The e-commerce grapevine is alive with talk about on-line business Ocado preparing to go for a stock market flotation as early as May. It’s thought the value of the e-commerce business is around £1 billion, which would make it part of the FTSE 250.

This is big news indeed for the on-line grocery company that was set up 10 years ago by former Goldman Sachs bankers Jonathan Faiman, Tim Steiner and Jason Gissing. Shareholders include the TetraPak billionaire Jon Rausing, the former US vice-president Al Gore, Procter & Gamble and the John Lewis pension fund.

Ocado reported a rise of 30% in underlying sales in December but the company has not yet made a pre-tax profit. During 2009 Ocado reported a pre-tax loss of £32.6 million.
It will be interesting to se how this debut floatation goes.

There are many ways to make social media marketing work for your e-commerce or on-line business. But there are also a number of ways to get it wrong. Here we bring you some dos and 10 don’ts.

DO: Define your goals; target your market to follow the right people; look at what competitors are doing; have an offer and call to action; keep track of results; be original; be engaging; be honest; be active; be open-minded about other points of view; be honest; build a community; make friends; and try to influence people

DON’T: Be too pushy; post news releases; be hurt when people stop following you (it happens a lot!); spam; stalk people; be negative; have multiple profiles for your brand; too self-serving.