Lawrence Cramer of Practical Ecommerce noted that, although incorporating social media can be cheap and effective, this does not necessarily mean that it will be easy.

 

It will, he said, "take a dedicated effort and a lot of hours", although he did go on to observe that these endeavours could possibly provide a lot in return.

 

He likened social media to "the world's largest cocktail", advising brands to remember that, when operating in the sphere, attempts to sell are inadvisable but distribution of business cards is permissible.

 

Furthermore, Mr Cramer did accept that, although many in the digital industry do find the social media concept "foreign and uncomfortable", the fact that it is direct-to-consumer means that smaller businesses can achieve marketing power equal to their more dominant competitors.

 

Reservations regarding it should be put aside, he recommended, with blogging a good place to start as it helps brands to build credibility - which is important as customers are more likely to make purchases from a company they know and trust.

 

The benefits of social media were also recently extolled by Marketing Sherpa, which noted that its use can help drive traffic if certain features - such as virtual currency - are included on sites.