Alternative Marketing Model

Brands turn to social commerce to help monetise conversations

kaywildfire — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:16:37 +0000

For anyone working with the word of mouth marketing industry, it’s safe to assume that discussions around ROI come around like clockwork, as our clients continue to face the challenge of selling in what is still a relatively new channel to their internal stakeholders.

The good news is that the rise of social commerce – a relatively new WOM phenomenon – looks set to prove a major opportunity for brands and word of mouth marketers looking to monetise word of mouth measurably – at least that’s the view of Dr Paul Marsden who presented his latest thinking at a WOMMA UK event last week.

Marsden is certainly not alone in his line of thought. Marketing Week says ‘forget e-commerce; social commerce is where it’s at’ whereas Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said ‘if I had to guess social commerce is the next area to really blow up.’

So what is social commerce exactly? Well according to IBM it’s ‘the concept of word of word of mouth applied to e-commerce’. Or, put another way, social media plus shopping.

The premise behind social commerce is an interesting one. As a rule, people like to shop together. Together we feel that we make better shopping decisions, using what Marsden calls social intelligence, based on the advice and opinions of other.

It’s fair to say that customer reviews sections on e-commerce sites are certainly nothing new, but that said there is plenty of evidence to suggest that brands are beginning to up their game. iTunes, for example, has introduced the social network Ping with its latest software update, enabling its customers to recommend and share music with their friends.

Dell on the other hand has generated more than $8 million in sales by enabling its customers to access exclusive deals through a dedicated Twitter feed – DellOutlet – whereas Diesel Spain has introduced social networking capabilities to its fitting rooms so that shoppers can upload pictures direct to their Facebook newsfeed – enabling them to share their shopping experience with their friends in real-time.

With all this in mind it’s a pretty safe bet that we’re going to see an increasing number of brands turning to social commerce over the coming months as a way of engaging with their customers, whilst demonstrating tangible ROI.

A New Study on Social Networking in the U.K.

joachimschulz — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:17:23 +0000

It details the reach of social networking among age groups (social media is not reserved to the youth) as well as the top 10 social networking site in the UK.

Check out this interesting new study by Comscore by clicking here.

Social Influence Marketing

joachimschulz — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:27:09 +0000

To read a great report on Social Influence Marketing, click here.

The rise and rise of social media as a marketing channel

wildfirewom — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:18:13 +0000

Forrester has a new report out predicting ongoing increases in the spend by marketers on social media and digital marketing activities whilst predicting an overall decline in the amount spent on advertising…

How consumer conversation will transform business

joachimschulz — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:52:55 +0000

This is the title of a very interesting PricewaterhouseCoopers study on Word Of Mouth. Some of the best quotations are: “marketer (…) must join the conversation, not interrupt it”, “the community is now the consumer”, “the new currency in advertising is the voice of the customer”…

To read the full study, please click here.

5 Myths on Buzz

joachimschulz — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:27:26 +0000

This Harvard Business Review article and table resuming the 5 myths of buzz dates from 2000 and yet it is as true as it was then than it is now. Have a look at it by clicking here.

Most trusted source of information: friends according to eMarketer study

joachimschulz — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:40:23 +0000

According to an eMarketer study, word of mouth is the most trusted form of media in the UK with 45% trusting recommendations of friends. To read the full study, click here.

Twitter and the 10%

joachimschulz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:06:45 +0000

According to a Havard Business School report, 10% of the users account for 90% of the content on Twitter. It is about the same in the general population where influencers don’t account more than 10% of the population. It only demonstrate the importance to find influencers (we can help you with this) to increase your word of mouth success.

Twitteriffic Business Week Slideshow

wildfirewom — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:21:32 +0000

For everyone interested in Twitter this business week slideshow rounds up some of the things that businesses are starting to do with the platform. It makes for an interesting read and, given that this is just a tip of the iceberg look at what’s going on, seems to indicate that twitter is being rapidly adopted as the new place to innovate by developers and entrepreneurs.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/04/0413_twitter_ecosystem/index.htm

Reasons why corporate social media fail (blog post)

wildfirewom — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:10:48 +0000

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/04/02/whats-wrong-with-corporate-social-media-and-how-to-fix-it/

links to various blog posts covering a panel session at the web2.0. expo. Some interesting thoughts and reading…