The gathering strength of social commerce

A report finds that consumers are ready and willing to shop via Facebook and Twitter.

Zak Stambor

Associate Editor of: http://www.internetretailer.com

Topics: branding, comScore, customer reviews, Facebook, Fiona Swerdlow, m-commerce, mobile commerce, National Retail Federation, online discounts, product recommendations, Shop.org, social commerce, social media, Twitter, YouTube

The best way to market to the masses was through television. Then cable fragmented the TV audience, and then the Internet lured eyeballs away from TV sets. Now social media stands as one of the few places to reach a wide swath of consumers. That new marketing reality runs through the “2011 Social Commerce Study” released today by Shop.org, the online retail division of the National Retail Federation, consultancy Social Shopping Labs and web measurement firm comScore Inc.

The report finds that 77% of online adults use social networks and 54% of those consumers have followed a retailer on Facebook, Twitter or a retailer’s blog. The average consumer that has followed a retailer online tracks 6.3 of them. According to the report, consumers follow brands to find discounts (58%), learn about products (49%), read customer reviews (34%) and share information with other customers (30%).

Shop.org and comScore based the findings on a survey of 1,700 U.S. consumers conducted via e-mail in April.

While many retailers use social media to build their brands, the report suggests merchants can do more to generate sales directly from social networks. 56% of Facebook users say they have clicked through to a retailer’s web site because of a Facebook post, while 67% of Twitter users say a post has spurred them to click through to a web site. Moreover, 35% of shoppers say they would be likely to make a purchase directly from Facebook and 32% say they would do the same via Twitter.

Mobile also is transforming consumers’ social experiences. “Mobile is a driver of social frequency—as smartphone usage grows, consumers increase the frequency with which they use social media,” says the report. The survey results support that idea. 42%of Twitter users access the site on their mobile phone at least once a day, while the same is true for 34% of Facebook users. 32% of consumers view YouTube clips daily from their smartphones.

“Instead of waiting to get back on their desktop computer to watch videos or interact online, Americans are easily accessing social networks when they have even a few moments of down time, whether they’re scanning Facebook news feeds while picking up their kids from school or tweeting about their shopping experience while browsing the mall,” says Fiona Swerdlow, head of research at Shop.org. “The popularity of mobile devices will only boost the power of social commerce, which presents an incredible opportunity for retailers.”

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Good reason to freshen up your Linkedin Profile

Article from www.smartblogs.com

This guest post is by Jason Seiden, co-founder of Ajax Social Media. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn began publicly trading Thursday, and immediately the stock spiked, rocketing from $45 to $122.70 before retreating to $94.25 at the end of the trading day.

So what?

Here’s the so what: LinkedIn is the single professional profile of record for more than 100 million professionals worldwide. They’re focused. They’re smart. They’re forward thinking. And now they have a war chest.

Many people still equate LinkedIn with online résumés. What these folks don’t realize is that LinkedIn is eight years old — it was born well before the Great Recession — and its usefulness in connecting people with new jobs is but one small piece of the value its creators envisioned for it.

As the economy rights itself, morphs and adapts, LinkedIn will continue to provide value to professionals, in more ways than people expect. We’ve already begun to see some of what’s in store with the roll out of:

InMaps: provides a visual representation of one’s professional network
Personalized news: right there on your homepage
Signal: a way to see what’s happening in your networking by sorting through connections’ relevant tweets and status updates
Company pages: a way to highlight companies and products inside the LinkedIn network

So how can you make sure you’re ready for what LinkedIn rolls out next? It’s as easy as 1-2-3:

Make sure you have a credible profile. Review the content — is it complete? Is it accurate? Is the story you’re telling consistent?
Treat connections with care. Too few connections, and you miss out on the power of LinkedIn’s phenomenal tools. Too many, and the tools become useless because your network is junk. Hint: Use an InMap to assess your network.
Send people occasional notes. Say hi. Ask how the kids are, or mom or dad. Follow up when you know someone’s completed a major project to see how it came together. Be good.

It’s that simple. Then, whether you’re looking to make a sale, get promoted, find a job, discover what’s happening in your field, or something else, you’ll be ready.

What is Flipit4u Marketing

Welcome to Flipit4u Marketing

My name is Chris Picanzo and I’ve created this web site to kick off my own business that I learned how to do via Local Mobile Fusion. Local Mobile Fusion is a relatively new term used to describe what is happening in today’s search engine markets. We are taking local search and mobile search and fusing them together so your business is completely optimized to get the results you desire when someone is searching for your product or services.

The City of Brockton MA, has always been in the forefront of the nations economy going way back to when Edison lit up the fire house in the 1880′s. Since then Brockton has seen a lot of ups and downs. Today the economy around the globe is suffering but is making progress because of the internet and mobile devices that can access the internet.

Flipit4u Marketing Can take your business to the next level by detailing and creating ways that your business will be found when someone is looking for a product or service in your industry. The rules of the game have changed over the last couple of years. Before every company had to have a web site and had to pay big money for someone to build it, then had to pay even more money to have what is called SEO “Search Engine Optimization” work done to the site. Now Google has made it much different when it comes to finding a business online. Now with mobile phones taking over the world everyone does their searching via mobile web. The stats show that out of all searches done on Google over 50% of those searches are done via Mobile device.

This is a game changer and at Flipit4u we can make your business show up on a Google Search Results Page and when this happens your business gets more clicks or calls for service. There are many different ways we can get your business to shine in front of the competition and in today’s competitive market you want your business to be first choice when someone needs a product or service.

Flipit4u Marketing Can get your business mobile ready and start mobile campaigns that will enhance all area’s of your business. We can utilize Text marketing and many other options that will show your business is on top of what’s going on and what people need.

How Your Brand Can Get Social with Daily Deals

Posted from: www.searchenginewatch.com

How Your Brand Can Get Social with Daily Deals

Kaila Strong | May 5, 2011 | 0 Comments

Online coupons have been around for quite some time, but within the past two years have grown exponentially in popularity and expanded beyond $.50 off your favorite cereal at the grocery store.

Receiving a daily deal on beauty products, food, services, or experiences are only a few clicks away now thanks to sites like Groupon or Living Social and now Facebook too. Traditional print coupons are so 2007.

Recently entering the daily deals industry, Facebook Deals were developed to “get groups of friends to discover your business” focusing less on the deal and more on the social component of bringing friends together to experience shared activities.

Still in its infancy, Facebook Deals looks to slightly transform the industry by adding the social component Groupon and Living Social attempt but fail to master.

Some are touting Facebook’s move as the end of Groupon and Living Social, but in reality the sites differ and can hold their own in the multi-million dollar industry. Take for instance their marketing styles, user demographics and prices just to name a few.

As a brand it’s important to examine exactly if your business can take advantage of daily deals and look to the future of the ‘social daily deals’ industry with the Facebooks, Groupons and Living Socials of the interwebs.

Create a Social Experience

It’s quite logical that Facebook would enter the industry in a way that incorporates their core mission: to “help connect and share with the people in your life.”

Creating an experience that appeals to your audience is just one part of creating a successful deal. If you don’t know your audience how will you be able to effectively create an experience worth experiencing?

Until Facebook or Groupon/Living Social allows consumers to put together their own deal experiences, you’ll have to do your research to ensure you’re giving them what they want. You can’t please everyone, but at the very least do your research and give it the old college try.

Research

Poll customers both online and offline to get a feel for their interests

See what competitors or industry leaders are doing in this space

Ask your staff for ideas, even family and friends can help

Check out Q&A sites, About.com, or other online portals that might hold deal information your audience is already checking out

Try combining multiple service offerings into one package deal

Remember holidays and event “seasons” that may mesh well with your deal

Understand the Costs

There are certainly costs associated with daily deal promotions. Most sites make their money by taking a percentage of the proceeds from bulk deals pre-paid for on their platforms. But there are also other costs to examine; try asking yourself these questions:

Do I have sufficient profit margins to actually offer a discount?

How many deals will I need to sell in order to make this deal worthwhile to my bottom line?

Realistically, how many customers am I hoping will come back to buy my services again?

Have I looked at tools to help manage the mob of possible customers?

Is my business equipped to handle a possible max influx of business, or will it cost revenue to hire and train new staff or get resources?

Have I attempted to figure out the ROI of my daily deal?

Facebook’s Deal business guide, Groupon’s detailed case studies, and Living Social’s “Merchant Bill of Rights” each provides businesses with information specific to the deal platform and offers some tips you can use when determining if a daily deal is right for your business, how to structure it, and more.

Are ‘Daily Deals’ Sites and Facebook Deals Here to Stay?

The short answer, yes. Time and time again we’ve seen that online users are looking to connect with brands that can shell out a good deal.

ExactTarget‘s survey comes to mind which found that 40% of users on Facebook “Like” a brand because they want to receive discounts and promotional information. Exclusive offers to new customers can create brand loyalists and advocates that can be worth their weight in gold — sometimes.

The devil’s advocate in me will point out that not every customer who is looking for a cheap deal is going to be your ideal customer. They may just as soon accept a deal at a competitor and play the lets-make-a-deal game regularly, never coming back to your establishment.

Important to remember, however, are the intrinsic properties of daily deals, which can transcend a one-time purchase.

With Facebook Deals you’ll have direct access to prospective fans and their friends to help build community and relationships right on the platform they frequent often. With Groupon and Living Social, you’ll have access to their large lists of users.

Each have their own marketing values when taken into account with the items addressed above.

Do you think the expansion of daily deals into the social realm will be successful?

Twitter to acquire Tweet Deck

Twitter Tops UberMedia in Bid to Acquire TweetDeck For $50 Million
Posted: 03 May 2011 09:19 AM PDT
On April 19, Mobile Marketing Watch reported that social’s media’s hottest microblogging platform, Twitter, was rumored to be considering an acquisition of TweetDeck, the popular desktop and mobile app used by millions of “tweeps” daily.

It now appears that the rumored acquisition is proceeding as planned.

According to sources speaking with Tech Crunch, the acquisition is a done deal and the purchase will be publicly announced, possibly for the end of the week.

The estimated $50 million purchase price is believed to include both cash and Twitter stock.

For months rumors have swirled about the anticipated looming acquisition of TweetDeck, although this week marks the first serious talk of Twitter being the buyer. Three months ago, rumblings surfaced about the prospect of UberMedia allegedly offering $30 million for TweetDeck.

Twitter, which has only made a few small acquisitions to date, is believed to be entering “rapid expansion” mode, a reality fueled by the return of Jack Dorsey, the founding chief executive of Twitter, who resumed his role as product chief less than two months ago.