Shopping with Social Intelligence: How it Works [Infographic. Here’a a wondrous new infographic from freelance graphic designer Rebecca Nunes summarising how shoppers shop smart with their social intelligence. Taken from the shopper rather than the seller perspective, the infographic explains how we use our social intelligence – our ability to understand and learn from each other and profit from social situations – to shop smart. Rebecca took our original post on the social psychology of social shopping that’s been the subject of a number of reports, articles and other infographics and summarised the key points. A useful creative stimulus, we hope, for you when planning how to sell in social media. Long story short – to sell successfully in social media you’ll need to offer social utility; a social service that helps people find social solutions to problems or solves social problems.
[hr] Today’s article is sponsored by Milyoni: The Leader in Social Entertainment. Finding Your Customers on Twitter. Though face-to-face networking remains crucial to the success of your business, taking advantage on online tools can be a great supplement to all your other efforts to find prospects. Personally, I’m not always comfortable at networking events. Trolling for customers online is very comfortable and often leads to the identification of a prospect followed by a live meeting for coffee. Using Twitter to identify prospect, see how they behave online, and then engage with them, can be an incredibly efficient use of your networking time. Twitter allows you to use keywords and hashtags to find prospects who may even be geographically targeted. Try Twitter’s Advanced Search tool to locate prospects. Tweetdeck, Hoosuite and other applications that assist you in managing your Twitter feed, can also be used for prospecting purposes.
Several other tools exist to assist in your prospecting. Every tool has its pros and cons, and there are many to choose from. Connect: Authored by: Brad Friedman. Seeing Social | a peak at social media. Social Media Demographics. This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy. This app is meant to all be in good fun, but it's potentially a weapon in the hands of stalkers. “Boy, you sure have a lot of apps on your phone.” “Well, it’s my job.” “What’s your favorite?” “Oh, I couldn’t choose. But hey, want to see one to set your skin crawling?”
It was the flush end of a pleasurably hot day — 85 degrees in March — and we were all sipping bitter cocktails out in my friend’s backyard, which was both his smoking room, beer garden, viticetum, opossum parlor and barbecue pit. “Girls Around Me? She turned to our friends, apologetically. “He’s become obsessed with this app. I sputtered, I nevered, and I denied it, but it was true. It’s an app that can be interpreted many ways. And more than anything, it’s a wake-up call about privacy. The only way to really explain Girls Around Me to people is to load it up and show them how it works, so I did. The splash screen elicited laughter all around. “Okay, so here’s the way the app works,” I explained to my friends. “Wait… what? The growth of mobile commerce: infographic.
Thanks to the iPhone and the popularity of smartphones, we've seen rapid growth of mobile commerce over the last couple of years, something we've covered in detail on this blog. According to IMRG stats, 7.7% of visits to UK e-commerce sites came from mobiles in 2011, accounting for 3.3% of all purchases. This may seem low, but though most have seen the light, not every retailer has launched a mobile site or app. For those companies with more forward thinking mobile strategies, the gains are there to be had. For example, 18% of Ocado's sales came via mobile last year, while Dominos made £10m via mobile last year, and £1m in just one week early in 2012. This infographic from IMRG and eDigital Research contains some great stats on m-commerce growth from 2009 to 2012...
Click image for a larger version: Online Giving Still Fastest Growing Fundraising Channel with Almost 16 Percent Increase in 2011; Mirrors Retail E-Commerce Growth Rate for Last Six Years. Pinterest co-founder Paul Sciarra said to be leaving company. Update: Sciarra, in a Pinterest blog post, confirmed his departure. Is there trouble in Pinterest paradise? Paul Sciarra (pictured, left), co-founder of digital pin-board sensation Pinterest, is said to be on his way out the door. Sciarra will be leaving the company as soon as next week, according to a report from Startup Grind, which said it confirmed the departure with several company insiders. Pinterest, first launched in 2010, came out of Cold Brew Labs, a product shop started by Sciarra and college pal Ben Silbermann.
Why would a co-founder get off a train that appears to be steamrolling ahead to Facebook-level fame and fortune? Troubling though the departure may be, Sciarra’s exit will be a minor blip for the up-and-coming company that shows no signs of slowing down. Pinterest and Sciarra did not immediately respond to requests for comment. VB's working with marketing expert Scott Brinker to understand the new digital marketing organization. The Facebook Timeline of Social Commerce: Infographic » Infographics Central. Facebook shoppers 'are mostly mums' Obama re-election campaign debuts 'one-click' SMS donations.
Obama’s fundraising campaign has debuted a new SMS tool that allows supporters to make a donation simply by texting the number of dollars they want to contribute. Last week a text message was sent to tens of thousands of previous donors asking them to again open their wallets. According to Time, the message told supporters to “just reply with the amount you want to give and we’ll charge your saved credit card.” It reportedly achieved a response rate 20 times greater than any text message solicitation Obama has sent out before. Mobile Giving Foundation previously used the tool to raise more than $30m in a just a few days after the Haiti earthquake, but this is the first time it has been used for a political campaign. The key appears to be simplicity – one of the main issues to overcome with m-commerce is creating a user-friendly checkout process. It mirrors Amazon’s ‘one-click’ payment method that allows consumers to make payments without re-entering credit card details each time.
Do Influencers Still Matter in Social Marketing? Marketing guru Seth Godin said that “small is the new big” a few years ago before Facebook and Twitter became tools for marketers. Godin says that SMEs are more deemed to be successful than big companies. A “small” could gradually become scalable than a “big” which carries a few liabilities already. This couldn’t be more true in the world of social marketing. As brands embrace social business strategies, some are still occupied with the notion that for a product to fly, an endorser or influencer must pave the way to make it trend in social networks. However, there is a meager of data to prove that influencer marketing has direct impact on Social ROI. Marketers each has their own way of utilizing their strategies to come up with a social marketing campaign fit for a brand. A recent article from Adage by Buzzfeed founder Jon Steinberg and StumbleUpon’s Jack Krawczyk, says that when users visit their sites the intention to share is apparent.
Here’s an excerpt from the report: Connect: Third Party Apps Test Social Commerce Waters On Facebook. Snoop Dogg is the first to use a new service to Make Money Money on Facebook. MarketPage launched last Friday as a way for celebrities to allow retailers access to their fan base to sell products. Merchants who sell on the Snooper Market using MarketPage are essentially getting a Facebook endorsement from the hip hop star. Like other payment apps Payvment and Oodle, MarketPage appears to fall within Facebook's usage terms. Facebook declined comment on the new service and whether it gets revenue from sales made through MarketPage because it is in the quiet period ahead of its initial public offering. Facebook has notably negotiated some steep service terms with certain app makers, including a five-year deal with Zynga in which Facebook gets 30% of all revenue Zynga generates through its online games. "We've quickly discovered that it doesn't make sense to create a shop just for your friends," said Melvin Tercan, CEO of Tinypay Inc., which developed MarketPage.
Facebook Marketing Even Works For Niche Retailers. As Facebook commerce has emerged over the past few years, the landscape has largely been dominated by news of big-name retailers as they have tried to leverage this new medium to maximize results and separate themselves from competitors. But what about the little guys and their efforts to weave social commerce into their own marketing strategies?
It seems as though their work in this important area often goes unnoticed or unreported, to the point where one might question if a majority of smaller retailers are even engaged in social commerce at all. It’s a valid concern, to some degree. A retailer selling items that aren’t considered impulse buys, such as printer cartridges for example, faces a tougher challenge overall in effectively marketing via social commerce than a bigger merchant hawking a wide array of products like electronics or clothing and apparel.
Let’s return to the hypothetical merchant selling printer cartridges and toner. Seven tips for global e-commerce. As retailers begin to ramp up their online presence overseas, two weeks ago at a conference in San Francisco I was asked to examine the benefits – and challenges – of international e-commerce. Entitled: The Global Push, I took the audience through a statistics rich presentation that should be an aid to any brand considering global e-commerce expansion. For those of you who weren't there, Fiona Gandy, Key Account Manager at 7thingsmedia, will cover a rundown of the session, summed up in seven takeaway tips. 1.
Make your website local in every way, shape and form. When a brand has grown in the UK, internationally-based customers who click on the site can cope with the site being in English and sterling – they half expected that already. However beyond ex-pats and tourists, there's trouble in targeting far-flung audiences as they'll inherently expect their own language, verbiage, and currency. 2. In the US, one in 10 products are restricted from leaving the United States. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. The New York Times: Will Less Equal More? Draw Something: one app + five weeks + 20m downloads = $200m acquisition by Zynga. What does a single app that generates 20m downloads and $100,000 per day in revenue in five weeks? In the case of OMGPOP, the maker of the hit app Draw Something, it apparently gets you acquired in week six. Today, social gaming giant Zynga announced that it has acquired OMGPOP.
While terms of the acquisition are not being revealed publicly, Peter Kafka of AllThingsDigital says his sources have indicated that the deal is worth in excess of $200m when employee retention is factored in. An astonishing exit for a company that just weeks ago few had heard of. It's not hard to see why Zynga, which has built a billion-dollar social gaming empire, would be interested in OMGPOP. According to Kafka, Draw Something's popularity has continued to surge and the game is now reportedly netting $250,000 each day for OMGPOP. That in and of itself is impressive to the say the least, but it's even more impressive when you consider that OMGPOP is lucky to be alive. Features / BrandLine : It's a Kodak moment! Though the brand practically invented the digital camera, it was not able to appeal to digitally connected consumers. I own a Canon digital camera, but whenever I capture a rare moment it is a Kodak moment for me. While Kodak practically invented digital camera back in 1975, it failed to understand and effectively serve the ‘Click and Share' needs of today's digitally connected consumers.
Sadly, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 two months ago. It's a Kodak moment for businesses when it comes to social commerce. Pun intended. If I told you that 82 per cent of the world's online population visits social networking sites and spends more than 20 per cent of the total time spent online at social networking sites, sharing everything from life events to ‘likes', you would want to set up shop in those networking sites. The question is, should you? However, to take advantage of the opportunity, three things need to happen. Extension of engagement using social technologies to customer service.
How E-commerce Has Remodeled Offline Stores. E-commerce has radically changed our habits and made us redefine the role, and the function, of physical sales outlets. At the dawn of e-commerce, many claimed the days of the brick-and-mortar retailers were numbered. Yet, just the opposite has happened. Some of the biggest brands on the Web are opening shops offline. Here’s the difference: Selling is just part of the experience. Instead, online brands are building offline “enticement outlets.” They want—and need—to say: “I exist. Why? This nexus between the real and virtual worlds signals the individual’s rise to preeminence. It is no longer necessary for retailers to depend upon multiplying their physical sales outlets. The intelligence of this “enticement outlet” needs to be cleverly showcased.
Of course, like most good things, this trend is beginning to become a bit overdone. A customer who decides to go out and make contact with the brand isn’t looking for coffee. Didier Stora is president of gyro Paris. The 6 Pillars Of Social Commerce: Understanding The Psychology Of Engagement. Social media is about social science, not technology. As such, its value is not realized in the Likenomics of relationship status nor in the scores individuals earn by engaging in social networks. The value of social media comes down to people, relationships, and the meaningful actions between them. The exchange of social currencies contribute to one's capital within each network. Through conversations, what we share, and the content we create, consume, and curate, we individually invest in the commerce of information and the relationships that naturally unfold. It is in how these relationships take shape that is both in and out of your control.
This is why, in the age of social networking, relevant engagement counts for everything. One of the greatest myths in new media is that social networks facilitate conversations about you that would not otherwise take place if your organization weren't present. The A.R.T. of Engagement The Psychology of Social Commerce. A Look Ahead in Retail Shows Ecommerce Growth Continuing. E-commerce consumer reviews: why you need them and how to use them. 61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision, and they are now essential for e-commerce sites. User reviews are proven sales drivers, and something the majority of customers will want to see before deciding to make a purchase.
Here are some compelling stats on user reviews, why they are great for SEO, why bad reviews are valuable, and how to use reviews in navigation and on product pages... Why you need customer reviews There have been so many positive recommendations of the value of reviews for e-commerce, that the case doesn't really need to be made anymore, though I'll make it again anyway. Quite simply, user reviews increase conversions. We like leaving reviews too. The stats According to Reevoo stats, 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates. 63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews. The SEO benefits of reviews These include: Fresh, unique content for search engines Indexation.
Google’s new social report focuses on dollars instead of Likes. 17 Revelations On How An Online Retailer Went From Zero to $1.2 Billion. Internet Economy Found Contributing to 4.7% of US ‘10 GDP. The Curious Case of Social Buttons in E-commerce. Online retailers like social media buttons. Upcoming Webinar Spotlights Social Commerce Best Practices. 1 Out of Every 5 People in the World Will Logon to a Social Network. Study Says Pinterest More Trusted By Women Than Facebook, Twitter.
10 Mechanics of Personal Branding. Is Pinterest Driving More Traffic Than Twitter? [STATS] How To Customize Timeline On A Facebook Page. Privacy. Pavyment study shows sellers use Facebook ads to drive f-commerce. Is Social Media A Bubble And SXSW A Fad? Gap serves 2.5m location-triggered ad impressions with Zynga. Pinterest: The Next Social Media Superstar, or Just the Flavor of the Week? How Has The Social Media Landscape Changed Since 2008.
What Are The Most Viral News Sources on Twitter and Facebook.