• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 6, 2011

Following each morning session at MediaPost's Search Insider Summit (SIS) in Captiva, Fla., attendees break into groups to share ideas on specific topics. On Thursday, DataPop VP Client Services Dave Schwartz led the discussion on ecommerce. Here are some findings from the group:

1) Today, it is difficult to sell products at scale via Facebook. While there are certain things like Flash Sales or Limited Edition items cleared more easily through this platform, the ad platform, especially around segmentation and testing, needs improvement to target specific products to customers.

2) Brands must become very responsive in social channels that require coordination throughout the organization because of the speed in which information travels. A speedy and effective response via social channels can be symbolic of a customer centric organization and can resonate throughout social, boosting brand perception.

3) A slough of new tools in the marketplace (DSPs, Anlaytics Dashboards, Next Gen Search Platforms, Social Monitoring, etc.) are pretty overwhelming and many have yet to see very strong uplift from them because business reasons for investing were unclear or key metrics were not well defined.