Without quoting the facts and figures about the millions of people who use Social Media for business every day the relevance of Social Media can be broken down into 5 uses.

First and foremost the point is to be Social.. Your website is a valuable source of information for prospective customers but this is one way interaction – you provide information and they read it. Social Media provides a platform for your business to have a voice...your very own virtual podium for you to reach out and communicate with current and prospective customers.

Social media is becoming the fastest way for companies to reach their desired audience and drive traffic towards their business or product. Recent studies have shown that younger generations enjoy observing pictures and videos more than reading heavy text articles. As we have seen, the younger generations are the "trendsetters." Pictures and videos are rapidly becoming the popular approach for not only sharing your every-day life style, but for advertising as well. Both small and large companies greatly benefit by connecting to social media platforms that offer picture and video.

Don't let social media intimidate you or your company! Technology allows us to continuously produce thousands of new platforms and different business portals that can seem like all too much at times. But, if you are up to date and know the most popular and efficient platforms, you will be ahead of the game. Instagram, as we discussed in our last blog post, is one of the fastest growing and most effective business platforms. If you are wondering if Instagram is right for your business or what it can offer, continue to read our previous post!

1. Image Spark - The site lest users collect, discover, tag, share and converge images that inspire creative designs.  Users can create boards that set a visual tone for their images and users can also keep their images private.  It is free to use and gives the user 1GB of storage and two boards.
2. SparkRebel - This site is a fashion-inspired, social shopping platform that is currently in Beta.  The site contains 19 categories for users to browse and features brand pages that allow vendors to share products and content with members.  It includes prices and a "buy it" icon on content pages that redirect a user to a separate site to finish the purchase.
3. Stylepin - This site allows you to collect and organize fashion and style images for inspiration.  It is only for fashion and style.  Users must request an invite.
4. Manteresting - A totally "man" focused site, users nail their content onto workbenches.  You can sign up through your social platforms.
5. Gentlemint - Another male-focused site that is very similar to Pinterest.  It is currently open by invitation only.  
6. Fancy - Users of this site "fancy" the content instead of pin it.  Users can search for product deals and make purchases directly on the site.  This site is a really good alternative to Pinterest for retailers.
7. Juxtapost - This site allows users to keep their boards private and also share them privately.  You can also export content to Excel, index photos by colors and find similar content through a "more like this" button.  The site has 18 different categories and is one of the best Pinterest alternatives we've seen.

1. Payvment allows all transactions to take place entirely on Facebook.  The platform also includes features like social sharing options, analytics tracking, product management solutions, orders and payment support and store setup.  It also has 3 services levels - free, premium and platinum. 
2. Ecwid offers a widget that builds seamlessly integrated online stores in minutes. It works with any existing website as well as major content management systems such as WordPress and Joomla. The widget can also be used to build a Web store on Facebook and accepts payments from all major payment systems. The service is free for smaller stores and pricing begins at $17 for stores with over 100 products.
3. ShopVisible is a fully immersive e-commerce experience for Facebook users. The suite of e-commerce, analytics and social marketing tools was designed specifically for selling on the world’s most popular social network. It can be used as a stand-alone platform for Facebook or integrated to an existing e-commerce store, duplicating the experience customers would find on your primary retail website without requiring users to leave the Facebook site.
4. ShopIgniter offers a suite of products for f-commerce that allow fans to make purchases directly within Facebook.  It features real-time inventory checks, social rewards, exclusive-offer technology and a social product launch feature.
5. BigCommerce gives users the ability to browse products and share them with their Facebook friends before making any purchases, but unlike the previous solution the transaction itself takes place on the merchant’s BigCommerce-powered website. BigCommerce offers a free 15-day demo of the app, and pricing starts at $24.95 per month.
6. VendorShop currently powers thousands of Facebook shops and has over 170,000 active Facebook users, which makes it one of the top three providers of integrated Facebook stores worldwide. The software is free to install and all stores carry the McAfee Secure and VeriSign Trust marks of security and have powerful promotion tools to maximize social selling opportunities.

It is important to remember when creating an f-commerce store to remember that Facebook is a social media site first and foremost, so make sure to keep providing valuable content on your page for fans and not just product promos.