18,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
Capture customers and sales with social media commerce Social media commerce is a booming industry. By using social networks in the context of e-commerce transactions, brands large and small are making their products more available and more convenient for customers. This one-of-a-kind guide introduces you to social media commerce and explains how you can use social media to provide better customer service, collect payments online, and build your customer base. Online marketing expert Marsha Collier helps you determine where you have the best opportunity to reach your market, which sites you should integrate with, and much more. * Your customers are communicating with each other via social media; making purchasing opportunities available on social media sites adds convenience for your customer and opens up new sales opportunities * This step-by-step guide explains social media commerce and shows what you can accomplish * Helps you determine the sites where your business should have a presence * Demonstrates how customers can help promote your brand as they recommend products and services to others on their social networks * Author Marsha Collier is the undisputed expert on eBay and a recognized authority on social media marketing Social Media Commerce For Dummies helps you offer your customers better service while giving them the opportunity to share information about your product with their social media contacts.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 358
Ähnliche
Social Media Commerce For Dummies®
Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/socialmediacommerce to view this book's cheat sheet.
Table of Contents
Social Media Commerce For Dummies®
by Marsha Collier
Social Media Commerce For Dummies®
Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012950498
ISBN 978-1-118-29793-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-29943-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-46150-1 (ebk); 978-1-118-53195-2 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Author
Marsha Collier spends a good deal of time online. As a blogger, the author of the best-selling Dummies books on eBay, and a radio host, she shares her love of the online world with millions.
Before her eBay career took off, Marsha owned and operated her own marketing and advertising firm, a company that won numerous awards and earned her “Small Business of the Year” accolades from several organizations. She got started online during the Internet’s early years and quickly mastered the art making friends online.
Marsha is one of the foremost eBay experts and educators in the world and the top-selling eBay author. In 1999 Marsha created the first edition of eBay For Dummies, the bestselling book for eBay beginners. She followed up the success of her first book with Starting an eBay Business For Dummies, a book targeting individuals interested in making e-commerce their full-time profession, These books are updated regularly to keep up with site and market changes.
Marsha’s books have sold over one million copies (including the special editions in foreign countries — two in Australia, two in Canada, and two in the United Kingdom — as well as translations in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese and German).
Along with her writing, Marsha is an experienced e-commerce and customer service educator speaking at conferences all over the world. Embracing social media has earned Marsha awards as an influencer and author:
2011 Forbes: Top 10 Women Social Media Influencers
2012 Small Business Book Award Winner: Starting an eBay Business For Dummies
2012 Forbes: Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers
2012 The 100 Most Powerful Women on Twitter
2011 One of the Top 10 LA Tech & Twitter Voices in the Los Angeles Tech Scene by Ranker.com
2011 PeerIndex #1 Customer Experience Online Influencers
2011 #1 Most Influential in Customer Service MindTouch
She hosts Computer & Technology Radio on iTunes and on the web at www.computerandtechnologyradio.com. Marsha currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. She can be reached via her website, at www.marshacollier.com.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all the small businesses and entrepreneurs who have a zest for knowledge and the gumption to follow through. It’s dedicated also to those who have figured out that get-rich-quick schemes don’t work and that, in the long run, hard work and passion for what you do leads to financial achievement and contentment. Those who run small businesses are a special breed, and I salute you. This book was written to lighten your load, and maybe make social media a pleasant respite from your day.
Finally, I dedicate this book to my many friends in social media. Our morning chats and Tweets help me to start my day with a smile.
Author’s Acknowledgments
This book couldn’t have been written without the input from thousands of my Twitter and Facebook friends (who are also on Google+) from all over the world. Thank you for answering my silly polls, for helping me with words when I can’t think of just the right one, and for just being there to brighten my day. You inspire me to work harder and do my best to help everyone succeed.
I particularly want to thank the crew at Wiley: my project editor, Susan Pink, who endured my feistiness while helping me produce a better book (and who really needs a Facebook page); my bad-ass tech editor (and friend) TJ McCue, whose smart ideas and encouraging words helped me through this project; my acquisitions editor, Amy Fandrei, who had no idea what she was getting in to *Tweet* but was a real help centering my bazillion ideas; to executive editor Steve Hayes, with whom I’ve worked long before he hit the big time (and I might note has never copped a highfalutin’ tone); and to Andy Cummings, publisher and vice president, who I’ve worked with for over a decade but yet we still don’t have time for a second cigar.
On the home front: Thanks to my very successful, smart, and charming daughter, Susan Dickman. Susan was there when I was stuck in limbo, helping with suggestions and sitting with me while I worked late on edits (even after her own full day at work). I believe she thinks it was payback for the many childhood dioramas, but I know she was just being kind. For sure, without Curt Buthman’s support (and hot meals), writing this book would have been a whole lot less fun than it was. Thank you, Curt, for putting up with my long hours (I know you got to watch a lot more UFC) . . . it’s time we go dining and dancing (until the next book).
Whoa! Can’t forget my agent, Matt Wagner who helped me climb (finally) out of my eBay box and expand my horizons. Thanks, pal!
Thank you all!
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions and Editorial
Project Editor: Susan Pink
Acquisitions Editor: Amy Fandrei
Copy Editor: Susan Pink
Technical Editor: TJ McCue
Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen
Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Cover Photo: © VOLODYMER GRINKO/iStockphoto and © sureyya akin/iStockphoto
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Sr. Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees
Layout and Graphics: Jennifer Creasey, Joyce Haughey, Corrie Niehaus
Proofreaders: John Greenough, Linda D. Morris
Indexer: Sharon Shock
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Introduction
Trying to target the new media customer these days is getting increasingly hard. Customers and clients are online, sharing and exchanging ideas on products and services. They seek information from reviews and comments on multiple websites. This shift has changed shopping from a solo exercise to a social experience and is the key element to the growth of social commerce.
In addition, the new media customer has a growing distrust of traditional advertising and marketing methods. In 2010, the Altimeter Group (www.altimetergroup.com) heralded an enterprise conference on the groundswell of social commerce:
It is not about you! It is not about the brand. It is about the collective wisdom of the community, who share insight from people that the buyer trusts. This is a marked change for a product-centric company that has built a living on push-based advertising about their brands. For now, it is not about your website, your fan page, or your sponsored communities. The shopper is a skeptic. They are the most likely to buy based on posts on third-party websites.
Shoppers want to connect with the companies and people with which they do business. They want to feel important. They want their opinions to be respected and their feelings to be understood. They crave a buying experience that puts them in a place of influence. The power is shifting to the consumer. By using social media commerce effectively, you can bridge the gap between you and your customer while you build your bottom line.
About This Book
So many tried-and-true methods have fallen by the wayside and the traditional ways to do business have been disrupted. What’s a businessperson to do?
To hear the voice of your customer, you need to keep up with the rapid pace of change. Technology and social marketing are constantly evolving. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are the undisputed leaders in online networking. Upstarts such as Google+, Pinterest, and So.cl are adding to the gaggle with new methods of engagement that allow you to make the most of the current communication trends. Joining in the conversation is your key to converting customers.
As businesses and professionals, we need to combine new technologies with traditional marketing to bring in sales. Technological touch points such as QR codes are an example. Although engagement through the use of these codes is off to a wobbly start, they have proved increasingly effective when used with direct mail and at point of sale.
Many businesses are underestimating the involvement and planning needed to properly utilize social media for commercial gain. Social media isn’t just another outlet for marketing — it must be integrated into your company’s culture. A successful strategy that is committed to connecting and engaging with your consumers increases your bottom line.
Customers value transparency and authenticity. Although it can be a challenge to separate your marketing message from your social content, finding your voice becomes second nature, and rising to the occasion pays off.
Social media is more than just setting up a Twitter feed and adding a Facebook like button to your website. You have to give the customer something — and someone — to like and follow. First, work on making your own site social and providing your customers with a channel to connect directly with you.
Integrating social media into your business plan may sound daunting, but I wrote Social Media Commerce For Dummies to show you how. In this book, you find the answers to some important questions as we explore the following topics:
Defining your customers in new media and knowing where they hang out
Connecting through social media and converting “friends” into loyal customers
Bringing your website up-to-date by integrating social commerce engagement points
Competing with the big brands
Monitoring your reputation and catching criticism before it goes viral
Enhancing your connection to the customer through e-mail marketing
Adding new twists to traditional marketing practices
How to Read This Book
Read this book in traditional fashion from beginning to end or feel free to read it as you would use a cookbook, jumping around from recipe to recipe (or chapter to chapter). Either way, be sure to keep the book handy to answer future questions as they come to you.
Foolish Assumptions
I assume you realize that the social media trend is here for the long haul. (And if you’re not yet convinced, check out Chapter 1.) Some of you might want to know how much time and effort are involved in jumping into the online conversation so you can make an informed decision about whether to give it a go. For those who have decided that it’s time to use social media to benefit your business, I make some other assumptions:
You have a business or are part of a professional organization.
You enjoy the Internet and can find your way around.
Some of your friends (or even you) are on Facebook. You know that this is an outlet for ads and promotions and you want to know how best to approach utilizing them.
You’ve heard about Twitter and perhaps have even given it a whirl.
You like the idea of getting feedback from your customers and finding out how best to increase their loyalty.
If you can say yes to most of my foolish assumptions, you’re off and running! Take a few moments to read the following section to see how I’ve put this book together.
How This Book Is Organized
Thanks to my editors, this book has five parts. Each chapter can stand on its own. That means you can read Chapter 12 after reading Chapter 8 and maybe skip Chapter 10 altogether — but I know you won’t because that’s where I discuss cashing in!
Part I: Prepping for Social Media Commerce
Reviewing the data that shows why social media has taken such a large chunk of today’s advertising dollar is a good place to start your investigation. In Part I, you consider the right place to position your business and how not to create a major faux pas at the outset. You also look at how best to invest your time and who you should trust to manage your outreach. I also provide valuable information on setting up a social media policy for employees who might represent your business online.
Part II: Adapting Your Web Presence
You probably have a website for your business — if you don’t, I suggest you get one right away. Part II shows you how to buff up that site for the twenty-first century by making it more engaging for your customers. I propose ways to add content that invites shares and comments. You’ll also find out how to connect and create your social persona.
Your website is your home on the Internet, and your home page is your front door, where you welcome your customers. I show you how to install some free tools to make it easier to connect in real time through live chat — and have a dedicated (free) phone number for customer service interactions.
Part III: Casting for and Catching Customers
In Part III, you hone in on your customer. You discover some good tools for identifying your customers and finding them in the social media realm. I also describe the strengths and weaknesses of different social media sites.
You also get tips about connecting on Twitter (yes, in 140 characters or less) and how to build a following. You discover a quick way to get into Facebook commerce with your own store and find out how to connect (and profit) with your customers through mobile.
Most of all, Part III gives you clues on how to monetize, even if you have no physical products to sell.
Part IV: Supporting Your Social Media Commerce Efforts
In Part IV, you discover ways to streamline your existing customer service reach through online media and to diffuse issues before they become damaging. I address simple (and free) ways of monitoring your online reputation. This task isn’t a big mystery and will take far less time than you think.
You also find out how to update your advertising, including how to start and reinvigorate an e-mail campaign, and how to build a valuable following online.
Part V: The Part of Tens
In Part V, you get an immediate action list. I’ve condensed all the knowledge in the book into a 10-step program for online success. In addition, a tip sheet helps you get feedback on new business ideas through your online community.
New media has a language of its own, so I’ve also included a glossary. Feel free to refer to the glossary often as you peruse other parts of the book.
Icons Used in This Book
All For Dummies books have cute little icons. I certainly wouldn’t want to ruin your reading experience and leave them out. So I selected a few and used them sparingly throughout the book. Be sure to take heed when you see them.
If I need to interject something — okay, it’s something I’m jumping up and down to tell you but it won’t fit directly into the text — I indicate it by including a Tip icon. You’ll know the text to follow will be right on target!
Do you really know people who tie string around their finger to remember something? Me neither, but this icon gives me the opportunity to give you a brief reminder. Think of it as a sticky note.
I like this picture of the bomb device that Wile E. Coyote slam-dunks in the cartoons. In that vein, if you don’t heed the warning indicated by the small petard (hey, Shakespeare knew about old-fashioned bombs), you may end up “hoisted by your own petard,” or made a victim of your own foolishness.
Where to Go from Here
It’s time to hunker down and delve into the book. Take this information and study it. The fun of building an engaging community online awaits you. I can’t wait to hear your success stories if I meet you at a social media event or a book signing in your town.
My goal is to help you reach your goals. Feel free to visit my websites at www.reputationspecialist.com and www.coolebaytools.com or subscribe to my blog at mcollier.blogspot.com. For more about me (and to contact me), visit www.marshacollier.com (just click the Send Marsha an Email link). To contact me in less than 140 characters, you can find me on Twitter (@MarshaCollier) almost every day. Join me on Facebook, too, at www. facebook.com/MarshaCollierFanPage, where I share even more. (Perhaps I overshare?) I respond there too.
Please send me suggestions, additions, and comments. I want to hear from you and hope to update this book with your words of wisdom. (Humorous war stories are also gratefully accepted!) I truly appreciate your comments. Please know that I read every e-mail I get, but I can’t always answer every one.
Occasionally, Wiley has updates to their technology books. If this book does have technical updates, they will be posted at dummies.com/go/socialmediacommercefdupdates.
Part I
Prepping for Social Media Commerce
In this part . . .
In the moving target that is social media commerce, it’s important to grasp the basics: the how’s and why’s. In Part I, you get up to speed on how social media can work for your business. Also, you find some tips on deciding how much time you need to spend online to achieve your goals.
Chapter 1
Social Media Commerce and Your Bottom Line
In This Chapter
Understanding social business, social commerce, and social media
Monetizing through connections
Understanding how technology changes communication
Evaluating social media outreach versus tried-and-true marketing
Preparing your online strategy
Technologies change and, we hope, improve the way we do business, but the modes of transmission also change. What’s new is old — and what’s old is new.
Traditionally, news about a subject or product was broadcast through advertising, marketing, word-of-mouth, and even gossip. Broadcast media concentrated on manipulating customer emotions. The brands were king and often got away with calling the shots. Stores ran daily sales on one line of merchandise and then another to keep up with projected figures.
The public came to depend on promotions, and stores could sell little at a retail price. The continual fire sales lost their charm, and the practice dwindled. “You can fool some of the people some of the time.” Many retailers weren’t acting like “people” or respecting the customer.
Technology disrupted the way business was done and the way advertising was delivered. No longer is it considered a successful campaign to broadcast relentless sales and discounts to prospective customers. The public has tired of obvious manipulation.
Transparency in communication is the key to business now. Connecting with the customer through social networks brings business and brands into the day-to-day lives of the public. In this chapter, I provide a brief history of the transition and ideas on how you can make the shift to new media.
Social Commerce Beginnings
Back in the 1700s, the town crier rang his bell and made proclamations in the town square. These criers were the sole means of communication with the populace, which was mostly illiterate. When literacy spread, people craved more information and the newspaper was born. Our nation’s first daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser (see Figure 1-1), ran ads on the front page, giving those in a trade or with goods to sell a platform for marketing. The daily newspaper is one of the first examples of reaching customers by combining content with marketing.
Today, content-based marketing gets repeated in social media and increases word-of-mouth mentions; it’s the best way to gather buzz about a product. It worked in the past and it does now.
Think back to the first days of television, whose sponsors crafted messages that would blend with the entertainment value (content) of the show. For example, Phillip Morris, the cigarette manufacturer that sponsored I Love Lucy, protected their brand to the extent that the word lucky was forbidden on the show so that the audience wasn’t reminded of a competing brand, Lucky Strikes.
As advertising progressed through the years, marketing created catchwords that carried messages through word-of-mouth.
Figure 1-1: Front and center on our country’s first newspaper: Ads!
Person-to-person contact is a proven method to build sales. During the Great Depression, the Avon lady and her samples were welcomed into homes. With 25,000 representatives in the field, sales grew to $6.5 million in 1939, from just under $2.8 million in 1929. Trust, education (content) and personal contact built the sales network today to 6.4 million representatives in 100 countries. In the History section on the Avon website, they remark that long before Facebook, “It connected women, who were otherwise isolated and immersed in domestic life,” in what the company calls “the original social network.” Indeed it was.
In 1991, the World Wide Web was put online by Tim Berners-Lee, and forward- thinking commerce types saw a new opportunity. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994, and in the following year, Pierre Omidyar started a person-to-person marketplace called eBay. These early online sellers made a name for themselves by offering discount pricing and a vast array of merchandise, but they added a new twist: Their sites were also social networks. Buyers could comment, leave feedback, and post reviews of the items they purchased. Customer service took a new turn.
Thus began — for a few smart companies — social commerce.
Defining Social Media, Social Business, and Social Commerce
Grab a cup of coffee. The new train of thinking you’ll need to wrap your head around is all about being social. Commerce has always been propelled by people. Whether a business is serving the customer (B2C, business to consumer) or selling products and services to another business (B2B, business to business), making a sale always starts with an interaction. In today’s business atmosphere, initial and ongoing contacts and interactions must build trust.
Social is the heart of commerce today. Dictionary-style definitions read this way:
Social media refers to varied methods and web-based applications for online media that enable social interactions. These platforms are accessible to businesses and consumers through scalable publishing techniques via blogs and public sites. User-generated content is augmented by person-to-person interaction and conversation is encouraged. This online arena is the place where social business communication, networking, and social commerce are played out.
Social business is revolutionizing the way companies function and generate value for all involved. This new trend toward internal communication and socially minded organizations transforms from the inside out. The transformation is propelled through relationships within and without the company. Social business connects the internal staff with external vendors and customers. It breaks down the organizational silos that stand in the way of intracompany communication, building mutual collaboration between all departments.
Social media commerce is where the rubber meets the road, where the dollars are made. Social media commerce is the specific use of social media technology and networks to produce commerce, whether on the web or in bricks-and-mortar businesses.
Although the terms sound similar, they refer to three different ways for people (and business) to benefit from pubic exposure and transparency. All three are bound by the word social.
The following strategies can be accomplished through the social media conduit:
Raise awareness of new products
Teach customers how to care for your product
Develop or sell new product lines, based on customer comments
Adapt your business to match customer needs
Promote seasonal bargains and marketing messages
Deliver on your customer service promise
This list gives you just a few ideas. Throughout this book, you will find lots of suggestions to help you change your business into a much more trusted (and profitable) enterprise.
Making Money by Connecting with People
Selling through social media isn’t just about posting bargains on Facebook or Twitter. You must also build trust with today’s customer. Social media engagement leads to a more personalized means of communication versus Tweeting deals and requesting Facebook likes.
Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report (see Figure 1-2) surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries. The report found that a whopping 92 percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media (versus paid advertising) and social word of mouth (such as recommendations from friends and family) more than other forms of advertising.
Figure 1-2: Data from Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey Q3, 2011.
Today, earned media spurs engagement through community versus paid media (advertising), which drives customers to make purchases. To make your message resound with customers, you need to take advantage of social network channels and interact with the community on your website. Buyers no longer trust traditional advertising.
Your website is the hub of your social media reach and should provide tools and features that build consistency and collaboration. (For more on building a more social platform, see Chapter 4.) If you let your customers know your company, their investment is not just in your products and service but also with you and your staff as extended friends.
Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake (Wiley), recently wrapped up the philosophy this way:
Tactics aside, what is of greatest importance is that your social media engagement be marked by authenticity and transparency. People want to be told the truth. They want their interactions with you to be validated by a genuine personal response. And they want the acknowledgement that what they have to say matters.
So the way business connects has changed. Social engagement requires transparency and targeting your words and advertising to the people who are interested in your brand and your message.
Targeting social ads to those who are friends, or friends of friends, makes a profound difference in the impact of your advertising. In another Nielsen study, advertising recall increased by 55 percent when an ad was targeted directly to a business’s social network. Ads become more memorable when social content is referenced.
Content engagement (personalizing to the customer) entices customers to try your business for the first time. Continuing interaction keeps them coming back for more. This technique is demonstrated craftily in the portion of an e-mail from ShoeDazzle shown in Figure 1-3. The sales pitch in the e-mail is tied to and delivered during the month’s horoscope. So as not to leave out those who are not of the Taurus persuasion, the e-mail lists engaging quotes for each sign of the zodiac.
Notice the bottom of the e-mail? ShoeDazzle doesn’t write the traditional “Follow Us on Facebook.” Instead, they tell their customers that they love to be social — and provide links so that the customer can meet and connect with the brand on social media sites.
Figure 1-3: The “social sweet spot” of Shoe- Dazzle’s e-mail.
As a customer, I liked ShoeDazzle on Facebook, and now, when I go to the site, my entry page is personalized with my Facebook picture (see Figure 1-4). Smart, eh? What a great way to make the customer part of the brand.
By the way, I just bought a pair of shoes from them while writing this chapter. See? Reaching out in a personal way draws attention and really does work.
Figure 1-4: My personalized entry page on ShoeDazzle.
Changing Communication through Technology
After people began trading on eBay and shopping for books on Amazon, the game changed. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web (sorry, Al Gore) as we know it today, executed his initial proposal in 1989 and put the first website and server online at CERN in France in 1991. Even though the purpose of this early technology was to connect scientists, Berners-Lee saw the future:
The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect — to help people work together — and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. We clump into families, associations, and companies. We develop trust across the miles and distrust around the corner.
Built to bring the world closer together, this new World Wide Web enabled trust between strangers, businesses, and customers.
In 1999, a ground-breaking book on the future impact of commerce and the Internet was published. The Cluetrain Manifesto,by Rick, Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, et al (Basic Books)in its description of how interactions with customers was about to change in the newly connected marketplace, was a call to action for all businesses. The book was almost clairvoyant in its prediction that the Internet would enable commerce by “human to human” conversations, thereby radically transforming traditional business practices.
Social media commerce is a byproduct of this brave new world. In the new media (through social media), CEOs and janitors converse and have equal power to change the business atmosphere. Social media is the twenty-first-century way of spreading the word and connecting about a topic, product, professional, or brand. If the topic at hand happens to be related to a product you sell, you have an opportunity to piggyback your message with it and include your call to action.
From word of mouth to 1s and 0s
Pioneers in communication and commerce built platforms that enabled engagement and person-to-person commerce. The following list gives you an idea of how quickly the world has turned digital:
1978: CBBS, Computerized Bulletin Board System, came online to a few hobbyists over regular telephone lines through modem connections.
1980: CompuServe became the first online service to offer real-time chat thought their CB Simulator program.
1995: GeoCities was the first site to promote free personal home pages. Although most pages were pretty basic, the service gave regular people a place to stake their claim on the web.
1997: eBay (previously Auctionweb), a person-to-person marketplace, introduced a feedback system in which customer and sellers could comment on their e-commerce transactions. eBay also instituted user boards so that eBay members could chat, share ideas, and discuss their sales.
1998: PayPal, originally called x.com, was founded as a person-to-person payment service. PayPal fueled eBay and future e-commerce growth.
1999: Blogger, the first free blogging service, opened. They were purchased by Google in 2003.
2002: Friendster, the first official social network, was created. By 2008, they reached a peak of 115 million registered members worldwide.
2003: MySpace was developed by some Friendster users, and implemented the latest technologies and higher bandwidth than previous platforms. They reached a peak of 75 million visitors per month in late 2008.
2003: LinkedIn, the first business-skewed social networking site, began attracting professionals as a way to connect.
2004: Flickr, a photo- and video-hosting site, initially had a chat room, which was shelved early on. Today, Flickr is owned by Yahoo! and will eventually replace Yahoo! Photos.
2004: Facebook launched quietly to students of Harvard University. These students opened the site to 800 other colleges in 2005, and by 2006, the site was available to any person over the age of 13.
2005: YouTube was created by three former PayPal employees as a site where users can upload, view, and share videos. It was sold to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006.
2006: Twitter, the text-based social networking and microblogging service, was born. Comments, called Tweets, are limited to 140 characters. Today, Twitter users serve up more than 400 million Tweets per day.
2010: Pinterest, a virtual pinboard for pinning and sharing web-based images, quotes, and all things visual that users find interesting, was created. Within a few months, it became one of the largest social networks on the web.
2011: Google+ opened as a social networking and identity service as an invitation-only beta. Within two weeks of its limited trial, the site reached 10 million users. By the end of 2011, it had 90 million users.
The digital landscape experiences transitions and progress continually. One aspect that will not change for a long time, however, is the ability to immediately and positively connect with customers.
The end of the cold call
Traditionally, the process of making connections and making appointments took days, weeks, and months. In today’s digital world, connections can be made on the fly. You can find suppliers by a LinkedIn search and hone in on customer bases by using social media tools.
Cold calls are no longer cold; they are warmed by information and data that was never before available. The amount of statistics about you, your business, and your industry stored in online databases makes your business dealings more transparent than ever before. Your personal reputation online adds into the equation and can potentially make or break a sale.
Products, as well, are no longer a mystery. Customers come fully armed with information on brands and models when they shop. Before the digital age, people went shopping during their lunch break. As e-commerce and high-speed connections grew, they squeezed a little time on their work computer for online shopping. Now, mobile technology fuels the online market.
More and more, consumers pick up their smartphones or tablets and conduct research before making a purchase. Customers get an instant and complete picture of a product’s features through news and user-generated reviews. They can figure out which product or service they want — as well as where to find it. Consumers of all ages are embracing social content and mobile technologies. According to research by Nielsen, as of February 2012, nearly half of U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones (see Figure 1-5).
The 2011 holiday season was a turning point in e-commerce. A study from Google and IPSOS OTX found that of people who used smartphones for product research
46 percent went to a store to make their purchase
37 percent purchased online on a computer
41 percent purchased on a smartphone
19 percent visited a store to check out the product and then purchased online on a computer
18 percent visited a store to check out the product and then purchased online on a smartphone
8 percent visited the store first and then purchased on a smartphone
