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Want to accumulate as many followers as possible? Then tweet a lot

But if your goal is to drive more traffic to your site, you should show a little more restraint;

It turns out that time is often the afternoons, when blogs and news sites are slower, and the weekend, when they’re all but asleep.

According to a new report from ForeSee Results, fewer than 1% of website visits came directly from a social media URL. Their report also says that 18% of site visitors reported being influenced by social media, which would mean that 17% of those folks visited the site in some way other than clicking on a social media link.

ForeSee’s initial results, after surveying nearly 300,000 consumers, is that people who were influenced by social media spend more and are more satisfied and loyal customers than those who aren’t influenced by social media.

#1: Martell Home Builders

Think outside the box, like Martell did by allowing their clients to see where their contractors were at all times while on the job and by giving access to photos of their homes being built.

#2: Zappos

Within three months, his blog made it to the first page of Google when the phrase "Malibu real estate" was searched. Daily page views started to rise until he was averaging 300 a day. On days when a news aggregator picked up one of his posts, page views soared to as many as 8,000. But clicks aren't commission checks. The first phone call from someone reading the blog arrived within a year, and business soon followed. His most expensive listing or sale came last year from a Malibu resident. "She enjoyed reading my blog and wanted me to list her house at $14 million," Gardner said. The 14,000-square-foot Italian villa sits on 20 ocean-view acres. A Seattle-based blog reader recently gave Gardner the listing on her $8.5 million Malibu house. Another, Mark DiPaola, found an ocean-view home site in Malibu last year through Gardner. "When I started looking for an agent I went to Google and typed in 'Malibu Realtor,'" said DiPaola, the chief executive of CheckPoints, a mobile app that rewards shoppers. "The first or second time I saw the blog it was clear he knew the market."

Shoppers who go online are willing to interact with retailers on social networks in order to find information on deals, contests, and products in general

42 percent of online shoppers follow a retail brand via a social network

The average such shopper follows six retailers. Fifty-eight percent are looking for news on deals, 49 percent want information on products, and 39 percent are after details of events and contests.