Is Social the Future of e-Commerce?

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Source: We Are Social 

Facebook & Retailers Need To Improve The User Shopping Experience

Over the past year, Nordstrom, Gap, Gamestop, and JC Penny, just to name a few, have made a strategic decision to back out of the storefronts they had implemented on Facebook. Other retailers have joined the list as well, frustrated with the inability to sell on Facebook, and if there isn’t change, others will join in the “F-commerce” abandonment.

It’s too early to tell exactly whether blame should be placed with Facebook or the retailers themselves, but more importantly, there could very well be implications when it comes time for Facebook’s initial public offering of shares. Facebook will be under serious performance pressure to prove to shareholders that it has the ability to grow its impressive revenue base. Facebook based e-commerce storefronts are an example of a perfect opportunity to do just that, however more strategic attention will need to be placed on both Facebook themselves and the retailers to make the experience worthwhile to users

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Source: Marketair

When a company promotes its brand by investing to social media platforms: tools, data, persuasion factors

Before start analyzing this concept on whether or not companies are in position to promote their brands by investing time and money on social media marketing it is necessary to pose certain questions.

Is it sure that the company and its products will have ROI using social media platforms (like Twitter, Facebook fan pages etc. )?

Is there a specific methodology  that will lead to one of the  main objectives (which is the increased number of fans/followers)?

If an agency takes into account certain factors and by taking advantage of the new technologies and carrying out a certain business plan, it is  most likely for this campaign (in social media) to be successful.

Before start analyzing it is necessary to establish some certain facts based on solid and concrete evidence, that should be taken into account.

Facts about social media and companies

  According to Busby et al “with 94 per cent of marketing executives responding to a 2010 survey indicating that they expect to spend more on social media over the following three years.” Thus companies are determined to spend more regarding their social media marketing policy.

  Why is that?  According to Facebook:

More than 800 million active users

 More than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any giv

 More than 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)

 Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

On average, more than 250 million photos are uploaded per day

  On average, people on Facebook install apps more than 20 million times every day

Every month, more than 500 million people use an app on Facebook or experience Facebook Platform on other websites

 More than 7 million apps and websites are integrated with Facebook

Twitter has 175 million  registered users

100 million are active users , almost 40% log in merely to see what other people are saying. 

More than 50 million users log in each day, and the daily average number of tweets is in the realm of 230 million

According to Soboleva “One of the challenges for organisations attempting to develop an effective and efficient Twitter strategy is the lack of theoretical or empirical evidence on use of Twitter” . This means that there is no far an academically evidenced study that can be implemented by other companies for their brands.

36,9% of users follow companies on their Facebook fan pages because these companies offer deals/discount whereas on Twitter it’s  43.5, according to Get Satisfaction.

 “60 percent of businesses believe social media content works best when used for communications, whether with customers, prospects or potential employees. Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms allow companies to interact in a more informal manner that makes brands more accessible.”

Psychology. It is undeniable that the psychological factor plays an important role. Implicitly we feel  nice when we have the sense that we are a part of a broader group (the case in point a group that is represented by a brand and this brand belongs to a company). We feel important and that our opinion counts for the company and its brands, especially when there is a two-way communication. This two-way communication, can benefit the company in the long run in terms of CRM, customer relationship marketing.  The more popular a brand is, the more likely is to get  more followers/friends. However this does not necessarily mean that it can keep them, if the company follows a catastrophic social media marketing strategy.

However, despite these facts  which are based on solid and concrete evidence, there are tools that can facilitate and organize  a social media marketing  strategy.

Tools that should be taken into serious consideration before and during the social media campaign are the following.

Facebook Fan pages applications. Without mentioning any third companies that offer applications that can be implemented on Facebook Fan page, a company  through its marketing agency can provide vouchers/coupons for users in order to like  the specific Fan page. Coupons which are offered to  unemployed, students with discounts can allure the potential “friends”/buyers.

Examples are the Starbucks or the House of Fraser.  A student who is interested in getting a discount for a certain product  should provide his/her unique number to the online coupon that is available through the company’s fan page and in this way the company will be able to verify the student in case of multiple frauds.

Twitter is dynamic tool that social media marketers can use for their benefit. They can have access to accounts that are not protected by putting certain keywords which are related to the brand that they promote. Simply by putting  the brand on the search tab of Twitter, marketers can have access on the  accounts/users that refer to the product and in this way they can see if the sentiment of the users towards the brand is positive, negative or neutral.

Popular brands can be connected with a catchy hashtag that will connect

Klout is an important tool in order to measure your company influence on others (on Blogger, on Foursquare, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc. ). According to Klout : “it provides powerful analysis and tools to help you more clearly understand your own influence, your network's influence, and the topical interests that make each of us special. Using Klout, you can improve your use of social media and better reach your network.”

 For example, if a marketing agency implements a social media strategy for  a brand, e.g. Lipstic from L’Oreal , then in this case the social media marketers should conduct a thorough research on the search tab to find relevant influencers and topics, by putting terms like “cosmetics” and automatically relevant influencers and topics will be at their disposal. Consecutively the social media marketers should add the influencers (physical or corporate entities) in their list and interact with them .

Google alerts

An efficient way to find out what the users think before launching your campaign and during the social media marketing campaign is to find out what users across the Web think about your brand. For example, if we have a brand which is Next, then it would be necessary to keep track of any terms related to Next (clothes, women clothing, men clothing etc) which are related to our brand; thus with the use of Boolean/proximity operators the result types can come from everything or from selected sources (news, blogs, videos and discussions) to the team’s mail. In this way the social media marketers will be able to handle according every source across the Web that is related to their brand.

Brand Visibility Metrics

Social media marketers before and during their social media marketing campaign can have a daily  update on the impact that the brand has across the social web. Indicatively:

“Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information.

It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.”

Also, it provides details regarding the sentiment (negative, positive, neutral), that could be useful for the marketers in order to mitigate any negative sentiment that the brand has.

A similar tool, related to brand visibility metrics is How Sociable.

According to How Sociable “We calculate the magnitude score by taking a sample of one week's activity across the social web and analyzing it to find out what portion of the activity references a brand”

These handy tools, which  social media marketers are going to use are sufficient enough to ensure that the brands of the companies will be developed in order to expand their impact on the social web and its users and at the same time brand visibility metrics tools can provide the necessary assurances that any negative impact will be faced effectively in terms of crisis management (if something comes up) 


*It should be pointed out that different strategy should be followed for every brand.  This passage concerns general practices/rules that should be followed for all brands; however, it is up to the marketers -in conjunction with the company- to create a strategy that matches their needs separately. 


Vagelis Varfis

How to Use Yammer to Drive Innovation

Many companies use Yammer to drive innovation and especially idea generation / development within their company. They often learn that it is fairly easy to recruit people for the Yammer platform which lets employees share and connect with coworkers in a private, secure enterprise social network.

It is, however, much more difficult to keep the users engaged over time. So what kind of engagement drivers work for innovation initiatives on Yammer? I am wondering and it would be great to hear your take on this. Here you get my starters.

First, I think we need to divide the approach into three key elements: Awareness, Facilitated content and User-generated content.

 Read more for enterprise 2.0

SOURCE http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/01/02/how-to-use-yammer-to-drive-innovation/

Taco Bell, Dunkin' Donuts and more test Facebook loyalty scheme

A loyalty scheme run by start-up Plink will give Facebook Credits to consumers in return for purchases at Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts and others.

This aims to take advantage of the boom in virtual currency, which is currently a $2.1bn industry.

After registering a credit card with Plink, users are rewarded with Facebook Credits each time they make a purchase in participating stores - Plink then takes a percentage of each sale.

Customers can use the virtual credits to buy additional content while playing games like FarmVille and The Sims

Read more for loyalty schemes

Source: http://econsultancy.com

House of Fraser targets students with Facebook discounts

The social media campaign mirrors a discount that is already available in-store as House of Fraser (HoF) tries to bring consistency to its online and offline offerings.

The voucher app on its Facebook page was launched in partnership with the National Union of Students (NUS) last week.

After entering their NUS card number, the student is given a code that gives a 10% discount when entered at HoF's online checkout.

The app, which will also offer 'flash sales' discounts, is aims to use Facebook to attract a younger demographic than those who normally visit the House of Fraser website, while encouraging first time purchases among students.

Read more for Facebook commerce



Source: http://econsultancy.com

7 Ways to Bring Your Community into the Content Creation Process

Content is a critical interface between ourselves and our community. It helps us achieve organizational objectives, reinforce our brand, and communicate key messages.

We, as community managers and content marketers, are well-positioned to create relevant, useful, and interesting content that serves both our audience’s needs and our goals. We live and breathe those goals, and we know our brand identity almost as well as we know ourselves. 

But just because we can do it all on our own, does that mean we should? The truth is, our brand belongs to our community as much as it belongs to us, if not more so. That identity is not a decree that gets passed down; it is shared and, more to the point, it is co-created. While we shape and communicate it, they are out there living it

Read more for Content marketing

Source: http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com

Critical analysis of blogging in public relations

Keeping up with the latest technology and understanding the consequences for everyday life and professional
practices is difficult for practitioners and academicians. At what point does an innovation become an everyday business practice, such as the Internet or wireless telephones? How do professionals know when understanding a new technology will be a prerequisite for success? One of the latest innovations currently having an impact on public relations is the blog. Both practitioners and academics are struggling to understand the value and consequences of blogs. This article tries to clarify the current strengths and weaknesses of the blog in both professional and academic contexts, analyzes current claims about blogging in public relations, and provides suggestions for understanding and studying blogs.
Read mor about blogging in public relations
Source: Micheal Kent

Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix

The emergence of Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products and the companies that provide them. Thus, the impact of consumer-toconsumer communications has been greatly magnified in the marketplace. This article argues that social media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because in a traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers, while in a nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The content, timing, and frequency of the social media-based conversations occurring between
consumers are outside managers’ direct control. This stands in contrast to the traditional integrated marketing communications paradigm whereby a high degree of control is present. Therefore, managers must learn to shape consumer discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization’s mission and performance goals. Methods by which this can be accomplished are delineated herein. They include providing consumers with networking platforms, and using blogs, social media tools, and promotional tools to engage customers.

Read more for social media in the promotion mix

Source: W. Glynn Mangold,  David J. Faulds

Most Companies Have Social Media Strategies

Three-quarters of companies currently have a social media marketing strategy, according toa new study from King Fish Media, Hubspot and Junta 42.


Read more for corporate social media strategy

Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age of Social Media

Read more about brand reputation

Source: Nora Ganim Barnes

Crisis Communication and Social Media

The rapid evolution of new media often results in the practice of public relations getting ahead of research.  The practice of crisis communication is ahead of research in terms of social media.  If you look at training seminars and webinars for crisis communication, social media is emerging as a “hot” topic.  A basic definition of social media is the use of technology to facilitate interaction and the sharing of information.  There is a need to elaborate and build greater knowledge about crisis communications and new media with an emphasis on social media.  So this section was developed to begin compiling information on the topic.


If you want to know more, please click here

Source: W. Timothy Coombs

My personal point of view on whether the HR departments Google your name before they hiring their employees..

 Is the  candidate willing to give his/her consent on HR departments to conduct certain searches on Google? If that's the case (eventhough I am not affiliated with any HR departments) I believe that there should be a certain procedure, cause I don't think there is so far.

So far, it is an ethical issue as it cannot be a legal one.
So I assume that it's more an ethical issue, at least for the time being.

Facebook is designed to limit the availability of your profile to your friends and only those in your other networks via the privacy settings. If you use the privacy features and believe that some employers got into your information unauthorized, then you might have a case.

"However, use of Facebook by potential employers is not addressed the Terms of Use for Facebook. The Terms of Use does say that its use is restricted to personal and non-commercial uses. ”Non-commercial” use means posting information for personal gain, like ads, which is prohibited. However, it does not mean an employer cannot access your information for commercial purposes, like research to make a hiring decision." (Potter 2008). It is difficult for the candidate to prove that kind of case, namely that he/she was rejected because of her FB account (maybe it could be proven through the a Freedom subject access request in an public organisation where the candidate could ask for the email correspondence, in case she/he feels that he/she was rejected by virtue of his online activity).
However, in the UK, could happen the same like Germany:http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/germany-plans-limits-on-facebook-use-in-hiring/



What happens in terms of authenticity?? Is it the right candidate the person that the HR has spotted or is it a different one? Is there synonymity? What the candidate expresses on his Twitter/FB/LinkedIn account is an exaggeration, figure of speech?
However the previous point of view (authenticity), can be contradicted by the fact that then if the HR is able to find the right candidate by Googling his/her name, then the HR will identify his/her ethnic background. In this case, is the HR going to select this person based on the candidate's ethic background or is the HR going to be effected by his/her photos and comments?
At the same time the HR office by Googling candidates  may find information that are related to the sensitive personal data of a candidate (e.g related to his health or sexual orientation or religious beliefs). For example the candidate on the application form, is not willing to state his religious beliefs, that the HR already know his/her religious beliefs.

There are so many variables, which some of them contradict the others.
I

Based on the above, I gave some examples on some grey areas, that I consider them as grey.

For the selection process (and if Googling help the HR to select the right staff), at least for the time being, I don't think it could assist on the selection process.
However, if the HR departments set some (ethical) rules within the company and they explicitly state on the company's website that e.g. the HR reserves the right to conduct Google search (maybe for its strongest candidates, the ones that were shortlisted), then in that case I don't think it should be a problem.". In that case I believe that it would help with the selection process.

Conducting a thorough search for all candidates I assume it would be time consuming. BuT for the ones that were short-listed, I believe that it is quite reasonable.

Also, it's our responsibility to be able to control our own accounts, in terms of privacy.

For any questions/comments please, by all means you can comment. 

What motivates consumers to review a product online? A study of the product-specific antecedents of online movie reviews

In recent years online product review forums have been exerting an increasingly powerful  influence on consumer choice. Not surprisingly, several firms are becoming interested in  leveraging this phenomenon, proactively trying to induce consumers to “spread the word”  about their products online (Godes et al. 2005). Interestingly, however, even after one  controls for the variance in sales volumes, there appears to be substantial variance in  consumers’ propensity to discuss different products online. A deeper understanding of the  forces that motivate consumers to write online reviews is, therefore, emerging as a  question of both theoretical and practical significance.


If you want to know more, please click here
Sources: Chrysanthos Dellarocas,  Ritu Narayan

Effects of Word-of-Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing: Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site

The authors study the effect of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing on member growth at an Internet social networking site and compare it with traditional marketing vehicles. Because social network sites record the electronic invitations from existing members, outbound WOM can be precisely tracked. Along with traditional marketing, WOM can then be linked to the number of new members subsequently joining the site (sign-ups). Because of the endogeneity among WOM, new sign-ups, and traditional marketing activity, the authors employ a vector autoregressive (VAR) modeling approach. Estimates from the VAR model show that WOM referrals have substantially longer carryover effects than traditional marketing actions and produce substantially higher response elasticities. Based on revenue from advertising impressions served to a new member, the monetary value of a WOM referral can be calculated; this yields an upper-bound estimate for the financial incentives the firm might offer to stimulate WOM.

The full article

Source:  Michael Trusov, Randolph E. Bucklin, & Koen Pauwel

Relationships between Blogs as eWOM and Interactivity, Perceived Interactivity, and Parasocial Interaction

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of a political candidate's blog-a form of eWOM (electronic Word-of-Mouth)-on attitudes toward the website, attitudes toward the political candidate, and intentions to vote. The results showed that interactivity in the form of a blog significantly influenced attitude toward the website, but not attitudes toward the candidate or voting intention. However, perceived interactivity influenced all three dependent variables, but did not interact with interactivity, suggesting that these are two separate constructs. The effects were mediated by parasocial interaction.


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Source: Journal of Interactive Advertising: Kjerstin S. Thorson, Shelly Rodgers

Social networking sites and our lives

OVERVIEW

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine social networking sites in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement. 

Click here, if you want to read the full report

Source:  Keith Hampton, Lauren Sessions Goulet, Lee Rainie, Kristen Purcell, Rew Research Center

'Like' Button Follows Web Users

Internet users tap Facebook Inc.'s "Like" and Twitter Inc.'s "Tweet" buttons to share content with
 friends. But these tools also let their makers collect data about the websites people are visiting.


If you want to know more, please click here

Source: Amir Efrati, Wall Street Journal 

How Online Tracking Companies Know Most of What You Do Online (and What Social Networks Are Doing to Help Them)

3rd party advertising and tracking firms are ubiquitous on the modern web. When you visit a webpage, there's a good chance that it contains tiny images or invisible JavaScript that exists for the sole purpose of tracking and recording your browsing habits. This sort of tracking is performed by many dozens of different firms. In this post, we're going to look at how this tracking occurs, and how it is being combined with data from accounts on social networking sites to build extensive, identified profiles of your online activity.


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Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation, PETER ECKERSLEY

Audience manufacture in historical perspective: from broadcasting to Google

The question of what is new about new media has become a central topic of discussion in new media studies.This article frames within that question a historical and comparative analysis of the process of audience manufacture, and attempts to overcome the limitations of previous literature on the internet by situating the discussion within the political economy of communication.The main topics addressed in the ‘blindspot debate’ – the debate regarding the audience as the commodity produced by advertising-supported media – are used to guide an examination of audience manufacture in broadcasting media, and to contrast it with the manufacture of the online audience.The evolution of online advertising, in particular its relationship with
search engines, serves as an entry point for questioning some well-established assumptions about the role of audiences in commercial media systems.



If you want to know more, please click here

Source: Fernando Bermejo
Sage Publications