If you're in the business of selling stuff,

according to one big-time research firm social media marketing is a waste of your time and money.

Forrester Research has released a report recently that concludes...

"Social tactics are not meaningful sales drivers".

While the hype around social networks as a driver of influence in eCommerce

continues to capture the attention of online executives, the truth is that

social continues to struggle and registers as a barely negligible source of

sales for either new or repeat buyers. In fact, fewer than 1% of transactions

for both new and repeat shoppers could be traced back to trackable social

links. Now think about this for a minute. This study is about

the influence of social media on sales. If the influence on sales is "barely negligible" can you

imagine the influence on retail sales (which account for about 94% of

everything sold?) What's below barely negligible? Strongly negligible?

The study goes on to say...

The reality is that even the most popular social image-sharing sites (like Pinterest) have failed to

move the needle with respect to sales for most retail sites. To tell you the truth, even I

was a little shocked reading about this study. There aren't too many people in

the ad world who are more skeptical about the magical power of social media

marketing than I am. But I thought the truth probably fell somewhere between

"magic" and "barely negligible." !! However there is one technique that continues to move the

needle dramatically and that is Interactive Marketing Communication...properly executed for

course!