E-commerce coming to a Myspace profile near you

You are probably either laughing or shaking your head. My first impression was that Newscorp was scrounging around for that extra nickel. But this is not a joking matter. This is online necromancy between e-commerce ans social networking. Who knows what it could mean for the future of e-commerce?

Though your internet marketing firm will tell you different – these are uncharted waters for marketing experts. Understand that while Myspace and Ebay are nothing special by themselves, joining them is going to give birth to a new life form. Experts say that this synergy will ‘leverage the social network’. But I don’t think anyone has even begun to map out all the possibilities that lie in waiting.

So how could leveraging a social network help your e-commerce site? Too illustrate, pretend for a moment that a popular e-commerce platform, such as OScommerce, had a social network of its own to leverage. Certain weaknesses would be turned into strengths. For example, currently many OScommerce stores find difficulty obtaining customer reviews. Not an issue with a social network, as customer reviews would be as inevitable as comments are on Myspace. Plus, you would be getting better reviews that leverage your conversion rate even higher.

When I say that these are ‘uncharted waters’ for internet marketers, I am referring to the hidden opportunities that await to be discovered or exploited. For example, take the under used practice of writing copy tailored for a visitors personality type. Data from a social network could allow an edge in profiling personalities, whether by keywords and click paths or other means entirely. The other side of this coin is the ability for social networks to provide more relevant advertising.

What do you think social networks mean for e-commerce? Something limited to giants like Ebay, or the future of e-commerce?