As all eyes focus on the social commerce landscape for 2012, Dimensions Mall, has dropped a veritable bomb less than a month into the year.

While 67% of retailers are already planning to use Facebook to drive traffic through to e-commerce in 2012, not to mention Coca-Cola, Disney and Starbucks, the three largest brands on the social networking site, already selling products directly, Georgia-based Dimensions Mall has gone one step further.

As reported by Social Media Influence, the company is developing a virtual shopping mall, where consumers create their own custom avatars to take them around realistic-looking stores, try on outfits in virtual dressing rooms and share the experience in real-time with family and friends.

The mall is packed with social functionality, such as profile pages, where shoppers can share and review purchases, as well as regularly updated products, offering shoppers access to items that are ‘trending’ at that moment in time.

It’s certainly a radical step forward into social commerce – and one intended to revolutionise the communal shopping experience. Will it work?

- Yes, because it appeals to our cautiousness. Shoppers can watch each other’s actions and see what others have purchased, before making their own moves

- Yes because it appeals to our curiosity. Shoppers can explore one another’s social pages for reviews and recommendations, seeking out authoritative views before committing to purchases

- Yes, because, quite simply, we are influenced by the people we like. By making the social shopping experience truly communal and facilitating real-time shared shopping experiences, we are more likely to follow our peer’s actions into purchase decisions

All in all, it looks like a groundbreaking project and it will certainly be interesting to see which brands dip their toes into the water first.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Still relatively unheard of amongst the masses, RFID or radio frequency identification technology has recently made the headlines as it is potentially going to be adopted for use at summer festivals in the UK. Glastonbury organiser, Michael Eavis has confirmed that he is looking into using the technology – read more here.

RFID technology offers many exciting prospects for brands who are keen to integrate on and offline experiences. RFID possesses that WOW factor that really gets people talking. And combined with social media, RFID gets people sharing.

How RFID works in conjunction with social? And what can it do for brands?

RFID bracelets or tags can be synchronised to a user’s Facebook profile. With a single swipe, the user can then tag, like and check-in, all in real-time.

A number of pioneering brands have already experimented with RFID technology, cashing in on real-world events in order to grow their social profiles and extend their reach through social media.

Coca Cola was an early adopter of RFID, providing teenagers with wristbands holidaying at the Coca Cola Summer village. This video provides you with a snapshot overview. The teenagers loved this exciting new offering, which auto-tagged them in photos uploaded to Coca Cola Facebook page.

The use of RFID for experiential events boosts branded page activity as fans share content, whilst also creating amplification and awareness through their individual social profiles. This user-generated content acts as a magnet for new visitors and potentially new fans, drawing in interest from across the social space. For the existing fans, RFID activity serves to further reinforce their positive attitude towards the brand, nurturing advocacy and retaining interest. Those who aren’t at the event can still feel and be involved, engaging through comments on RFID social content.

Videos and photos are the most popular forms of online content, which is handy as real world activity can be easily translated into the social space in these formats.

To sum up…

We are still oohing and aahing at the boundless opportunities that RFID can bring in social terms, which certainly cannot be summed up in one small blog post. It certainly seems likely that this ingenious technology will develop into a mainstream experiential technology as the divide betweens what’s social and what’s real continues to narrow. It’s one to watch.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

With the launch of 60 new applications using the Timeline and Open Graph, Facebook is about to expand beyond the Like.  The new functionality will allow users to share perpetual actions (‘love’, ‘want’, ‘need’) via applications through the Open Graph. There are obvious benefits for brands, especially given the buying signals of user actions such as wanting and needing.

But beyond brands and their products, publishers also have a unique opportunity to create content that can be ‘watched’, ‘listened’ and ‘read’. Many Facebook users will be familiar with the Guardian’s integration, which creates a ticker stream of stories that have been ‘read’ or ‘watched’ via the application, as well as providing the opportunity to share and recommend stories to friends.

It won’t be long before other publishers take their lead and leverage the social searching benefits of reading content this way. This will undoubtedly be welcomed by Facebook and draw yet more content into the platform, further enhancing the user experience.

As always with Facebook developments there are drawbacks and this time, it boils down to privacy and the potential vulnerability for users of sharing this level of data with the platform.   Once you have granted access to the application it does not require any further permission to post to your Timeline  and a number of applications seek extensive access to your settings, preferences and the pages you Like. For example, the Ticketmaster application combines events you and your friends are attending, your location, the artists and teams you Like, and the music you have listened to on apps such as Spotify, to pre-empt events you will love.

While the Ticketmaster app is innovative, it is still only in beta format and seems to have its flaws. Since beginning this post, the app has been trying to access my data, but appears to be stuck on the same loading screen. This could well be because it is fishing for so much of my data!

Here are a few other examples to watch out for amongst the new launch applications…

Where I’ve Been – tell the world places you have been

Rotten Tomatoes – share reviews and create a ‘want to see’ list

Turntable.fm – listen with your friends and host virtual ‘DJ’ events

Foodspotting – users can share recipes, dishes they have eaten and dishes they want to try

Pinterest – this social network is expected to arrive in the UK this year after jumping into the top 10 US sites of 2011 with over 31 million visits

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

For years, content strategists have been hiding in the wings, quietly coordinating the show, while the social media rock stars take centre stage.

Not anymore. A media frenzy surrounding the information overload debate, combined with the growing impact of social search, mean that the need for sophisticated content planning is no longer a nice-to-have.

With that in mind, we have pulled together a list of five useful content tools to help you plan, optimise and curate your way through 2012.

1. InBound Writer

A tool designed to help you discover the keywords and phrases your audience is searching for in real-time. By inputting a few terms that tie in to your content’s theme, the tool analyses conversations across the web as well as social media platforms to deliver the best phrases to optimise your content with.

Verdict: It won’t replace a solid SEO strategy, but it should certainly give your content a useful optimisation boost.

2. InfiniGraph

This tool promises to optimise social profiles by giving brands “Hypercuration™”, the power to identify content that is currently trending on your own as well as competitor brands’ social estates, based on the social behaviours and actions of influencers.

Verdict: It’s based on real-time social analytics, so could be a great aid for swiftly A/B testing content.

3. Scoop.it

Curation is the current buzzword and Scoop.it provides curators with a platform for creating topics and ‘scooping’ relevant content to add to the topic at the click of a button.

Verdict: Really straightforward to use and easy to adjust your keyword searches until you find the content you are looking for.

4. DivyHQ

Markets itself as a spreadsheet-free editorial calendar application. The tool can be assigned to multiple team members for multiple campaigns and the calendars can be created from scratch within DivyHQ itself, or simply imported directly from Excel.

Verdict: It’s currently only in beta format and largely looks to offer the same functionality as tools such as Outlook – though it may yet prove a valuable tool.

5. 37Signals’ BasecampHQ

A project collaboration tool, which enables all project files to be stored in one place, centralise discussions, keep track of events and view all upcoming activities and milestones.

Verdict: It has a smart user-interface and the upcoming activities and milestones functionality is handy for keeping deadlines.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

 New research shows consumers who engage with companies using social media spend up to 30% more than consumers that don’t.

The same research from Bain & Company, suggests they are also more loyal and emotionally connected than customers who are not socially engaged. Bain demonstrated this by looking at the Net Promoter Score (NPS) of customers – the NPS score was 33 points higher for the socially engaged consumer.

To some extent this isn’t surprising – the NPS score of a consumer socially connected to a brand is skewed by a self-selection bias. A consumer chooses to ‘follow’ or ‘fan’ a brand because they have some interest or affinity with it already, indeed they might be a loyal consumer. Other research shows that the main motivation for following or liking a brand on social media is to get the latest information and deals.

Nonetheless, this is useful data when trying to make the business case for increasing investment in social media.

Other useful social media ROI research/data that will help in this area (albeit Facebook focused) includes:

•  1 Facebook fan = 20 additional visits to your website
• The average fan is worth £138
• Fans Are 291% More Likely to Engage With Brand Than Non-Fan

Please let me know if you have other great ROI case-studies.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

You may notice that the internet is slightly quieter than you are used to tomorrow.  This is due to numerous internet giants protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Opponents to the bills state that if passed into law, they will stifle innovation and undermine free speech through unreasonable internet censorship.

On 18/01/12: Wikipedia, user-submitted news site Reddit, the blog Boing Boing and the Cheezburger network of comedy sites all plan to participate in the blackout.  They will follow in the web steps of the Italian Wikipedia site following similar anti piracy legislation proposed in Italy last year.

According to Wikipedia, SOPA “would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.  Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators, such as PayPal, from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.  The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months.”

I urge you to read this today as Wikipedia will be ‘dark’ tomorrow.  You can find more about the Wikipedia: SOPA initiative here.

Both bills appear ill thought through and have been condemned by the internet at large.  You can see a pretty reasoned argument against both bills in this video by Cynical Brit, a UK gaming journalist and learn more about the bills themselves in this handy infographic from AmericanCensorship.org.

As a social media consultancy that generates revenue and jobs directly through a healthy and free web, both of these bills need to go back to the drawing board.  It is obvious that companies that produce games, music, film and other IP need to be protected from piracy, but knee jerk legislation is not the answer. There needs to be future consultation with the internet big guns, Facebook et al.

SOPA was ‘shelved’ yesterday awaiting consensus on the bill. PIPA advocate and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on the bill on 24/01/12.  Swot up on this subject, because if you operate online this does effect you.

Tweet #stopsopa

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

You may have seen the other day that GPS navigation system Waze hit 10m users. It’s a social tool that aggregates user reports on traffic, accidents and the like. I’m a recent convert and signed up a few months ago, since then it’s become a part of my daily commute. If any of you have experienced the vagaries of rush hour traffic on the A3 you’ll understand that drivers need all the help they can get.

Waze: Useful and free, what's not to like?

As a consumer my prerequisites for downloading a geolocation app have to fulfil at least 3 of the following. Here’s how Waze hits those targets:

• Collaborative – Waze uses thousands of users’ traffic reports to create a map of road congestion and allows them to send messages in real time to update each other. Its success rests on the community spirit of its users
• Timely – this all happens in real time, a boon for an audience where seconds count
• Useful – I’ve avoided innumerable traffic jams with this tool and anything that can make the daily commute less painful and for free gets my thumbs up
• Fully integrates with my existing social profiles without superseding them – this is not a Foursquare, inundating friends with useless and annoying updates. It fulfils a purpose and doesn’t pretend to be a Facebook replacement. Should the jam be particularly bad you can send your update to Twitter or Facebook to alert your wider following, but that’s it. Waze knows its limits

Download it for your iPhone, Android or Blackberry here. My username is rupinjapan, so if you see a Transit wrapped round a traffic light on the Cobham bypass let me know ahead of time.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

There is no doubt that the growth of Slideshare has got B2B marketers excited about using social media again. It has become the world’s largest content sharing community. Combine this with the reach of Twitter and LinkedIn and the platform has become a vital part of the best B2B social media strategies. The site has seen dramatic growth amassing more than 60 million visitors and 3 billion slide views a month.

For those in the B2B arena it is clear that certain social media platforms just do not facilitate engagement with the right target market. Are you really going to engage a key business decision maker or Managing Director in and around the topic of advanced web analytics on Facebook? More often than not B2B marketing involves the creation of thought leading content, traditionally this would have been in the form of case studies, reports, factsheets and brochures. In the digital age, users are looking for digestible content that they can use within their own presentations as well as research into new products and services.

Presentations by their definition look to condense key information into a series of impactful slides, a perfect social object for distribution as part of a content strategy. 71% of B2B companies are doing more content marketing than last year and in some cases are estimated to be spending a quarter of their marketing budgets on content marketing.

Here are some nice little tips if you are developing a Slideshare presentation as part of your B2B social media campaign or ongoing content strategy;

The Slideshare sweet spot is between 10 & 30 slides! Keep it succinct, it is not a numbers game!

Tweet

19 images is the average per Slideshare presentation, equivalent to one per page.

Tweet

Average number of words per Slideshare presentation is 24! Don’t dribble on and stick to the point

Tweet

Slideshare Infographic

Sources: Infographic by Column Five.  Column Five infograhic sources: Content Marketing Institute, Slideshare.net, Quantcast, Comscore

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If so, you are not alone. New research from econsultancy shows a whopping 85% of brands believe increased social media marketing by competitors will have a significant impact on their social media plans in 2012.

With all innovation, there is an adoption curve (see below) – it looks like the social media laggards are worried they might be losing competitive advantage. For good reason – there is growing empirical evidence that investment in social media has financial benefit. For example, McKinsey showed a correlation between a ‘social business’ and higher profit margins and market share.

Where are you on the social media adoption curve?

So how scared should you be? Before you panic, work out how you are actually doing versus your competitors. Using various tools, you can benchmark some key indicators such as:

Social share of voice

What proportion of the consumer conversation in your market place is your brand or company getting? This can be shown simply as a percentage and tracked over time. Even if you are not doing proactive social media activity – you may be surprised how many consumers are actually talking about your products, services or staff.

Reach

All the research shows (understandably) that the C-Suite tend to focus on the top-line numbers. So you need to compare Facebook fan numbers and Twitter followers so you can get a gauge on the potential reach of rival brands.

Engagement and sentiment

But the big numbers don’t tell the whole story. You need to dig a bit deeper –who is actually engaging with the brand – is it the sort of consumers you would like to be talking to? Are they talking positively or negatively about your rivals?

Once you have all this information, it’s time to work out a social strategy for your business. Convene a cross-functional team (ideally HR, marketing, PR and customer service) to decide on priorities and focus.

If you need help, give us a call and we can help you refine your social media strategy.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Whether you’re planning your tactical social media campaign or reengineering your business for the social consumer, social media research is invaluable in setting benchmarks.  They help you manage expectations, isolate priorities and best of all, define KPIs that set the evaluation bar.

But there is a dearth of UK and European focused research resources.  Apart from econsultancy’s marvellous internet stats compendium, it can be quite difficult to find individual studies without scouring Google for days!

So to make it easy, below are highlights of the latest social media research, with links to original studies. Better still, they are in 140 characters or less,  and very tweetable, if you fancy sharing a few insights.

1. During 2011 there were 228 billion UK Internet visits to websites and 28 billion hours spent online
Source: Experian Hitwise Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/uMRrri
Tweet

2. 87% of UK businesses will invest more in social media in 2012
Source: Royal Bank Of Scotland (RBS), Dec 2011. Reported in The Scotsman http://bit.ly/th7heE
Tweet

3. Almost two thirds (64%) of companies say they are now beyond the experimental phase compared to 54% a year ago
Source: econsultancy Nov 2011 http://bit.ly/to9Je7
Tweet

4. Only 48% of UK companies use social media, compared to 72% in the US and 83% in China
Source: KPMG, May 2011 http://bit.ly/sD194p
Tweet

5. Only 6% of business owners are monitoring social media to better understand their customers
Source: Sage UK Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/w0hXfS
Tweet

6. 60% of organisations have not yet implemented internal social media training and governance models
Source: econsultancy Nov 2011 http://bit.ly/to9Je7
Tweet

7. 25% of marketers regard social signals as ‘very important’ for search rankings, but 57% think it will be important in 3 years
Source: Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/umrYAO
Tweet

8. 43% of UK women agreed that they often find out about new breaking stories first via social networks; compared to 27% of men
Source: Ofcom Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/sIjKCm
Tweet

And on the media front….

9. MySpace slips out of top 10 of leading social networks in UK
Source: Metro http://bit.ly/rGT5Pa
Tweet

10. 60% of UK online population now use Facebook more than once a day
Source: YouGov Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/uAhCm3
Tweet

11. 71% with a social networking profile visit a networking sites at least once a day; 20% visit 5 times a day or more
Source: Ofcom Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/sIjKCm
Tweet

12. The Daily Mail and the Guardian websites are the most popular newspaper websites in Europe
Source: Ofcom Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/sIjKCm
Tweet

13. 2.6m people joined the top 20 Facebook retail pages in the last 6 months
Source: eDigitalResearch Dec 2011 http://bit.ly/uLhLwH
Tweet

And just because…

14. Nearly half (47 per cent) of teenage smartphone users admitted using or answering their handset in the bathroom or toilet
Source: Ofcom Dec 2010 http://bit.ly/sbkdwd
Tweet

If you would like to keep up with the latest social media research and stats then please do follow us on twitter
Follow @iftweeter

 
 
Images with thanks to:
Image: jannoon028 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Bookmark It

Hide Sites