complaints about the products you sell? What do you do that makes this easier for consumers? Think about the problems or issues about products you sell and how your brand can eliminate or really support customers with these problems. Find something that your top competitors may not be doing and run with it in your branding message.

A major part of branding is really having a good logo and a good name, of course. No one likes a bad logo and already gives a bad image of the company. Your logo should be everywhere! From your website, to email signatures, to social media platforms.

In order to continue building your brand, keeping close communication with your current and future customer base is crucial. Before the web had the boom of social networking, email was really the best way to keep in touch with customers. Till present day, I bet most companies that have large email subscriber list will tell you that those emails provide the best conversion rates and highest ROI (return on investment.) What’s so great about these social networks now is that you can leverage them to get more email subscribers.

As the web continues to grow around the world, there is a great opportunity to still jump into a market online and have a web presence. The web it’s so unique in the way that you can build an online store and within hours be available for the whole world to see through various channels of online marketing.

FIND YOUR NICHE:  Before you can even think of building an online store, what niche wills you enter? I believe true success (more than just monetary) comes from doing something you love. If you sell a product you love or really believe in, chances are you can do very well as you’ll know how to push the product and your sales pitch won’t just be a pitch.

RESEARCH: Nothing makes for good decisions and conclusions like research. As you know what niche you’ll be entering and what products you’ll be selling, it’s key to research your top competitors.  What are they doing? What are they offering? What are their prices? Can you compete? What keywords are they showing up most for?

SHOPPING CART SOFTWARE: How will you build your online store? What platform will you use as a shopping cart so people can purchase the products from your website? It’s very important that the shopping cart software you use is one that will fit your needs and customizable for you. Fortune3, a ecommerce software made for online retailers for internet retailers which is great for beginners as its incredibly user friendly is a great choice to start. Build your online store now by downloading Fortune3 for free.

DESIGN:  How will you build your online store? What design will it have? Do you have something in mind?  Look at your competitors and think of a design or theme that may go with your niche or product. This isn’t a must but it’s important to have a design that’s nice to make a good impression on your visitors.

IMAGES: They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Think about the last few products you bought online. If you’re buying a product, especially without ever seeing it in person or holding it, a picture is the only thing your eyes can really grasp if its what you want. Now we’re not just talking about one image…the more images the better. In ecommerce, it’s all about the details. Try to get as many images as possible from different angles to really showcase your product to the customer.

Take eBay for example on the images front. While some websites may have professional pictures, some independent sellers on eBay or Amazon have home pictures of an item but from different angles, sizes, etc. This plays well with the consumer.

Entreprenuer.com has a piece about 7 ways to whip your website into shape. We’ll list these 7 factors that can really help you get back on track with your website for this new year. In order to achieve real success within your niche, it’s so important to stay relevant. Even putting the niche aside, your website says everything about your company. If it’s outdated…you are too.

SIMPLIFY: This is very important because a big part of your websites success is all about user experience and navigation. Get rid of old widgets or components of your website in design that don’t have much effect on conversion. Real estate on your website is very valuable and do not cram a bunch of things that make it look messy.

FIX PROBLEMS: Scan the website for problems that can be harming user experience or design. Something as a broken link can put a damper on a user’s experience. Make sure your most important pages and elements in design are working well.

TIME FOR A MAKEOVER: If you haven’t touched the design of your website in a few years, IT’S TIME! As I go back to the point above, it’s very important to stay relevant. One of the ways you do that is by making the evolution and moving forward with the internet and newer websites.  Look at your competitors, your biggest ones, is their web design much better than yours?

NEWS AND STORIES: Going back to the point about staying relevant, adding news and/or stories to your website can be a great resource for your visitors to always come back to. It also makes you look like an authority in your niche.

ABOUT PAGE: This page is very important and you should NOT have this outdated. This will inform your customers exactly who you are and who they are buying from. If this page is outdated and contains old information, this will discredit you to the eye of the visitor from the go. People do check and read About Us pages for companies they haven’t purchased from before.

BE EASY TO CONTACT: There is nothing more frustrating than a website where the contact information is hard to locate or just nowhere to be found. Have you ever bought from a website before that had no contact information? If you did, it was probably a long time ago and I’m willing to bet you probably won’t do that again. It’s very important for a customer to know they’ll have customer service if need be, easy to ask questions, etc.

However, this post isn’t about Google but as always, you must understand everything ties in together as an online marketing strategy.

When you have a good piece of content, you want to get the most exposure and user engagement as possible. This means people will share your content on Facebook, Twitter, like a post on your Facebook page, retweet your tweet and so on.

Should I post in the morning? Should I post after people come from lunch? Wait…what about the different time zones? Are weekend’s not good days to post? What about on a Monday when everyone is just settling in? These are all questions we constantly ask ourselves as marketers to really try to get the most of our content from the social networks.

KISSmetrics released a great infographic that details the data on social media and statistics about shared content, when we should post, etc. To have the most amount of exposure is really all about your current social media position as well as timing.

Some of the key highlights from this info graphic that you should really pay close attention are the following:

*The best time to tweet is 5PM EST (U.S. time)

*1 to 4 tweets per hour is ideal

*The best days to tweet are midweek and weekends

*The best day to share on Facebook is Saturday

*the best time to share on Facebook is noon (Eastern Standard time, U.S.)

So these metrics tells us a lot about the activity of social behavior in sharing content. If you want to get the most click through on your tweets, we see anywhere from noon to 6pm eastern is when people will interact the most with your link on Twitter.

When it comes to Facebook, the most effective interaction show 1 post every 2 days will get the most likes.

Nevertheless, while this is great data to analyze and look over, do your own test and see what you find most effective.