Today kicks off a weekly tradition (though definitely not original) here at Get Elastic. Every Friday I will be posting a Blogger’s Digest that recognizes outstanding content from around the web of interest to ecommerce marketers, managers, bloggers and SEO-types to give you some rainy day reading for the weekend (especially if you’re in Vancouver/Seattle).

Ecommerce News

• Bad news for Yahoo Stores as Cyber Monday traffic crashes the platform and brings down 3 million online shops.

Search Engine Optimization

Last post I covered some ways you can use Twitter for ecommerce marketing. (Remember that Twitter can be an inexpensive form of mcommerce as users can subscribe to mobile text alerts). As promised, here are some Twitter Do’s and Do Not Do’s based on Ma.gnolia’s experience using microblogging for customer support.

(If you’re not in the know, Ma.gnolia’s about the best lookin’ social bookmarking site on the web) Here’s a summary of Ma.gnolia’s Product Manager Todd Sieling’s presentation at BarCamp Vancouver:

• Make each tweet worth reading - no poly filler
• Speak softly unless the house is on fire (remember Ma.gnolia’s subscribers are receiving tech support and system updates)
• Tweet responsibly, too many tweets will make your subscribers tune out
• Be creative, but not at the expense of clarity
• Follow everyone who follows you - except spammers
• Read your community’s tweets and glean whatever you can from what they’re saying

Continue Reading:
Twitter Marketing Do’s and Don’ts: Interview With Ma.gnolia »

Twitter is a social networking site that has been described as “microblogging” as it’s essentially a way to post really brief content. I believe the original concept was to create a way for people to let others know what they were doing at any given moment (like Facebook status updates) “I’m watching football,” “I’m going out for sushi,” “the cat is driving me crazy” sort of thing. But users have found bigger and better applications for Twitter. Not long ago I reported on Amazon and Woot’s use of Twitter as a way to broadcast short news bytes and deals of the day to customers. Today I’m going to expand on Twitter’s ecommerce marketing potential for one-to-one customer service, reputation management, affiliate management and a free alternative to mcommerce marketing.

Continue Reading:
Ecommerce Microblogging: More Reasons To Use Twitter »

Shel Holtz joins the conversation to discuss the ways new marketing and communication tools can assist retailers collaborate with customers - resulting in better experiences and increased sales.

Along with host DaveO, they discuss blogging for business, reasons for podcasting, what’s up with Second Life, ways to engage audiences with Twitter and Ustream.tv and the low-down on Social Media Releases plus Shel wisely advises strategic action before diving in.

MP3 File

(crayonville in Second Life)

Shel is frequent flier, professional speaker and prolific writer as well as VP of New Marketing at crayon (a new marketing company). He joined us from Toronto where is presenting at Visa’s Ecommerce Summit. Thanks to Chris Clarke at Thornley Fallis Communications for the hookup. Thanks to Derek K. Miller (Penmachine.com) for music track “That’s No Dream.”

Topical Annotations

A Shel of my Former Self - Shel’s Holtz’s personal blog

Holtz Communications + Technology - Shel’s professional services

Road Weary - Shel’s Travel frustration blog

crayon - a new marketing company - Shel’s daily toil

The American Family Whirlpool podcast

Linden Labs’ Second Life

Darren Barefoot’s GetaFirstLife project

GetaFirstLife.com

Get a First Life - Second Life Insider

Technorati tag: secondlife

crayon in Second Life

Twitter

Twitter - Wikipedia

twittervision

Ustream.tv

Social Media Release

Chris Heuer’s Idea Engine

Microformats

Social Media Club

Social Media Club is being organized for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and for promoting media literacy. This is the beginning of a global conversation about building an organization and a community where the many diverse groups of people who care about social media can come together to discover, connect, share and learn.

Sample Social Press Release (Coca-cola Virtual Thirst campaign by crayola)