This is a guest post of Richard Buettner, Director of Weever Media Limited.

Leveraging social media on your site is a must since no website / business owner nowadays can afford to not participate on the ever-growing social platforms. To gain most from brand building social conversations the integration between the social world and the website needs to be seamless and effective. Here come some tips based on the latest trends:

Tip 1: Social media sharing – from your site into the social platforms

Sharing of content is a crucial principle of social media – hence you need to enable the sharing of your content into the social world to spread the word. These are in fact social impressions you’d be missing out if not implemented. No matter if you’re providing content or selling products online sharing buttons make perfect sense to easily let visitors to your site share content they find interesting.

We recommend (similar to AdSense) showing them at the bottom of your content / page, basically after the user has finished consuming your content and you want to call the user to an action.

Tip 2: Social Media Accounts Buttons – two way integration between site and social accounts

Using this approach you reflect and synchronise your social activities in your social media accounts on your website. Obviously this makes most sense if you carry out social activities.

There’s not much reason and it can be even counterproductive to connect an abandoned account with no activity or fans. Also if you’re active on Facebook but not on Twitter or Pinterest, don’t bother to connect to inactive accounts.

In regards to the position of the social media buttons on your site there is no right or wrong but is pretty much a question of your owns site’s design. We’d say make sure they are visible enough but not visually overwhelming.

Tip 3: Integrate social in other customer contact points

Other popular and effective ways of communicating to your clients are email marketing and search engines. In terms of email newsletters you can put social sharing as well as s social media buttons on each newsletter. Your email signature can also include social buttons or even you’re latest updates (there are apps for that).

In regards to search the best way towards integration is to have lots of fans and activities, this ensures a strong social signal for Google and results in higher rankings of your content in the search results. If you’re running Adwords campaigns you could utilise Adwords social extensions which allow showing your company’s Google+ account next to your ad.

Tip 4: Stay up-to-date

Social Networks come and go, the latest rising star is Pinterest and some of our clients get a ton of traffic through there; so accordingly add or remove buttons from your site. Also social technology alters or provides more functionality over time. Worth mentioning here is the Facebook social plugins and the social graph which allows to morph simple social media buttons into analysis-powerhouses.

Tip 5: Stay reasonable

You don’t need to put social buttons on every page; your goal should be to get your interesting content shared but not your privacy policy. The buttons need to be on every blog post you’re publishing but don’t mess up your site with too many sharing buttons all over your pages.

Tip 6: Analyse and optimise

Highly recommend are the latest Google social analytics reports which allow you to measure and analyse the sources of your social traffic incl. any potential conversions made on your site. The social plug-in analytics allow you to analyse what type of content received the most likes and which one does not work.

If you consider these tips there’s a good chance to increase the traffic to your site and engage more fans on your social media accounts.

UK Mobile Christmas Shopping Grows from ‘About Zero’ in 2010 to $2 Billion.

Amdocs, a telecommunications provider, recently noted in a blog entry by Naomi Weiser two shoppers recently bought $100,000-plus Ferrari and “a new home via eBay subsidiary PayPal’s mobile app on Cyber Monday.

Don’t try this at home with Mum and Dad’s smartphone, kids!

Most of us use smartphones to purchase more modest items. Songs on iTunes, for example. But we’re heading towards big ticket territory, Weiser writes, noting recent findings from data research and analysis firm comScore  show that in September two-thirds of all smartphone owners made more substantial purchases on their phones.

UK retailers Argos, ASOS and Debenhams are trying to find ways to sell their products through mobile apps. American retailers like Toys R Us, JC Penney, Lowes, and Best Buy are testing such approaches as giving store reps mobile phones to help shoppers instantly compare prices and match them when necessary, Weiser says.

Overall, a bit over a third of smartphone owners have used their phone to make an actual  purchase at least once during their device ownership, the comScorestudy found.

Mobile commerce is one of those things that is rapidly morphing from a novelty into how society works. “The 300 largest U.S. mobile merchants will generate $5.37 billion in sales through mobile devices this year, more than double 2010,” Weiser says, citing a recent survey by Internet Retailer.

How fast has this growth been? Last year, according to Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research in Great Britain, mobile Christmas shopping in the UK totaled “about zero.” Bamfield estimated this year it would account for about $2 billion.

That’s what we call “growth”.

Weiser reads the writing on the wall and arrives at the correct conclusion: Brick and mortar retailers should find new ways to embrace mobile commerce if they want to stay in business. She quotes Avi Greengart, research director, consumer devices, at Current Analysis, saying that merchants who invest in mobile sales now “will reap the benefits of m-commerce far faster” than those who drag their feet.

Oded Israeli, director of product management and marketing for Amdocs Mobile Payments, told Weiser that as far as service providers are concerned, operators usually see these transactions going over-the-top, “as they only provide the connectivity for regular card transactions.” But carriers can play a larger role in smaller impulse purchases, “providing the funds for the transaction through the postpaid bill or prepaid balance.”

Probably not a Ferrari, though. Sorry.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Great post from David Armano from Edelman Digital on his social media thoughts for 2012.

Key extracts included below, and full article here.

So what can we expect in 2012 in a world that seems to grow ever connected by the hour? Here are six predictions to ponder, in no particular order:

Convergence Emergence. For a glimpse into how social will further integrate with “real life,” we can look at what Coca Cola experimented with all the way back in 2010. Coke created an amusement park where participants could “swipe” their RFID-equipped wristbands at kiosks, which posted to their Facebook account what they were doing and where. Also, as part of a marketing campaign, Domino’s Pizza posted feedback — unfiltered feedback — on a large billboard in Times Square, bringing together real opinions from real people pulled from a digital source and displayed in the real world. These types of “trans-media” experiences are likely to define “social” in the year to come.

The Cult of Influence. In much the same way that Google has defined a system that rewards those who produce findable content, there is a race on to develop a system that will reward those who wield the most social influence. One particular player has emerged, Klout, determined to establish their platform as the authority of digital influence. Klout’s attempt to convert digital influence into business value underscores a much bigger movement which we’ll continue to see play out in the next year. To some degree everyone now has some digital influence (not just celebrities, academics, policy makers or those who sway public opinion). But for the next year, the cult of influence becomes less about consumer plays like Klout and more about the tools and techniques professionals use to “score” digital influence and actually harness, scale and measure the results of it.

Gamification Nation. No we’re not taking about video games. Rather, game-like qualities are emerging within a number of social apps in your browser or mobile device. From levels, to leaderboards, to badges or points, rewards for participation abound. It’s likely that the trend will have to evolve given how competition for our time and attention this gaming creates. Primarily, gamification has been used in consumer settings, but look for it in other areas from HR, to government, healthcare and even business management. Perhaps negotiating your next raise will be tied to your position on the company’s digital leaderboard.

Social Sharing. Ideas, opinions, media, status updates are all part of what makes social media a powerful and often disruptive force. The media industry was one of the first to understand this, adding sharing options to content, which led to more page views and better status in search results. What comes next in social sharing is more closely aligned with e-commerce or web transactions. For example, Sears allows a user to share a product or review with their networks directly from the site. Sharing that vacation you just booked, or recommending a product, or service from any site to a social network is where sharing goes next. We probably don’t know what we are willing to share until we see the option to do it.

Social Television. For many of us, watching television is already a social act, whether it’s talking to the person next to you, or texting, tweeting, and calling friends about what you’re watching. But television is about to become a social experience in a bigger and broader sense. The X Factor nowallows voting via Twitter and highlights other social promotions, which encourages viewers to tap social networks while they watch. Another way media consumption is becoming social comes from a network called Get Glue which acts as something of a Foursquare for media. Participants can “check-in” to their favorite shows (or other forms of media) and collect stickers to tell the world what programs they love. Watch for more of this this year as ratings rise for socially integrated shows.

The Micro Economy. Lastly as we roll into 2012, watch for a more social approach to solving business problems through a sort of micro-economy. Kickstarter gives anyone with a project, the opportunity to get that initiative funded by those who choose to (and patrons receive something in return). A crowdsourcing platform for would be inventors called Quirky lets the best product ideas rise to the top and then helps them get produced and sold while the “inventor” takes a cut. Air BnB turns homes into hotels and travelers into guests, providing both parties with an opportunity to make and save money. These examples may point to a new future reality where economic value is directly negotiated and exchanged between individuals over institutions.

These are a few emerging trends which come to mind. As with anything, looking to the past often gives us clues for what may come in the future.