Amazon becomes the best Facebook Connect implementation yet

On Tuesday, Amazon implemented Facebook Connect to become - in our opinion - one of the greatest Connect implementations yet. This is a match made in heaven and takes Social Networking and connectedness to a new level. Read on to find out why and learn about some of the sensitive decisions Amazon made, that will make this move propel Amazon’s business and affect their bottom line. So how does it work? Amazon’s might, power and success is due to a large degree, to its recommendation engine. As you purchase more books, music or any of the thousands of products available, it learns about your personal tastes and sends you an email with the latest offerings that match. This is excellent for personal use, but the one aspect that has been missing all these years is understanding what your friends or family might like as a gift, sure you might ask them but what if you’d like the gift to be a surprise? Enter Facebook Connect and what you see on the right in the image below is a list of friends birthdays. Clicking on the Amazon Facebook Page brings up options to see gift suggestions for friends as well as which books/products are popular among specific friends. This makes it extremely easy to spend money with Amazon - by simply clicking on a recommended gift I can purchase a friend a gift that they actually want and don’t even have to know where it should be delivered because Amazon should have those details already. What are the benefits of connecting Amazon and Facebook? Tap into your Facebook network to improve your Amazon shopping experience: Discover Amazon recommendations for movies, music, and more based on your Facebook Favourites and Likes. See upcoming birthdays and find Amazon Wish Lists for your friends on Facebook more easily. Get great gift suggestions for your friends based on their Facebook Favorites and Likes. Explore your friends' Favorites and see who has similar interests. Treading carefully But why would you want your friends to see what products you have purchased before? That could be dangerously close to privacy violations and perhaps the end of a marriage or two. So how has Amazon solved this problem? Quite easily actually: Your personal Amazon data will not be shared with Facebook: Amazon will not share information from your account with Facebook. Amazon will not share your purchase history with Facebook. Amazon will not attempt to contact your friends on Facebook. Amazon will never post anything to your Facebook Wall without your consent. This means that only the information that you have shared on Facebook or have Liked on the web is pulled into Amazon from Facebook and not the other way around. Let’s wait and see the impact this has on Amazon's bottom line.

Facebook - A retailers best friend!

Since social media is the hot topic that is permeating our everyday lives, Web Analytics World (WAW) thought it was important to check in with customers to get their thoughts. How do they interact with retailers via social media? How would they prefer to interact? What value are they seeking from their interactions with retailers via social media? Find out answers to these questions and some best practices for retailers below. As part of the study of nearly 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-retail websites in the United States, Fore-See Results wanted to use the methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to examine these issues, because the ACSI is able to show how different elements of a shopper’s interactions with a company (including on social media) impact their purchase intent, loyalty, and recommendations. Key Findings: What WAW found is validation that social media is a viable marketing strategy when one understands what customers want and know which social media platforms such customers frequent. 56% of shoppers to top e-retail websites who interact with social media websites have elected to “friend” or “follow” or “subscribe” to a retailer on a social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Facebook is by far, the best place to reach shoppers—both because it’s where they already are, and it’s where they want to hear from retailers. Customers mainly interact with retailers on social media sites to learn about products and promotions— a marketer’s dream come true! Consumers Blending Social Media, Email Marketing Alison Diana InformationWeek Almost 40% of consumers consult Facebook and Twitter to complement the information, deals, and news they receive from companies via e-mail marketing, according to a new study by ExactTarget. "Consumers don't silo their engagement with brands to a single channel, instead they tend to layer marketing channels on top of one another to meet their different objectives," said Morgan Stewart, principal, ExactTarget's research and education group, in a statement. "The things that motivate consumers to go online initially dictate where and how they choose to engage with brands -- whether that be e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter." The buying public apparently are willing to develop relationships with businesses: More than 90% of consumers that are a fan of or like at least one brand on Facebook also get at least one permission-based marketing e-mail each day, the study of 1,500 consumers found. And more than three-quarters of consumers that follow at least one brand on Twitter, subscribe to at least one brand's e-mail marketing, according to the Social Profile study. "Simply understanding demographics of a customer group is no longer enough," said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget's chief marketing officer. "By bridging the gap between demographics and consumer motivations, the Social Profile research identifies unique personas that give marketers an entirely new level of understanding of consumer behavior." One-third of consumers identified themselves as "info seekers" and were most-heavily influenced by product reviews, and other forms of user-generated content. About 45% of mothers with children living at home called themselves "deal seekers" and on average were a fan of 10 brands on Facebook, followed 10 companies on Twitter, and received 14 permission-based marketing e-mails every day, the study showed. Slightly more than one-fourth of buyers under 25 called themselves "social butterflies." These consumers were fans of the most brands on Facebook and were most likely to buy from companies that send permission-based e-mails, according to ExactTarget's study. Ice cream giant Ben & Jerry's disclosed this week it will rely on Facebook and Twitter to communicate with consumers, sending only one e-mail newsletter per year, according to reports. And instead of unveiling its 2011 Explorer at an auto show, Ford is expected to debut its latest SUV this month on Facebook, according to USA Today. Best practices for retailers - stick to the following 8 simple rules: Make shopping more social. Engage your customers through polls and contests that get them generating the content. Enhance your page with applications that drive engagement and virality – like virtual gifts. Reward your customers with giveaways, sweepstakes, and sale coupons. Partner with causes your customers care about. Boost SEO by securing a vanity URL for your page. Bring the conversation offline. Remember to keep it simple.

The rise of social media (and the demise of the microsite)

In today's times we need to start making life simpler, not more complicated, sometimes less is more, especially when communicating to consumers. Is there still a place for the "microsite" in today's world? Predictions are that the microsite is dying a slow and painful death. How’s that possible? Aren’t microsites the defacto standard for “getting bang for your buck” in the online world? They certainly have become the standard approach to get and give consumers “all the information they need” in today’s marketing landscape. And there are some great examples. Really cool ones. But at best they have a finite life and very often the brilliant content they house is simply ditched as the campaign comes to an end. Social media profiles and Facebook Pages in particular, provide a very viable and long-term alternative to brands paying R100 000 (plus) a pop, for a fancy life-limited flash microsite that when built, does not magically attract thousands to visit it. So why then is social media such a real and viable alternative? 1. You won’t lose your brand identity and audience engagement You spend significant corporate energy on positive brand perception and awareness. And then you start over completely from scratch with an entirely new brand or product. Why? If you are reaching an entirely different audience and your current brand would be confusing, then you may in fact want to build out a new brand, however, in that case, you probably won’t be launching a microsite, you’ll launch a full site. In most cases, microsites are subsets of, or promotions for the main site, with exactly the same audience. Do you really want to work at building up multiple brand identities? And do you really not want to benefit from the brand building in one category for another related category? 2. You won’t lose the ability to leverage your audience By way of example, you launch an awesome site with a fantastic user experience, great products, and unrivaled customer support. Someone writes up a positive article about you in say, the Business Times. Readers start clicking over to your site. They see you sell running shoes. They just read about how great you are, so they feel confident about purchasing some products from your site. But maybe those same readers also need some clothes to go running in. If you had a separate runningclothes.com microsite, you’ve just missed a great opportunity to reach a targeted and motivated audience. 3. You won’t have to double your resources The microsite will use the same template and content management system. So it seems like a low overhead to maintain it . But wait, as you build out the content of both sites, you have to decide which content to put where and decide how to spend marketing, PR and advertising resources. When you issue a press release, which site do you talk up? All of them? What if you have 20? And you are likely doing social media too. Do you now maintain 20 Facebook pages and 20 Twitter accounts? If you have built the microsite specifically for an advertising campaign, what happens when the campaign is over? Do you maintain the site? Abandon it? Take it down? This question gets more complicated if the microsite included a social networking element. You’ve gotten your audience engaged... oh now you need to dump them. 4. You can keep your consumer (and fans) engaged for the long term The rise of the microsite has left a great big graveyard of micro sites in its wake. Many filled with brilliant content, discarded as campaigns come to an end. The beauty of social media as a platform is that you have a springboard for future campaigns that does not require any media spend, you have a ready made audience who have interacted with your brand in the past. Most of the functionality that we see in microsites can be built into a Facebook page where once you have an interaction it is likely that you will acquire a new fan who is not just a fan of your new campaign but a fan for the long term if you treat them well, and if you do it right, that fan will bring with them their own network of friends. And as for video - rather than let it fall into a big black hole why not house it within your Facebook Page. This way your fans can access it whenever they need it and your messages keep spreading rather than just being campaign based. Social media is changing how we market. Creating long term content hubs through social media using interactivity as a point of initiation, is a real and viable alternative – and also happens to tell the consumer ”everything they need to know”. Only it is not as capital intensive as a micro site and can last in perpetuity! Which route would you want to follow as a brand with a view of keeping fans engaged in the long term?

Has your Social Media Strategy been vetted?

Social media needs a business focus. With social media network Facebook out-pacing Google statistically in March, the need for solid social media strategy development couldn’t be more in demand. Optimising your business for social media is not just about addressing the technology you have. You have to look at the cultural shift that is happening. Businesses need to understand that collectively and globally priorities are very different than they were ten or even five years ago. You need to think of social media as not only a communications channel. If you think of social media as the most disruptive resource since the Internet and the Web, one that could change the way you touch and interact with your customers, one that could change the way you market your product and services more directly, more effectively - then you will begin to see the possibilities you're playing with. Most businesses start their social media strategy as more of a test. They try the toe-in-the-water, stop-gap approach. They try a one off blog, Twitter account or Facebook page that isn’t integrated into anything and most people - even those within the company - might not even be aware of it. This isn’t a bad way to start, there’s a lot of learning that happens in this phase but it doesn’t qualify as a strategy, and more often than not yields poor results. The real problem is that the supposed “organisational alignment” with the overall communications strategy just isn’t supporting the business strategy to begin with. And because they are not aligned they are not achieving efficiency. This problem isn’t unique to social media. It plagues all communications groups; advertising, marketing, PR etc. So, what should brands and companies trying to adapt to new media and align their businesses to social media do? 1. Take a careful look at your actual objectives No - that’s not just a list of goals or tactics but a clear focus on what one wants to achieve. Be it brand awareness or lead generation, even customer referral. But most importantly - how does what you do in social media link to the business objectives and deliver results to the business and customer (yes them too!) 2. Unpack what initiative you should and could actually leverage with social media Be realistic... does anyone care that you are trying to get more people to open a bank account, change tyres or wear a pink ribbon. Well hell no .. not if it’s not relevant. Relevance is what social media is about. Would you potentially care about being the “African Quiz champion” to a general knowledge quiz on Facebook. Well probably not unless you were a loyal supporter of Zain Africa, a telecoms operator in Africa, who sponsors a TV quiz that has a solid following. Leveraging this initiative has seen the brand build a Facebook community of over 40 000 loyal users in just 2 short months and increase its digital presence cost effectively. 3. Look at the value chain within your company What’s your point of sale, packaging or the website got to do with social media? Plenty! They are all touch points to interact and pull your consumer into a centrally “housed” community. The value of having a direct communication channel (community) is double the value of all the marketing campaigns and ad spend you have done to date. Have your Social Media Strategy Vetted! These insights are part and parcel of Popimedia Innovations' expertise amassed from hundeds of Social Media campaigns across many industries including Banking, Insurance, FMCG, Motor, Mobile, Airline and more. If this thinking appeals, then contact us to assist in developing your strategy. Social media strategy development is offered as a once of cost service to clients that will lay the foundation for future marketing and social media initiatives.

Why Social media is much more than an add on.

First it was dismissed. Then the hype built. Then it was discussed in earnest. Finally it took its place on the media schedule. Now many rave about it. And despite the misguided hype of many, social media is growing. Facebook grows by more than 5 million new users per week. Twitter touts an increase of unique visitors by 1,382 percent year-over-year, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category. Meanwhile, Facebook just out paced Google.  The trend Forrester suggests that digital ad spend in the US will increase from 12% to 21% in 2014 and social media spend will go from $716 Million to $3.1 Billion in the US by 2014. We all know that South Africa lags the US but in terms of digital ad spend, this is a view on the trend we could expect to see in the next 2 to 3 years. Value in its own right Does that mean that social media will continue to be an “add on” to traditional media? Or is it possible that at some point marketers will start to see the value of social media in its own right? The typical “carpet bomb” approach to marketing done the traditional way is as follows. A company who sells ‘kid snacks’ brands is trying to reach moms. They would find out who has the biggest number of moms, apply traditional demographics and broadcast marketing, oh and add on a Facebook Page and maybe a Twitter feed. And sales roll in. Right? Wrong? Social talks loudly What the brand has missed out on by applying the traditional marketing approach is addressing the specific behaviors of consumers – and their intricate relationships online. It’s called the “social graph”. It’s the social in social media that talks (very loudly) to the fundamental human behaviors of communication, sharing and collaborating. And social networks represent a different and changed way of communicating, organising, recommending and deciding. Tap the behaviour Tapping into that behaviour means that you need to know more than demographics and broadcast profiles – you need to know the specific behaviors of your customer base. Where are they online? What are their social behaviors online? What social information or people do they rely on? What is their social influence? Who trusts them? How do they use social technologies in the context of your products? Technology makes social media social There are a myriad of different social platforms and all have their merits. Each one evolving daily. Take for example the fact that “Facebook” will now spread beyond its closed garden with its Open Graph Protocol, (Facebook will be shutting down its Facebook Connect product. In its place, Facebook has launched a new protocol and API called Open Graph, which is based on OAuth 2.0.) The fundamental purpose of Open Graph is to make integrating external content with Facebook as simple as possible and as a result what you have is a more social web. But knowing how to leverage these tools is critical and makes all the difference as social becomes more important in any marketing strategy. Pay off for going alternative Is there a return for such an “alternative” marketing approach? One - a dialogue with consumers. Sounds good doesn’t it? Two - participation with your brand (by customers ) at a fundamental level. Sounds even better, right? But even more importantly is the sense that when you first understand your customers, your marketing efforts will naturally unfold. When you understand specific behaviors of consumers - and their intricate relationships online - you no longer look at social media as an “add on” channel to your traditional “carpet bomb” campaign. You use social media to understand your customer better, to tap into understanding their behaviour better, you make your marketing budget work long after the spend and ultimately sell to your customers more effectively.

Keep an objective in mind

A campaign's single most important attribute is it's objective. This enables the calculation of ROI and ultimately determines if your marketing effort was a success. Marketer's often forget this simple rule of thumb. How does this apply to Social Media? Read on to find out... It’s about the conversation. Social media addresses the fundamental human behaviors of communication, sharing and collaborating. And social networks represent a step change in how people communicate, organize, recommend and decide. It’ not much of a surprise that social networks represent new threats and opportunities in reputation management. Nor that in terms of the ad game we’ve all had a bit of a rude awakening. Message discovery is now as important as message delivery. Everything has a tag. And it’s not about the conversation. But it’s not all about the conversation. It’s not a matter of whether you get it or don’t. Like all things, it’s finding what works, building from a foundation, measuring progress, and adapting to new situations. Chris Brogan posted on how companies can choose social media channels that are right for them. He points out that what most critical in terms of social media and the decision process is that companies need to have clear goals and ways of measuring them. So actually it’s also about getting stuff sold. So if you have an FMCG brand “what works” for you is probably what drives up brick and mortar sales, incrementally or otherwise. Let’s face it - FMCG is hardly web-friendly . I’m not going to order my washing powder, a beer or tube of toothpaste online. Especially not on a whim…. it’s just not going to happen. So if you’re into the “conversation” you’d be inclined to say - it’s great , everyone is talking about you, and you’re part of “the conversation”. But what good is that when they’re talking about you in a context (such as online) where your product isn’t readily available. After all, what’s going to push me, the consumer, away from that online conversation and out to a point-of-sale (POS) where I will make a purchase? And even if I recall the buzz around your brand when I notice your product at a POS, is that going to be enough to make me buy? And if so, will your social media campaign create enough impulse buys to cover the agency fees behind that campaign? And whether it does or doesn’t, how are you going to track it? What measurement tools do you have in place or can you get access to? Social media needs an objective. Or it's just more talk. Make social media pay its way Social media can be an excellent strategy for fostering customer loyalty, but what is its potential to do so with non-web-friendly products? Your Facebook app might get me to buy today but will it keep me coming back? Burger King got it right with their Facebook app. They didn’t try to foster a devoutly loyal customer base using Facebook groups or their own social network. Rather, they devised a delimited marketing blitz with very clear objectives and measurable goals. Every consumer that participated got a coupon that could be tracked upon redemption. This would provide them with a complete cost-benefit analysis, measuring the costs of deployment against the additional costs of fulfillment alongside increased sales during times of redemption. Another great example - Starbucks added a few hundred thousand fans in a day with the launch of their application in July of 2009. What the trick to making it work? So the trick to making social media count for FMCG it seems is that campaigns have to do three things: Drive brick & mortar sales, offer a way to track and measure those sales, and keep consumers socializing with your media long enough that their increased expenditures cover the cost of your social media campaign. FMCG marketers need to be choosing social media campaigns based on how they can meet the objectives of what FMCG ROI actually is: [Sales – (planning costs + fulfillment costs)]/(planning costs + fulfillment costs) = ROI As long as that objective is kept in mind, social media can be an effective marketing channel even for FMCG. If marketers choose a medium both based on those objectives and on their need for measurement -social media does pay.

Social Media Spend increases

The world is changing fast. Let's have a look at the state of a couple of the statistics both globally and here in South Africa to understand the latest trends and what this means for the future in terms of advertising spend on Social Media. A Global View I think it is clear that South Africa lags the US in terms of digital ad spend so this is a view on the trend we could expect in the next couple of years. In summary: Digital ad spend in the US increases from 12% to 21% in 2014 Social Media Spend goes from $716 Million to $3.1 Billion in the US by 2014 But is this spend actually validated? What we see to the left are the results of research done by Hitwise. This relates the percentage of visits to Facebook versus Google and the results are astounding. The week ending 13 March 2010 sees Facebook overtake Google for the first time. But what does this mean for South Africans? A list of the top 10 South African sites by Alexa sees global sites dominating our audience's eyeballs with only 2 local sites making the top 10. google.co.za facebook.com google.com yahoo.com youtube.com wikipedia.org twitter.com blogger.com gumtree.co.za news24.com Further more, of the top 10 sites, it could be argued that 9 are social or offer social features. But lets look a bit further at the unique visitors from South Africa using Google Trends SA Unique Vistors what we see is Facebook certainly dominating the South African Audience. You are invited to try your own searches.