It’s been a long while since I blogged here, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been blogging. My focus over the past few months has been on the topic of social commerce, which is using social media in a retail environment to produce, get this, actual dollars.

I’m currently writing weekly feature articles for Practical eCommerce, an online publication I’ve worked with for years. More recently, I started blogging for Social Commerce Today, a site with a strict focus on social commerce.

Why a focus on that particular topic? Because, where social media is concerned, it is the new black. In his post entitled The Future of the Social Web: Five Eras, then Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang evidenced that social commerce is the “future.” We’re just now entering into this particular era and its not due to mature for another couple of years, according to Jeremiah. I’ve always tried to stay on top of social trends, so it makes sense to hitch my wagon to the social commerce star.

I hope to resume blogging here whenever possible, as I realize the importance of doing so, but time is limited. Until then, look for my writings at those other two venues.

If you’re in and around San Antonio Thursday and Friday, June 9 -10, I’ll be there leading a two-day B2B Social Media Marketing Bootcamp on behalf of the American Marketing Association and the local AMA chapter.

“This Boot Camp is designed to meet the needs of people involved in business-to-business marketing. The curriculum was created for those who consider themselves to be at entry level stages of how to incorporate social media to support their business (marketing, customer service, communications and sales) objectives and goals.”

Click the above link to learn more. Click here to register.

Since it appears that most of my posts lately have to do with social media consulting, allow me to pass along a resource I found last week – Invest In Social - an online directory for social media agencies, vendors and consultants. The site was created by SocialFresh, a social media education company. Getting listed in the directory is easy enough and, the best part, is that is free to do so.

However, you will note that some agencies, vendors and consultants are “featured.” Gaining inclusion in featured status requires payment and its not inexpensive. A company spokesman told me it costs $1,000 per month to get featured at the directory level and $300 per month at what the company refers to as the “per strength” level. That leaves me out!

In terms of how you rank in the list, that’s based on the degree to which you complete your profile (100% is good!). All things being equal, the database pulls randomly from those listed.

The site includes a number of areas where those listed can show competency. These include: analytics, blog development, community management, Facebook, Twitter, long term strategy, email, market research, monitoring and 14 more. You are limited to a choice of up to six areas total, however.

One of my interests is in how well the site ranks in terms of SERPs. Since I’m not showing up on front page returns for the keyword “social media consultant,” I’m dependent on directories such as this to help.

If you’d like to take a look at my profile, which, at the time of this writing, I’ve gotten up to 85%, feel free. And, if you qualify, I would encourage you to add yourself to the list.

Each time I speak with CEOs and small business owners about using social media for marketing, one refrain continues to be echoed. Almost to a person, they want to know whether social media engagement can improve the bottom line. I understand why they would list that as their main concern and have attempted to make a strong argument for social media ROI.

However, if you take sales out of the equation, are there other benefits sufficient enough to mandate its use?

In my latest post at The Social Retailer – which I alluded to in an earlier post here - a blog I maintain at the online ecommerce magazine Practical Ecommerce, I make the conjecture that there are at least three substantive benefits to its use apart from sales: Increase Brand Visibility, Improve Customer Loyalty, and Gain Marketing Insights.

(Those points were originally made by another Practical Ecommerce contributor, Armando Roggio, in his article, Eommerce Know-How: Social Media as a Marketing Tool. In my post, I built on what he said and added my own conclusions.)

I would encourage you to read both posts for greater detail and insight, but here are the main points:

Increase Brand Visibility – Though building brand awareness is sometimes considered to be of relatively little value when compared to direct sales, there is no doubt gaining top of mind awareness with consumers is vital…Social media can serve this purpose in that it facilitates a dialogue between the brand and the consumer.

Improve Customer Loyalty – Social media can improve customer loyalty because it fosters the building of community around the brand. As a result, your job is to spend less time trying to sell, and more time doing those things that continue the community-building process.

Gain Marketing Insights – There is perhaps no better avenue for knowing what the consumer thinks about a brand, its products or services than through social media, for it provides an unfiltered, unfettered grassroots window into the mind of the consumer.

I think it should be obvious that these three factors do indeed affect the bottom line, though maybe not directly. Regardless, I would challenge anyone to consider the impact that increasing brand visibility, building customer loyalty and gaining marketing insights can have in terms of sales and marketing.

Apart from sales, in your opinion, what other benefits does social media provide?