'Net Features : wm-socialmedia

Foster User-Generated Videos with Buzztala

Allison Howen — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:15:00 GMT

Obtaining video testimonials from customers is simple with Buzztala, which is a social content marketing company that just released an updated version of its platform that includes a self-service portal for businesses with a website.

Buzztala’s Social Content Marketing platform helps companies take advantage of user-generated content. The platform uses a plug-in that when clicked on, brings up a widget that overlays the page and provides full access to the Buzztala social marketing system.

From the widget, viewers can watch user-generated video marketing clips such as reviews, testimonials or comments, as well as record a comment of their own. Plus, all consumer-generated content is shared across that visitor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. In addition, when their friends click on the post, they arrive at the business's website, which helps businesses generate qualified leads and increase conversion rates.

Buzztala is also optimized for both computers and mobile devices, as the company uses a patent-pending combination of HTML5 and Flash technology to assist businesses in reaching mobile customers. Plus, Buzztala includes a mobile app for clients, which allows for the rapid creation and publishing of social video content at all times.

Lastly, it is important to note that for a limited time Buzztala is free to install and use. Furthermore, Buzztala’s cloud-based system uses gold-standard Rackspace servers for reliability and security, and the platform’s turnkey system allows companies to simply drop in a line of code to use the platform, as everything is controllable through the browser-based dashboard.

E-Commerce Social Traffic Declines, Tablet Traffic Grows

Allison Howen — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

A new report from marketing and website optimization solutions provider Monetate is shedding some light on recent social commerce trends, the growing importance of mobile devices and the opportunity retailers have with U.S. military online shoppers.

The Ecommerce Quarterly report, which analyzed a random sample of more than 500 million online shopping experiences in the first quarter of 2013, reveals that social media is lagging as a direct traffic source to e-commerce websites and online purchases despite the investment brands are putting into this channel. In fact, social media represented only 1.55 percent of all e-commerce traffic, which puts it behind email (2.82%) and far behind search (31.43%). Plus, social media traffic numbers are down from Q1 2012, when they reached 2.36 percent.

That being said, mobile devices including tablets and smartphones are grabbing a larger share of e-commerce traffic. For instance, tablet and smartphones made up 21.02 percent of traffic, which is a huge increase from just 2 percent two years ago. In addition, one of the most surprising stats from the study found that tablets actually led smartphones in e-commerce traffic, with 10.58 percent of the traffic share compared to 10.44 percent.

Another noteworthy insight from the Ecommerce Quarterly study shows that marketing to U.S. military personnel pays off. The data reveals that conversion rates among military personnel in the U.S. is at 5.15 percent, 4.3 percent in Europe and 3.57 percent in Asia. All of these numbers are higher than the overall U.S. consumer segment, which has an average conversion rate of 2.53 percent. Likewise, the average order value of military personnel was 23.39 percent higher than U.S. shoppers.

"As marketers know, data can tell a story and the EQ1 2013 tells the story of a fast-growing ecommerce market where companies face growing opportunities and challenges," said Blair Lyon , vice president, marketing, Monetate. "We focused this EQ on social commerce since the data shows the companies have not yet cracked the code in leveraging social media to drive ecommerce traffic. We know that social media plays an important role in influencing social purchases – to what degree brands are able to leverage social to build loyalty is the next big question."

3 Reasons to Like Nimble's Updated Social CRM

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:05:00 GMT

With a name like Nimble – its product better be quick, agile and smart. And anyone logging into this social CRM for the first time will quickly see how Nimble lives up to its namesake and more.

For the unacquainted, Nimble helps professionals build better relationships by providing context to conversations through actionable insights, including notifications across social networks that are important for users to act upon, making relationship building using social media easier.

“By pulling important signals from the noise, Nimble learns more about the types of people and information that are important to our users, offering an ongoing concentration of valuable engagement insights to a higher-quality professional network, and more targeted connection opportunities,” said Jon Ferrara, founder and CEO of Nimble. “We’re spearheading an entirely new Nimble experience to expose users to insights about their networks that they didn’t previously know. We’re providing what’s been missing from CRMs and other tools: the context for contacts to build more meaningful and sincere relationships.”

On May 21, Nimble 3.0 was announced. It offers new features, product enhancements and a focus on insight-driven engineering. Here are three reason to like Nimble's updated social CRM:

New Homepage

This updated homepage, dubbed the Today Screen, gives users immediate access to the intelligent opportunities Nimble uncovers daily like contact’s birthdays and job changes, impending deals, social influence and more.

More Apps

Nimble 3.0 is complete with more than 100 new integrations with services like ExactTarget, Constant Contact, Netsuite and others.

Better Search

Nimble’s search can keep an individual and their colleagues on the same page, as users can sort by last contacted (people and companies), so they always know who, when and on what channel a prospect was contacted.

Surprise! Teens Love Using Social Media to Share Things

Michael Garrity — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:10:00 GMT

It looks like teenagers love to share things more than we thought – it just so happens that they prefer to do it on the Internet.

According to a new study from Pew Internet, teens are more than willing to share a bunch of information about themselves on social media sites, although most (wisely) attempt to restrain themselves by taking steps to restrict and prune their profiles.

In studying 802 teens, Pew found that teen Twitter growth has grown by eight percent since 2011, and that the average teenage Twitter users typically have about 79 followers (and Facebook users have about 300 friends). Most teens (64 percent) also prefer to have public Twitter accounts.

Facebook, however, is waning in popularity amongst young adults, with many teens claiming adult presence, excessive sharing and “drama” as reasons for growing disinterest in the social network. Currently, about 60 percent of Facebook-using teens keep their profiles private.

Mostly, they’re all just worried about their reputations, which is why 74 percent of teens have admitted to deleting someone from their network or friend’s lists. However, just nine percent said they were “very concerned” about third-parties using social media sites to access their data.

In addition, the study found that 91 percent of teens post pictures of themselves online, while 71 percent post their school names, another 71 percent post the names of their cities or towns, 53 percent post their email addresses and curiously, 20 percent post their phone numbers. Pew also found that 92 percent of teens use their real names online, 84 percent post about their interests (movies, music, books, etc.), 82 percent share their birth dates, 62 percent share their relationship statuses and 24 percent are posting videos about themselves.

Also not surprisingly, the study found that older teens are much more likely to share certain types of information, such as photos, school names and cell phone numbers, than younger teenagers, and that boys are for more likely to share personal information than girls.

There is an upside to all of this sharing, though, as the study found that teens are much more likely to report about positive, rather than negative, online experiences. A surprising 52 percent said they have had an “online experience” that made them feel good about themselves, while 33 percent reported online experiences that made them feel closer to another person (a number that increases to 37 percent for social media users).

Google+ Page Management Comes to Sprout Social

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:10:00 GMT

As a regular Sprout Social user, I was pleased as I can be about yesterday’s release of the new Google+ Pages API integration, which gives Sprout’s 10,000 customers the ability to manage Google+ pages. Finally!

“Today’s Google+ integration is a highly anticipated addition and further solidifies Sprout as a truly integrated social management platform,” says Justyn Howard, founder and CEO of Sprout Social. “Our customers can now seamlessly engage with the millions of people who rely on Google+ to connect with their favorite brands in meaningful ways.”

Sprout Social is one of the few social media management solutions to ease the burden of multi-channel social media posting with the addition of Google+. Until yesterday, I was using DoShare, a highly recommended and handy little Chrome app that lets users connect to their Google accounts and write and schedule updates. It worked well, but there weren’t any statistics and it was a real pain to hop back and forth between programs. The Sprout Social rollout however is likely going to be a lot better but not just because of the savings in time.

The social media management platform also enables its users to take advantage of Google+ Circles. Sprout users will have the ability to target specific circles along with other features including saving drafts, scheduling posts and more.

“We were careful to be sure our Google+ capabilities didn’t feel bolted on, but rather fit seamlessly to improve the overall Sprout experience and enable better social communications,” notes Howard. “As with every enhancement we build, our primary goal is to ensure customers will be successful using Google+ as an extension of their brand.”

Flickr Gives Users Space

Allison Howen — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:21:00 GMT

Although Yahoo has been in the news this week because of its billion dollar acquisition of Tumblr, the company has also revealed some big changes to its photo-sharing service Flickr.

The most noteworthy update is that Flickr is now offering its users a free terabyte of space. This is huge, as the Flickr blog states, “We believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality. No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat. We’re giving your photos room to breathe, and you the space to upload a dizzying number of photos and videos, for free. Just how big is a terabyte? Well, you could take a photo every hour for forty years without filling one.”

In addition to a free terabyte of space, Flickr has unveiled a redesigned platform. The new interactive design features an Activity Feed that displays a combination of the recent activity on a user’s photos with their friends’ updates. Plus, users can add a customizable cover photo and high-resolution profile picture to their Photostream, as well as leverage the platform’s new Slideshare mode to view a showcase of photos.

It is also important to mention that users can now upload 1080p HD quality videos that are up to three minutes in length. Moreover, the photo-sharing site has added to its mobile application offering, which already includes an iOS app, by launching an Android app that allows users to interact, share and view photos.

That being said, only time will tell if a terabyte of space and new design will be enough to attract more photographers to the site – and along with the aquisition of Tumblr, more people back to Yahoo in the long run.

Pinterest Introduces Rich Pins

Allison Howen — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Pinterest has partnered up with some top brands in order to make pins more useful.

The pin-boarding social network is working with companies like Anthropologie, Home Depot, Target, Urban Outfitters, Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping and Netflix to offer rich pins, which are pins that contain additional information and allow members to discover more about content without having to leave Pinterest.

Partners, for example, can include information like pricing, availability and where to purchase items onto product pins, as well as include information like cook time, ingredients and servings to recipe pins. Moreover, Netflix, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will be able to include content ratings and cast member information onto movie pins.

In order to see the new rich pins, however, users must first enable Pinterest’s new look, which can be done be clicking the “Get it now” button at the top of the homefeed. Additionally, businesses interested in using rich pins must first prep their site with meta tags, test out rich pins and then apply to get them on Pinterest.

It is also important to note that Pinterest has taken steps to make its social network more mobile, by making the Pin It button available on a variety of mobile apps, including Behance, Etsy, Jetsetter, The North Face and Zulily.

Viralheat Users Get Fired Up for iPhone App Release

Allison Howen — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:04:00 GMT

The Viralheat platform has gone mobile.

The social media marketing suite provider just launched an iPhone app, which enables users to manage multiple Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts from their smartphones. The app can be leveraged to publish updates, as well as engage with audiences by commenting on posts, replying to updates and retweeting tweets. Plus, users have the ability to analyze follower data for their connected Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

“Viralheat already provides marketers with a unique, all-in-one platform for social media management,” said Vishal Sankhla, co-founder, Viralheat. “Our new iPhone app brings this simple, cost-effective platform, that includes social media management, engagement, publishing and analytics capabilities to the mobile world.”

The app also provides Viralheat users with on-the-go access to a variety of the platform’s most popular features and tools, including the Viralheat Stream, cross-channel publishing, analytics, the ability to create and save custom streams, schedule posts and engage with communities in real-time.

7 Ways to Build Authority on Google+

Allison Howen — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:00:00 GMT

As the looming Penguin update (version 2.0) hovers overhead, search professionals are left wondering how the unknown changes to Google’s search algorithm will impact their company’s digital visibility.

While Google always holds its cards close to its virtual chest when it comes to its search algorithm, Matt Cutts (who is in charge of Google’s webspam team) has announced in a recently released video that the company is looking to give special ranking boosts to sites that are authorities in a specific industry, community or space. Although Cutts doesn’t define how authority will be determined, one could speculate that the company’s social network, Google+, could be an influencer.

This scenario wouldn’t be surprising at all, especially because Google has been incorporating its social network into a variety of its products, including its search engine, for a while now. So in the case that Google+ does indeed become a factor in determining authority, one question remains – How can a brand build authority on Google+?

1. Grow Your Circles

A brand with 20 followers on Google+ doesn’t come off as very authoritative in its niche. That said, building a fan base on this social network can be challenging, especially for companies whose fan base spends the bulk of its time on other social networks, like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. However, there are ways that brands can increase their popularity on Google+.

Start by growing the people within your circles, which is a tactic that is frequently used on Twitter. By doing this, your brand’s name and Google+ profile is being put in front of new people, which influences them to return the favor. And the more people a brand adds to its circles, the more likely it is to receive higher follow back numbers (keep in mind that not everyone will follow you back). While you can add anyone to your circles, this strategy is most effective when targeting relevant people. To do this, brands should search for influencers within their industry, as well as for contacts that they already have on other platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even email lists.

Furthermore, if you already have an active audience on a social network like Facebook or Twitter, make sure to promote your Google+ profile with your audience on these platforms. You can even tease exclusive Google+ content in order to persuade your audience members to make a profile and follow your brand on Google+.

2. Post Fabulous Content

Content is, and will always be, king. In fact, nothing says that you are an authority on a topic more than content that receives high engagement metrics, like shares, comments and +1’s. And regardless of your follower numbers, the only way to obtain high engagement rates is with content that captures attention and makes audiences feel like they need to share the information with their circles. There is absolutely no way around it – in order to receive high engagement numbers, brands must create and post content that resonates with their audience, is relevant and is in high-demand.

3. Leverage Communities and Hangouts

To be an authority within your niche, your presence on Google+ most go beyond posting regular status updates. Luckily, Google’s social network offers a variety of avenues for brands to foster relationships with their audience, including Google+ Communities and Hangouts.

Communities, for instance, allow users to create social groups based on specific topics or interests. And when a brand fosters an active community, it not only helps them build better relationships with their audience and acquire more brand advocates, but also helps them obtain more interactions and therefore gain authority within their niche. In addition, brands can use Google Hangouts as another unique way to build relationships and increase engagement rates, which, ultimately, helps a brand gain authority.

4. Interact with Your Audience

We have already established that shares, comments and +1’s help a brand gain authority, so what better way to encourage this type of behavior than by interacting with your own audience? Just as adding people to your circles can influence them to return the favor, so can interacting with people. That said, you shouldn’t just start interacting with everybody and every status update. Rather, choose your interactions wisely so that you do not come off as unprofessional (and un-authoritative). For example, if someone comments on one of your posts, consider responding back. This will help build brand loyalty by showing the audience member that you pay attention and care about what they say – making them more likely to interact with your brand in the future. Likewise, if someone posts interesting content that is relevant to your industry, an action as simple as a +1 or share could influence them to return the favor in the not-too-distant future.

5. Network with Other Brands

Take your interaction strategy up a notch by networking with other brands and industry professionals. While the aforementioned audience interaction tips can be applied here as well, you can also partner with other brands and professionals to share contributed (guest) content with your audience. By doing this, your business is not only providing its readers with relevant content from respected industry professionals, but it also helps to increase your business’s visibility. This is because the contributor is likely to share the content with their network as well, which puts your brand in front of a whole new audience and gives you the opportunity to increase your followers and engagement rates.

6. Use the Google+ Page Badge

Just as you display social sharing buttons for Facebook and Twitter on your site, it is also important to feature the Google +1 button. This button encourages site visitors to publicly recommend your content and share it with their Google+ circles. And the more +1’s you obtain, the more authority you gain, as it shows Google that you are a trusted source of information.

7. Take Advantage of Authorship

If your brand is publishing content, make sure to link that content to the authors' Google+ profiles with Authorship. This not only gives recognition to your hard-working employees, but it also shows Google that there is an identity connected with the content, which gives the content and your brand, better credibility.

Instagram More Effective than Pinterest?

Allison Howen — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:15:00 GMT

Being acquired by Facebook does a brand good, according to a new study by Simply Measured.

In fact, just a year after being acquired by Facebook, Simply Measured reports that 67 percent of the top brands are now using Instagram – which has seen a 500 percent increase in users since its acquisition, with more than 100 million active monthly users.

According to Simply Measured’s study, which evaluates brands and verticals within the Interbrand 100, Instagram is actually growing faster and proving more valuable to brands than Pinterest. This is because the data reveals that as of May 1, the collective audience of the 76 top companies on Pinterest was less than 500,000, while the 67 top companies on Instagram reach more than 7 million audience members.

It is also important to note that Simply Measured’s quarterly study found that since Instagram's acquisition, engagement rates with images from the social network have dropped on Twitter. This is probably due to Instagram dropping support for embedded images on the micro-blogging social network. Conversely, engagement with Instagram images on Facebook is up by 23 percent quarter over quarter, which is likely the result of moves such as integrating “like” sharing and introducing Instagram Web profiles. For example, the study reports that more than 2 million likes, comments and shares of Instagram photos have occurred on Facebook since its acquisition of the image-based social networking app.

That said, the study also found that top brands are using Instagram more frequently, with 23 percent of the top companies on Instagram posting more than 50 times a month – which is up 20 percent from the previous quarter. Plus, those brands are receiving more than 5,600 engagements per photo, which is up 16 percent from last quarter. The study also rates Nike, MTV and Starbucks as the top brands on Instagram, with Nike becoming the third brand (joining MTV and Starbucks) to reach 1 million followers.

“A year ago, many people were skeptical about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and whether it would hinder the network’s growth,” said Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured. “However today it’s very clear that the synergies are not only bringing new users on board, but also creating incredible opportunities for brands to connect with consumers.”

Klout Moves into Q&A Industry

Allison Howen — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:30:00 GMT

Does your Klout score make you an expert in a certain area? If it does, the social platform may ask you to answer questions through a new program called Klout Experts.

Klout Experts is similar to a Q&A service. It allows Klout users who are influential in a specific topic to increase their authority in that subject by answering topic-related questions that are frequently searched for on Bing. The Klout blog provides this example:

“A person building their influence in photography might be asked, 'What’s the best digital SLR for beginners?' Someone who is an expert about fitness might answer, 'What’s a great exercise routine for someone with bad knees?' We are focused on practical advice that leverages the taste and wisdom we all have about something.”

That said, Klout Experts is currently in a preview period, with the company making the service available to a small percentage of influential users. These people have the chance to share their insights to questions that will be delivered on Bing, and in return, have the possibility of having their answers seen by millions of people who leverage Bing search everyday. It is also important to note that those who are interested in sharing their expertise with the digital world can request early access to Klout Experts by signing up for the waitlist.

Echo Helps Publishers Wrestling with Real-Time Content Moderation

Michael Garrity — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:00:00 GMT

Conversations are constantly taking place all over the Web, from websites to applications to mobile devices that are always on the go. And although this presents brands with more opportunities to spread their messages and create awareness, it also makes it far more difficult to monitor everything that is being said about them online.

But moderating those conversations just got easier thanks to the real-time Web platform provider Echo, which recently just announced the availability of DiscussIt Moderator, a new application designed for high-volume environments that allows publishers to moderate real-time conversations about their brands across multiple applications and websites.

As part of the Echo App Ecosystem, DiscussIt Moderator works as a centralized moderation tool that will augment the Echo StreamServer’s built-in standard moderation features, which include “bad word” filtering, spam detection and community flagging. However, DiscussIt Moderator will also let publisher teams co-moderate content from any Echo Enabled application, such as Comments, Media Galleries, Forums, Social Chattter or Lifestreams, and all from within a single, centralized interface.

Using configurable rules, DiscussIt Moderator is able to automatically flag any questionable content for review, and then insert said content into a live message stream that can be split into various sub-streams that allow individual moderators to collaborate on different sections simultaneously. This means they can approve, deny, edit or directly respond to items through the user interface and remove any inappropriate material.

The tool also features the ability to moderate multiple websites/domains, advanced real-time search functionality, the ability to “deputize” standout community members as moderators and in-depth usage analytics. Plus, it’s made to be quick and easy to configure and launch.

One of the biggest brands already on board with DiscussIt Moderator is the global professional wrestling corporation WWE, a company that has openly embraced social media as part of its recent marketing efforts.

“WWE fans are passionate and generate thousands of comments during each live event, both on social networks, as well as directly on WWE.com,” said the company’s EVP of Digital Media, Perkins Miller. “DiscussIt Moderator enables our team to easily co-moderate real-time content across all of our properties, which makes it easier for our fans to feel connected to our content and our WWE Superstars.”

Social Media Solution Uses Twitter to Drive Traffic to Partner Channels

Michael Garrity — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:15:00 GMT

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company TIE Kinetix has added a new social element to its Content Syndication Platform with the launch of the Social Media Syndication Solution that is designed to make delivering dynamic marketing messages to a partner community on Twitter more accurate and effective.

This solution was created to allow vendors that sell through partners to connect their Twitter messages with the “right” content and lead capturing tools that will use syndication to drive conversions on their partners’ websites, and when that happens, it boosts sales and benefits both parties.

“Twitter is an extremely powerful tool in today’s business world,” said TIE Kinetix CEO Jan Sundelin. “We’re excited to be offering our customers a unique solution that enhances their marketing efforts and helps them better utilize these key social avenues.”

So, companies leveraging Twitter in their sales cycles can use the Social Media Syndication Solution to send messages from multiple partner Twitter handles, and users will not be able to detect the involvement of the original company at all. Plus, since it’s integrated into the Content Syndication Platform, when tweets include a PDF attachment, it will automatically be co-branded for each partner, and other links in tweets will direct traffic to the website of the partner that originally posted the message.

“This solution allows companies to not only tap into their own Twitter base, but also effectively access their partners’ Twitter followers,” explained Sundelin, “Which increases the number of eyeballs on their marketing material exponentially, in turn boosting sales and revenue for all.”

The first company to utilize this new solution is the longtime TIE Kinetix customer Siemens Enterprise Communications, which partners with a number of small resellers that have few marketing resources. Through the Social Media Syndication Solution, however, Siemens is able to help its partners cultivate their Twitter presence by automatically posting its own content to its partners’ followers, which helps them “find, engage and nurture new potential sales opportunities.”

Five Mother’s Day Social Strategies

Allison Howen — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:00:00 GMT

Sunday is Mother’s Day, which not only means that you still have time to pick up gifts for the most important ladies in your life, but also that brands have put their Mother’s Day marketing campaigns into full force across all social networks.

In fact, every holiday, event and change of season provides marketers with a timely promotional angle. And naturally, all brands take a different approach in their holiday-related campaigns. For example, a retailer typically promotes products as gift ideas, while content publishers create relevant content or contests to increase engagement. Yet, the best and most complete strategies combine multiple techniques in order to cater to every fan and followers’ preferences.

Website Magazine located five stellar Mother's Day social examples to offer inspiration for this holiday and future ones, too. Remember, Father’s Day is just around the corner…

Goal: Get People Talking

Brand: Seventh Generation

Social Network: Facebook

Strategy: Seventh Generation took to Facebook to ask a feel-good question and remind us how important moms are in our lives. The company’s use of an image to assist in asking the question “What is the best advice your mom has ever given you?” certainly grabs fans’ attention better than a text-based post and most likely leads to better engagement rates. Additionally, these fan interactions help Seventh Generation foster better relationships with its customers, as well as helps to increase brand awareness.

Goal: Generate Conversions

Brand: Sephora

Social Network: Pinterest

Strategy: Retailers and Pinterest go together like peanut butter and jelly, as this social network has proven to drive valuable traffic to e-commerce websites. Beauty company Sephora is taking advantage of this influential social network by creating an entire board devoted to Mother’s Day gift ideas. Not only do these featured items take visitors directly to product pages on Sephora's website when clicked on, but many of the images also include the hashtag, #mothersday, in order to increase the product's and Sephora's visibility on the pin boarding social network.

Goal: Boost Follower Numbers

Brand: ExtraTV

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Giveaways and contests are always a good tactic for increasing your social following, so why not combine these promotions with a timely event? Not only does this strategy from ExtraTV help the brand obtain more followers, but since the company asks for retweets, it also increases their visibility. Plus, this strategy will ultimately leave the two winning followers very happy.

We're giving away 2 @bfflco gift bags for #MothersDay! Follow @extratv & RT this message for your chance to win! bit.ly/MDWin
— ExtraTV (@extratv) May 7, 2013

Goal: Increase Brand Awareness

Brand: Google

Social Network: Google+

Strategy: Another feel-good strategy comes from Google, who has chosen to use Sunday’s holiday as a way to shamelessly promote its very own social network. That said, this video is very relatable (almost a tear-jerker), and truly shows how technology can be used to connect with the most important people in your life.

Goal: Improve Visibility and Engagement

Brand: Beats By Dre

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Advertisements are always a good way to increase your brand’s visibility, but Beats By Dre takes this strategy a step further by using an interactive and timely Promoted Tweet to reach new audience members. In fact, once someone clicks on the link to make a #Pillconfession (Pill is the name of one the company’s wireless speakers), they are directed to the company’s website where they can explore products and interact with the #Pillconfession campaign by posting a Mother’s Day confession either on Twitter or Facebook. Additionally, visitors can view the confessions of other consumers at the bottom of the webpage, which features an interactive collage of tweets and posts.

Got a #pillconfession? Make yours on beats.is/PillConfessTW. Apologies to moms everywhere! twitter.com/beatsbydre/sta…
— Beats By Dre (@beatsbydre) May 2, 2013

Social Commerce Continues to Grow on Ecwid

Allison Howen — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:22:00 GMT

The popularity of social commerce hasn’t slowed down, instead, first quarter data from Facebook shopping cart application Ecwid shows that this trend has seen significant year-over-year growth.

The data reveals that merchants leveraging the Ecwid platform have seen orders grow by 37 percent in their Facebook-based stores compared to the same period last year, as well as a 26 percent increase in sales.

The merchants included within this research maintain stores both on a website and on Facebook. According to the data, these merchants’ Facebook-based sales saw a 25 percent year-over-year increase, making up 10.3 percent of the merchants’ total online sales.

“We’re seeing an increasing number of our merchants open online stores on multiple sites – like their website, blog, mobile site and a Facebook page,” said Jim O’Hara, president of Ecwid, Inc. “We believe retailers should be able to sell anywhere their customers wish to shop online, not just on a traditional website store, eBay or Amazon. Retailers should have multiple online storefronts to reflect where their target customers look for products. In fact, some of our most successful merchants derive 50 to 80 percent of total online sales on Facebook, as they learn how to work the developing social commerce marketplace.”

This research suggests that consumer-shopping behavior is becoming increasingly more social. In fact, many shoppers are using social networks like Facebook and Pinterest as a way to discover products instead of traditional search, which has resulted in more merchants deploying multiple storefronts to reach this customer segment.