'Net Features : week23-2012

New SEO Product Launches in the U.S.

Linc Wonham — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:00:00 GMT

To help facilitate the U.S. launch of its SEO software product, Hamburg, Germany-based SEOlytics is offering a free starter version for new customers. A full range of features and quality of data empower users to perform in-depth search performance analysis of their own websites and those of their competitors.

Managers, online marketers and webmasters can use SEOlytics to measure the daily visibility of their websites on Google and Bing to easily identify potential areas for improvement. Whether used to analyze competition and market or employed as a professional tool for the day-to-day work of an in-house SEO or agency, SEOlytics gives a complete picture that helps improve search performance over the long term.

The SEOlytics starter version allows for comparing search performance of up to 10 domains based on the unique SEOlytics Visibility Rank (SVR) index. The SVR is calculated based on rankings, search volume and cost per click for a representative reference keyword set of over 1 million U.S. keywords.

Powerful ad-hoc browsing and filtering on this keyword set is just as possible as daily rank tracking for up to 20 custom keywords. Users can also create their own Daily Visibility Rank (DVR) indices based on the keywords that really matter to their domains.

SEOlytics is available as the free starter version, a PRO version ($99) and an Elite version (starting at $339).

Social Media Advocacy and Recommendations

Administrator — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:30:00 GMT

Customer experience management (CEM) is one of the Web's trends du jour. Online professionals are eating it up, and software developers are all too ready to serve it on a silver platter.

To develop a fully realized experience, however, consumers need access to as much real-time information as possible. And today, CEM solutions provider Empathica offers up a recommendation.

Empathica’s GoRecommend social media advocacy solution now features a real-time feed of recommendations that can be embedded on a website, Facebook page or any other digital asset to leverage advocates’ social recommendations (see the image below). The benefit of integrating the feed is that other users see real-time, filtered recommendations from advocates (note that only positive experiences are amplified).

By re-using the voice of their own customers, brands can increase their ability to convert more browsers into buyers. Sounds pretty straightforward, right?

“The GoRecommend social media advocacy solution has helped leading brands identify advocates and mobilize them to share positive brand experiences across social networks,” says Dr. Gary Edwards, chief customer officer of Empathica. “Using the GoRecommend solution, our clients have generated more than 1 million positive recommendations resulting in over 110 million total impressions on sites like Facebook and Twitter. The addition of the real-time advocate feed is a significant enhancement, giving GoRecommend the ability to deliver even greater advocacy benefits for our clients.”

What the solution is missing in my opinion – as you'll see in the GoRecommend Summary Report image posted below – is that while it is certainly useful to know how often product recommendations were made by advocates and how many clicks resulted, it would be more useful to have a way to associate those recommendations to some measureable business objective, e.g. product conversion or registration.

While the embedding feature is really where the value resides here for Internet retailers, hopefully Empathica will connect the dots for their merchants by bundling deeper analytics with the platform.

How the Empathica GoRecommend Feed is implemented:

How the GoRecommend Report appears for Empathica clients:

Manage Product Data with Open Catalog Service

Linc Wonham — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:00:00 GMT

SPS Commerce is offering an upgrade to its Universal Catalog service, which is a cloud-based solution that helps retailers set up, maintain and exchange product data such as global trade item numbers (GTIN), price, color, size, style, images and other e-commerce marketing information.

Using the Universal Catalog service, retail partners can respond to changing consumer product preferences and demand with speed and accuracy. By making product data directly accessible to multiple retailers and other catalogs, SPS’ catalog solution provides a more flexible and affordable alternative to traditional catalog offerings that rely on proprietary data pools.

“Item information is the foundation of the supply chain, affecting every step of the buying and order fulfillment process,” says SPS Commerce CEO Archie Black. “The need for accurate item information and electronic images has never been greater, given the rising popularity of drop-shipping and e-commerce. By eliminating the restrictions and surcharges that have become common obstacles to responsive item management, the openness of SPS’ catalog positions it to become a standard platform for retail trading partners to share all item data.”

The Universal Catalog service allows retail partners to do the following:

-- Receive, review and accept item data from multiple trading partners from one centralized location

-- Expand product assortments and reduce time-to-market for new products

-- Add e-commerce attributes for online stores, including product images and marketing copy

-- Enable trading partners to share their entire product catalog without incurring per-item charges

-- Send product data directly to hundreds of retailers or to other third-party data pools

-- Pay affordable monthly subscription fees without long-term contracts

Learn more about SPS Commerce's Universal Catalog service here.

New Study Reveals Top Google Ranking Factors

Linc Wonham — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:30:00 GMT

The volume of Facebook and Twitter shares that a Web page generates is closely correlated to how high it ranks in Google searches, while too many ads on a page are likely to have a negative effect on search visibility. So says a new study from search and social analytics company Searchmetrics.

The research also finds that top brand websites appear to have a natural advantage for ranking highly in searches. Searchmetrics analyzed search results from Google for 10,000 popular keywords and 300,000 websites in order to pick out the issues that correlate with a high Google ranking. The correlations were calculated using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, in which a correlation of +1 indicated a perfect positive correlation and -1 indicated a perfect negative correlation.

The five key findings of the study are highlighted below:

Social media’s effect on search
Social signals from Facebook and Twitter now correlate very strongly with good rankings in Google’s index. The number of Facebook Shares that a Web page has received appears to have the strongest association (a correlation of 0.37). Twitter is far behind Facebook but is still the sixth strongest factor on Searchmetrics’ list of Google ranking factors with a correlation of 0.25.

Top brands have a ranking advantage
Despite the perception of search as a level playing field, the study found that top brand websites enjoy a ranking advantage. Some of the main factors that are commonly believed to help Web pages rank well, such as the quantity of text on a Web page and having keywords in headlines and titles, have no effect in the case of large, well-known brands.

“Surprisingly, the data show a negative correlation between these factors and rankings – contradicting traditional SEO theory,” explains Marcus Tober, Searchmetrics’ CTO. “So, not having keywords in headlines or having less text on a page seems to be associated with sites that rank higher.

“When we looked deeper at the top 30 results we found that this pattern really starts to emerge with highly ranked pages. And when we looked at sites that are in the top position on page one of Google – the natural position occupied by brands – this is where the negative correlation is strongest. This indicates that strong brands rank highly even without perfectly conforming to common SEO practice.”

Too much advertising hurts rankings
Too many and/or excessively clumsy advertisements were presumed to be a factor in the Google Panda Update and its successors which have tried to lower the search visibility of poor quality results. The data in this study supports this assumption as all the analyzed advertisement factors returned a negative correlation (-0.04).

A deeper analysis revealed that this pattern was strongest when there was a high percentage of Google AdSense ads; rankings for pages with more AdSense ad blocks seem to drop sharply. This supports Google’s statements early in 2012, in which the company said that particularly prominent, distracting or above-the-fold ads could lead to ranking problems.

Quality of links is vital
The number of backlinks is still one of the most powerful factors in predicting Google rankings (with a correlation of +0.36). To get the most benefit, however, it appears a site needs to have a spread of links that looks natural – not like it was artificially created by SEO experts.

This means that a site should not simply have a large number of perfectly optimized links that include all the keywords it wants to be ranked for in the anchor text. It needs to have a proportion of ‘no follow’ links and links that contain ‘stopwords’ (such as ‘here’, ‘go’, ‘this’).

Keyword domains still attract top results
Contrary to reports, websites with keywords in the domain name such as cheapflights.com still often top the rankings (correlation of +0.11). Although Google has repeatedly said that keyword domain sites will slowly weaken in power in searches, this does not yet seem to be the case.

“We collated the data for our research in February and March 2012, meaning that it takes into account the impact of Google’s various Panda algorithm updates that have greatly changed the look of search results since early 2011,” explains Tober. “We conducted similar studies in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy and found very similar results across the board, which seem to show that these findings apply internationally.”

Long-Tail Keyword Tips for Affiliates

Michael Garrity — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:30:00 GMT

Working within a niche industry as an affiliate marketer is very much a system of give-and-take that comes with potentially huge rewards. But it does not come without extraordinary effort on the part of the publisher.

When affiliates operate in highly targeted industries, some of their most useful instruments are long-tail keywords – those more obscure words and phrases that focus on smaller volumes but yield more qualified search results.

Affiliates tend to target these keywords for two reasons: 1) There is less competition for them, and 2) They appeal to users searching for more specific products.

In other words, long-tail keywords emphasize quality over quantity, and finding the best long-tail keywords for your Web property can be a rigorous process of research and testing. Fortunately, there are a multitude of free keyword testing tools widely available on the Web.

Tools for success
Google’s free AdWords keyword tool is used by Web professionals looking to optimize their search engine rankings, but it’s especially useful for affiliates looking to uncover the best long-tail phrases available for their websites. Publishers can use this tool (or others like it, such as Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, NicheBot and many more) for research, which any successful Web worker will tell you is crucial to one’s success.

To find long-tail keywords with these tools, start by conducting a general search using the two or three keywords that are the most relevant to your site. After getting the results, re-order the “Global Monthly Searches” column so that the lowest number is at the top, and then work down the list to identify all of the long-tail keywords that were returned, and note any that may have special relevance to your particular niche.

Identify your goals
Long-tail keyword research can only go so far if you have a clearly defined goal. Typically, it is to entice visitors to click on a merchant’s ad, meaning that you want to create copy geared towards actively helping users achieve their own goals. For example, if advertising coffee mugs, effective content might include information about why one type of mug is better than another, or how much money your website visitors can save by making their own coffee as opposed to buying it every day.

Once you have established the purpose you want your keywords to convey, it’s important to pay attention to the search volume of each of the candidates to figure out which options will be worthwhile. The tail of a broad keyword can have hundreds of thousands of potential matches but, realistically, few will actually be searched for often enough to actually help drive a significant number of relevant consumers to a website.

Do the research
What you want is to research how often people are searching for specific content related to the general topic of your website, and then select those long tails that are pertinent to the site’s goals.

Once you have determined the best long-tail keywords for your website, the process just becomes regular SEO. You need to find ways to include these long tails in your URLs and page titles, naturally integrate the phrases directly into the copy of your Web pages, use them in anchor text and add them into a page’s HTML using headline tags (i.e. <h1> and <h2>).

Long-tail keywords are a big part of the successful affiliate marketer’s arsenal because they allow you to reach out to users when their reason for conducting a search aligns closely with the goals of your website. While it can require more work on the research end of things, the time spent is usually well worth it.

Shipping Software for Internet Retailers – eCC Ship

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Internet retailers must juggle many different tasks on a day-to-day basis, and one of the most important to the success of an e-commerce enterprise is shipping. The better and faster you ship product, the happier the customer, and the more money in your pocket.

For that reason, it's not uncommon for e-commerce platforms to spend a lot of time, money and energy developing solutions that make shipping more efficient and effective. But even then, they may not meet the expectations of users – at least not out of the box.

Fortunately, there are numerous software solutions that integrate with common platforms to support merchants' shipping initiatives.

One recent entrant into shipping software is Webgility, a company that is most likely best known for its e-commerce accounting software eCC. Webgility just released eCC Ship, a shipping software for optimizing order management and, in essence, automating the merchant shipping experience. The software downloads orders from more than 30 leading e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, eBay, Magento, BigCommerce, Open Cart and more, and generates shipping labels and packing slips for major processers such as FedEx, UPS and USPS.

Life-Size Your Product Images with LifeSizer

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:30:00 GMT

Product images, particuarly for Internet retailers, can be a blessing or a curse – depending on how seriously you take the development and display of those assets.

There has really not been much in the way of innovation in product image technology, but take my word for it – that is certainly changing. Announcing its public beta launch today, LifeSizer.com is a Web-based service that might just prove critical to your e-commerce sucess.

A patent-pending technology, the solution provides merchants with the ability to show website visitors the actual size of a product on their computer or mobile device. LifeSizer does this by calculating the physical dimensions of an object within an image to determine the pixels per actual life-size inch. That data is sent to LifeSizer servers, where it is calibrated, stored and ready for display by merchants on their own sites through the integration of some basic code.

The benefits of employing such a solution are numerous for merchants. Without question, of course, the most significant is that software such as LifeSizer provides a way to reduce a shopper's uncertainty, which reduces returns and ultimately improves the experience of the buyer – who is then more likely to return in the future.

While only launching this week, LifeSizer has managed to break out with one vendor in UncommonGoods, an online retailer offering sustainably designed products.

"We’ve always heard questions about the size of our products and now shoppers can see the exact size as if they were looking at the item in person. LifeSizer’s technology was simple to integrate and customers that use it convert at a higher rate" says David Bolotsky, CEO and founder of UncommonGoods.

CRM for SEO and Social Media

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Building and maintaing relationships should be the focus of every SEO (link building) and social media campaign, but that's not always the case – even for the most savvy and sophisticated marketers.

Fortunately, many software platforms are catching on to this reality and putting the focus back on the relationships that enterprises need to advance.

Raven Internet Marketing Tools, for example, has just released a contact relationship manager for search engine optimization and social media campaigns. The solution enables marketers to research and communicate with website owners (for link-building efforts) or influential social media users and writers.

Much like other CRM solutions, Raven's CRM integrates leads through third-party vendors such as the Wufoo form builder, and email service providers Campaign Monitor and Aweber. The solution is ideally designed for larger SEO and social media marketing groups where high levels of collaboration and review are required.

"Previously we would facilitate link building with a spreadsheet log and dozens of back and forth emails – not anymore," says James Agate, managing director of Skyrocket SEO in the United Kingdom. "We get to keep everything in one place, track performance and keep a record of the links acquired automatically. Raven Tools' new CRM feature plus their existing Link Manager feature equals a major efficiency win for us."

Bridgeline, UPS to Deliver Total E-Commerce Package

Linc Wonham — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:30:00 GMT

Interactive solutions provider Bridgeline Digital has signed a multi-year agreement with UPS to give B2B and B2C e-commerce Web stores an end-to-end offering comprised of Bridgeline’s Total eCommerce solution and UPS’ logistics and fulfillment services.

The combined offering will provide customers with the ability to effectively manage the full gamut of e-commerce and supply chain-fulfillment needs and was designed to benefit the mid-market and larger online commerce operations. To align the technologies, Bridgeline Digital integrated the world-class UPS warehouse management system into the framework of its iAPPS e-commerce platform.

“Fulfillment and delivery are critical to the customer experience in e-commerce,” says Alan Amling, marketing director for UPS global logistics and distribution. “Through this alliance with Bridgeline and the iAPPS Product Suite, UPS is making it easier for more businesses to tap into a world class end-to-end platform engineered to support their business needs.”

The new, integrated solution offers the following for B2B and B2C e-commerce merchants:

Comprehensive e-commerce platform – iAPPS is the only e-commerce platform with the Web store tools, integration and innovation to drive Total eCommerce. The iAPPS Commerce Suite is a .NET platform that deeply integrates world-class e-commerce functionality, powerful Web content management capabilities, instinctual online marketing options and unique, suggestive goal-driven analytics. The UPS warehouse management system is integrated into the framework of iAPPS Commerce.

Digital strategy and Web store development – The Total eCommerce platform enables digital strategies that propel business growth, strengthen the customer’s online experience and lift conversions. Bridgeline offers powerful interactive services, complete Web store development and commerce expertise that can help keep customers’ Total eCommerce operations running strong. From digital strategy and expert marketing to SEO and mobile solutions, when a customer’s Web store requires updated infrastructure or enhanced development, Bridgeline Digital is able to respond with its award-winning team.

World-class logistics and fulfillment – UPS is a global leader in logistics, and with the continued rapid growth of the e-commerce marketplace, integrated management of supply chains from warehousing to delivery has become a strategic advantage, making it more attractive than ever to outsource the entire logistics process. Such efficiency in supply chain logistics can help customers reduce operating costs, alleviate customer service issues and increase customer satisfaction.

To learn more about the Total eCommerce solution, visit here or take part in the debut at booth 1115 at the IRCE show in Chicago today through June 7.

PayAnywhere Adds Two SDKs for Android

Allison Howen — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:30:00 GMT

Mobile payment processing solution PayAnywhere has announced the addition of two Android software developer kits (SDKs) to its developer library, which will join the company’s current SDKs for iOS devices.

The new Android SDKs – Basic and Advanced – enable developers to embed credit card point-of-sale functionality into apps that run on any Android device, which makes it possible for those apps to accept and process Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express credit card purchases.

After being enabled by PayAnywhere APIs, mobile apps can accept swiped credit card transactions via the PayAnywhere credit card reader and payment processing service for smartphones and tablets, as well as accept keyed-in transactions when cards aren’t present.

In addition to credit card processing, the PayAnywhere SDKs offer a host of other features such as the ability to capture signatures, attach invoice numbers to transactions, print or email receipts, keep a record of transactions, view detailed transaction reports and more.

“The handling of credit card transactions and moving money from consumer to merchant is quite an involved and complicated process,” says Gordon Rimac, chief technology officer at PayAnywhere. “That’s one reason many enterprises, even those with extensive developer resources, approach PayAnywhere about incorporating our transaction and payments processing solution into their apps. Handling payment processing is something PayAnywhere does exceptionally well, and through our SDKs, PayAnywhere is making it very easy to leverage our core business expertise while letting developers stay focused on theirs.”

While both SDKs allow developers to add credit card transaction capabilities into apps, the Advanced SDK enables merchants to fully brand their app so that consumers don’t know that PayAnywhere is handling the transactions. Developers can learn more about the PayAnywhere APIs here.

Big Data Management Producing Big Returns

Linc Wonham — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:30:00 GMT

“Big Data” has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the online business world the past few years, but just how big are the returns being delivered to companies that are successfully leveraging big data management?

Pretty big, according to one new study. Business technology solutions provider Avanade surveyed more than 500 business executives and IT leaders and found that most of the investments that companies are making to manage big data are paying off in spades.

Eighty-four percent of respondents believe that big data helps them make better business decisions, and 73 percent of companies have already used data to increase revenue by growing existing revenue streams (57 percent) or creating entirely new sources of revenue (43 percent).

Beyond tangible business value, evidence shows that big data has become pervasive. More employees in businesses have greater access to increased technology options for managing and analyzing data. The majority of companies surveyed (57 percent) noted that in just the last 12 months, more technology options became available to help analyze and manage data.

More importantly, research shows that companies are investing in this technology, with almost every company surveyed (91 percent) reporting the use of tools to manage and analyze data today.

“Big data has gained a top spot on the agenda of business leaders for the real value it has begun to create,” says Tyson Hartman, global CTO and corporate vice president of Avanade. “Today, the technologies and skills used to leverage big data for business purposes have reached a tipping point – new types of data supported by better tools to leverage it enable companies to find financial and competitive benefits from their data.”

It’s Become Everyone’s Business
Big data has moved beyond the walls of IT. Today, 95 percent of businesses do not consider data analysts a part of their IT staff. Instead, companies are now distributing that expertise to line-of-business groups throughout the company.

The majority of respondents (58 percent) report that data management is now embedded throughout their business as a dedicated function. Further, over half of global companies (59 percent) say more employees than ever before are involved in making decisions as a result of more widely available company data.

Still Work to be Done
However, as with many major technology trends, the benefits of big data come with meaningful challenges. Eighty-five percent of respondents still report obstacles in managing and analyzing data, including being overwhelmed by sheer volume to data security concerns to not having enough dedicated staff to analyze the data.

The majority of stakeholders (63 percent) also feel their companies need to develop new skills to turn data into business insights.

Findings also show that three other major trends – employee mobility, cloud computing and social networking – are making the data deluge more challenging. The majority of respondents reported that employee mobility (73 percent), cloud computing (65 percent) and social networking (61 percent) are all causing their company to rethink its data management strategy.

“The challenges of big data remain, but the opportunities are even greater,” says Hartman. “Business leaders are moving from defense to offense in their data management strategies. Forward-looking companies are empowering more people across the enterprise with the tools and skills needed to make better business decisions and ultimately, harness the power that big data promises.”

What's New With Google Shopping?

Michael Garrity — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:15:00 GMT

The Internet was buzzing last week at the beta launch of Google’s latest service, Google Shopping. As always, the most recognizable name on the ‘Net is trying to wedge its way into another industry, but what will this mean for the e-commerce industry?

First of all, it’s important to understand exactly what Google is up to here, in case you haven’t heard. Essentially, Google is re-branding its Google Product Search services with a whole new business model. Soon, only merchants that pay to advertise with Google will be listed in the company’s product search.

In other words, Google has created a secondary retail-focused search engine that exclusively features paid advertisers.

However, as far as anyone can tell right now, this will definitely also play a role in regular search engine results, at least when users are searching for a specific product (or when a search can be construed as product-related). When Google presumes that the user has a potential intent to purchase, they’ll offer up paid (sponsored) listings next to the Web search results, so that they’re actually the first thing users see. Although the organic results will remain the same, they will not necessarily be the focal point of the SERPs any longer.

Of course, these product listings are more than just text ads, as they feature images, descriptions, links to the retailer’s sites and the current price. All of this is presented as a single, separate experience from the rest of the search results.

Either multiple product listings partitioned off in their own “sponsored” box, or a single product can appear on the right side of the page that includes a more detailed description. The former is typically designated for more general product searches, while the latter is reserved for very specific product queries (see examples below).

This practice combines product ads and Google Product Search, and helps to ensure that the paid listings don’t actually affect the organic search results – if we’re still calling Google Search organic. While this is all currently in a very experimental beta period, it's clearly an idea to which Google appears committed.

So, what does this mean for online retail, Google ads and product search?

Well, for one, it will force merchants to keep their ads up-to-date and accurate, since they are going to be charged as advertising partners just for the opportunity to list their products. This will be easy for them, as Google Shopping ads will come complete with an API that merchants can use to update their listings.

Bidding will be different, as now merchants will no longer be competing for keywords, but rather bidding how much they’d be willing to pay, if their listings appear and get clicks or generate conversions. Higher rankings will then depend on a combination of perceived relevance and the price of the bid.

Theoretically, these Google Shopping listings will help weed out redundant or irrelevant results for searchers, making them more enticing to consumers and, thus, more profitable (or worth the investment) for retailers.

Most of all, this whole scheme seems to be Google’s attempt to combat major e-commerce retailers, specifically Amazon. Whereas before Amazon was something of a one-stop shop for consumers looking to buy online, Google has now presented itself as an (arguably more efficient) alternative, allowing users to base their purchasing decisions on more product options from a wider variety of retailers.

This could drastically alter the e-commerce landscape and give smaller online retailers a much better chance at competing with the big boys.

Of course, it also runs the risk of shutting out those same smaller businesses that don't have the budget to afford buying product listings. Those companies that survive on the Web largely through the existence of free product search listings could also see some negative effects from this change.

Details are slim at the moment, and there is no official word on when Google will do away with free product listings, but the company did state in a blog post that it would like to have Google Shopping up-and-running by the fall of 2012.

Merchants have two incentives for transitioning to the new format, a 10-percent monthly credit through 2012 for ads created by August 15, or a $100 AdWords credit for existing Product Search merchants who fill out a form by the same date.

How to Compete with Big Box Retailers

Allison Howen — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:00:00 GMT

While most consumers won’t stop visiting big box retailers any time soon, a new study offers e-commerce merchants insights into why these shopping destinations are so popular, as well as what turns customers off.

The Consumer Insights Panel study from customer experience management solutions provider Empathica Inc. reveals that 93 percent of U.S. consumers visit a big box retailer every month. The findings show that 61 percent of consumers claim that the most important factor in choosing a big box retailer is price, followed by location convenience (12%) and a wide selection of products (10%).

The survey also shows that 71 percent of customers claim to prefer big box retailers that offer a “one-stop” shopping experience, so that all essential products are at one store.

And although these one-stop shopping destinations are the lucky recipients of a steady stream of consumers, two in five customers report that their shopping experience does not feel personalized. Consumers also claim to be disappointed with the customer service they receive at big box retailers. According to the study, one in five respondents report that employees do not provide accurate answers to questions in their areas of expertise, and only 39 percent of customers believe employees listen when a customer approaches them with a question.

So aside from maintaining competitive prices and a vast product selection, online retailers should consider focusing on these two areas – personalization and customer service – in order to attract more consumers to their websites. By offering features like recommended products and loyalty programs, online merchants can grow their loyal customer base while increasing the probability of converting customers into a brand advocates.

Additionally, Web retailers can attract and satisfy site visitors by offering excellent customer service options such as live chat, a thorough FAQ page and quick responses to inquiries via email and social media.

Six Social Media Personas Driven by Trust and Control

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:15:00 GMT

How much do you know, I mean really know, about your brand’s social media fans, friends and followers? And how would your social media marketing strategy change if you had access to that information?

Loyalty management vendor Aimia has released an interesting segmentation model that identifies six distinct social media personas and maps based upon the behavioral drivers of trust and control. Aimia’s Staring at the Sun: Identifying, Understanding and Influencing Social Media Users report argues that no single social media channel can deliver a complete picture of customer behavior.

"Today's approach to social media measurement – racing to rack up the most 'likes,' retweets, followers and recommendations – is the wrong approach," says Doug Rozen, lead author of the report and senior vice president of communications, design & emerging technologies at Aimia. "Marketers must define success not by social media activity, but rather by customer value and engagement."

Aimia’s research reveals that the more trust consumers place in social media networks, the more likely they are to participate. Likewise, the more control consumers perceive of their social activity, the more likely they are to engage with a variety of networks.

"Control equals exposure, and trust equals participation," says Rozen. "The more control a consumer perceives over their social media activity, the more likely they are to engage with a wider variety of social media networks. The more trust a consumer places in social media networks and their connections, the more likely they are to actively participate."

The report maps social media usage and outlines differences between types of social media participation via six distinct personas:

- No Shows (41 %) – lease involved in social media, engage infrequently

- Newcomers (15 %) – passive involvement; engage to enhance offline relationships

- Onlookers (16 %) – involvement is observational, sharing almost no information

- Cliquers (6 %) – active users of one network, influential amongst a small group

- Mix-n-Minglers (19 %) – regularly sharing and interact within a diverse group

- Sparks (3 %) – most active and engaged, serve as enthusiastic brand ambassadors

Aimia mapped these personas to social brand-related activities (writing reviews, purchasing product, viewing videos, interacting on forums and blogs, check-ins) and found that the more passive “Onlookers” are just as interested in flash sales and daily deals as the two most active personas – Mix-n-Minglers and Sparks. Applying social media personas and segmentation is useful in that brands can target users based on their behavior.

Do Not Track in Piwik Analytics

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Piwik has announced a new release of its analytics solution (version 1.8), and anyone using tracking cookies -- particularly most recently in the U.K. -- should pay close attention.

In addition to several new reports (desktop vs. mobile, entry page titles and exit page titles) and features (historical analytics, ability to compare multiple rows, see the full list of what is new within version 1.8 here), noteworthy in the 1.8 release is that Piwik has enabled DotNotTrack (DNT) support by default.

When users indicate they do not want to be tracked, Piwik automatically lets them opt out of tracking by websites they do not visit, including analytics services, advertising networks and social platforms.

While DNT won’t by itself solve privacy concerns of many, Piwik’s focus shows its support of merchants and information publishers concerned by and forced to face the initiative head-on.

With v1.8, Piwik has provided a new Javascript function -- disableCookie(s) -- which disables all first-party cookies from being read/set, and deletes existing cookies. When cookies are disabled, take note that some data may be less accurate, including unique visitors and goal-tracking.