Social Plugins Keep Consumers Connected

Allison Howen — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:05:00 GMT

For merchants, keeping consumers connected to their brand on the ’Net is a top priority, which is why e-commerce solutions provider Demandware has launched some new social plugins that aim to make this a much easier task.

The new social plugins help accelerate the integration of an e-commerce site with two of the Webs most popular social networks – Facebook and Google+. This is because the integrations allow merchants to leverage the capabilities of Facebook Open Graph, Facebook Check-In and the Google +1 button as part of their e-commerce strategy. Learn more about the new capabilities below:

• Facebook Open Graph – Retailers can leverage this plugin to enable social action buttons on product pages, such as “Want”, “Own” or “Purchased”. Additionally, this plugin allows retailers to maintain control over brand expressions , more seamlessly integrate into Facebook search and target advertising to Facebook members.

• Facebook Check-In – Retailers integrating Facebook Check-Ins with their sites can create personalized and engaging cross-channel experiences for consumers both in-stores and online. This plugin enables retailers to customize check-in experiences, as well as use check-ins in combination with loyalty or reward programs.

• The Google +1 Button – This plugin allows retailers to add the Google +1 button to their product detail pages. When a consumer clicks the +1 button, members of his or her circles will see the recommendation in their Google search results, which gives the retailer free word-of-mouth advertising while also improving the retailer's overall SEO.

"Facebook and Google+ are becoming ever more important components of a retailer's social commerce strategy, but many are still trying to figure out how to best leverage and tap into its millions of members," said Jamus Driscoll, senior vice president of marketing at Demandware. "These innovations from Demandware Labs provide our clients with easy access to the tools that will help them reach consumers on their social networks, creating a foundation for ongoing social commerce growth."

Recommendations Bar Comes to Facebook

Allison Howen — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 23:24:00 GMT

Just what the World Wide Web needs – another social plugin.

The world’s largest social network recently launched the Recommendations Bar, which is a new social plug-in that helps people discover articles based on what their friends like and share from a content publisher’s site.

The bar appears at the bottom of the screen as someone is reading an article on a participating publisher’s website. It features two alternate article recommendations, displays which friends have liked and shared the articles on Facebook, and also includes a like button that enables users to like the article that they are currently reading.

It is also important to note that the Recommendations Bar works similarly to how the like button works – because when someone likes an article with this plugin, a story is published back to their timeline and friends’ news feed.

Early tests reveal positive results from sites that have already started using the Recommendations Bar. In fact, according to Facebook's Developer Blog, sites that are leveraging this new plugin have seen three times the click through rate on recommended stories compared to stories that are recommended with the Recommendations Box. Additionally, integration with this social plugin is fairly easy –publishers just need to configure the plug-in, and then copy and paste the code onto their site.

Check out this example:

'Net Features : social plugin

Social Plugins Keep Consumers Connected

Recommendations Bar Comes to Facebook