When social meets e-commerce (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – July 23, 2010)

Just a quick write-up this week, with a look at some of the best e-commerce and social tips out there.

• Old-time Friend Of Thinks GrokDotCom returns returns to the list with some fast ways to optimize your site for “scent.”
• Another old friend – GetElastic – stops by with an overview of how to get your online business ready for the holidays now.
• GetElastic also offers a great overview A/B testing.
• It’s no secret how big a fan I am of testing, but Kevin Hillstrom calls out one problem with automated A/B testing tools that’s worth checking out.
• One thing you might want to test are subject lines on your emails. Steve Rubel has a great idea for applying social skills to your email copy.
• And, just in case you’re still thinking social is a passing fad, take a look at this article from AARP on whether social is good for your small business. This is AARP we’re talking about here. Oh, and AARP’s got another one about Twitter and Facebook.
• Speaking of Facebook, MediaPost is saying that people are leaving Facebook in droves. They can’t be leaving that fast, since Facebook just announced that they’ve now got 500 million members.
• Finally, David Armano has some insights into how you can measure the effectiveness of your social efforts. David’s using these techniques to judge media campaigns, but there’s no reason you couldn’t apply them to your business.

Have a great weekend, everybody. See you next week!

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