Can you believe it, it’s the end of October already. Summer days are officially over and the Christmas build up is upon us. We’ve put together a summary of the top social media stories this month, for your delectation and in case you’ve been stuck down a hole for the last 30 days.

The  Social Shopping Explosion

This month we launched our research ‘The Social Shopping Explosion’. As a social media agency, we were interested to examine how social is changing the way we shop so we explored the motivations and mindsets of consumers online. Here are some of the key insights from our report:

• 46% of online shoppers do not have a clear idea of what they want to buy when they go online. Emerging groups of shoppers, termed gatherers and collaborators, are spending time on social platforms researching and sharing information prior to making a purchase
• 60% of UK online shoppers would be more likely to shop at a site that rewarded them for reviews or recommendations
• Retailer incentives do not affect the credibility of customer reviews (32% think better of a brand that has been recommended, 30% when the recommendation has been rewarded)
• Only 11% want transactional rewards (discounts etc.), 82% want both transactional and experiential rewards (private shopping days, product testing etc.)

You can download the report by visiting http://bit.ly/Social-Shopping

Google news and sharing

Google announced a new feature to its News search last week. For some search terms, news results are now displaying a ‘shared by’ number alongside the link. This means how many times the story has been shared on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. At the moment, it seems Google is only displaying these results on the main page, when you click on the News page there are no ‘shared by’ numbers. What remains to be seen however, is whether this new social search feature will affect the way Google ranks results but it’s certainly something that SEO strategists should be aware of.

How not to crowdsource

We all learnt a lesson from Gap this month following the backlash surrounding the company’s decision to change its logo. Gap showcased its redesigned logo but it was met with consumer resistance on Facebook and Twitter. The company’s Facebook page, that has more than 800,000 fans, received more than 1,107 comments when it announced its new logo.  It was even a trending topic on Twitter. Gap then asked its fans for feedback and wanted to crowdsource ideas for a new design.  Gap took the decision to revert back to its original logo at the advice of its online communities and embarrassingly issued a statement from Marka Hansen, president of the Gap brand in North America, which said: “this wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing.” This is a good example of the power of online communities. Gap was right to listen to its fans and revert back to the original. However, its reputation could’ve been saved, along with a lot of time and money, if they’d engaged with this community beforehand.

Greater Manchester Police turn to Twitter

With the spending cuts looming, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) took to Twitter to raise public awareness of police work. For a 24 hour period GMP recorded each of the 3,205 incidents they had to deal with on Twitter. From the serious to the trivial, people were encouraged to follow their work using the hash tag #gmp24.  The experiment proved successful with 28,000 additional followers that day. Twitter’s features, such as its live and concise updates, made it the perfect platform for the police’s current activity to be demonstrated.

Chilean miners rescue

The rescue effort to free the Chilean miners finally came to a conclusion this month, when all 33 miners were successfully bought back to civilisation. The social media world was awash with real time commentary about the rescue. As well as the large news sites streaming live videos and updating news stories and blogs, millions of people turned to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with the rescue mission. Numerous Facebook pages were set up, some with over 2,000 fans, and Chilean miners became a top trending topic on Twitter throughout the day.

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Earlier this week Google added a subtle, but interesting addition to its search function. For some search terms, news results are now displaying a ‘shared by’ number alongside the link. For the searches I’ve tried so far, these ‘shares’ only relate to Twitter but I’ve seen other people comment that it displays Facebook too. Here’s a screengrab of the first page of a search for ‘The Apprentice.’

When you click through into the News page there’s no ‘shared by’ numbers next to the full list of results, so at the moment, Google only seems to be providing these stats as a brief snapshot on the main page.

What’s interesting in this example is that The Guardian and Entertainment Weekly are not the top results in a Google News search. Is this new social search feature therefore going to affect the way Google ranks its results? It’s unclear at the moment whether this function will be further rolled out across all news results and/or into other search areas i.e. blogs but it’s certainly something that could have an impact on brands’ SEO strategies in the future.

What do you think of this new function? Should sharing be a key factor in Google’s mysterious ranking system?

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You may have noticed that we’ve been had a very retail focused week here!  As a leading social media agency we’re particularly interested in how social is changing the way we shop.

Given this focus, here’s our pick of the top three retail stories this week:

Retailers set for £85.2bn Christmas windfall – covered on Retail Gazette publicising figures from Verdict Research.  No surprises here that the figures point out that online sales are expected to rise 17.6 per cent to £8.1 billion, and this represents the largest share of growth of any sector.  Maureen Hinton, lead retail analyst at Verdict, interestingly points out that “retailers such as @johnlewisretail, Marks & Spencer and Next, that provide a range of multichannel options for buying, delivery and exchange are the winners at Christmas, as well as specialists with unique ranges such as The White Company.”  Nice to know we’re along the right our social shopping explosion report!

Asos launches mobile site – opening up another route to purchase for the UK’s biggest online fashion retailer this site will work across BlackBerry, Symbian, Android and iPhone operating systems, offering the full range and features of the retailer’s transactional website, such as its ’save for later’ function.  A timely launch in the run up to Christmas.

Weekly Facebook fashion index: most popular retail brands of the moment – a list of the most popular retail brands on Facebook.  Victoria’s Secrets, Zara and H&M are top three.  We will be revealing more data regarding specific brands, from our research, so it will be interesting to compare and relate such an index to our findings.

Following on from the final story, we also spotted some interesting research from DDB on www.adweek.com.  The most interesting points we took from this were:

• Over 90 per cent of Facebook users that have chosen to follow brands can be considered genuine advocates
• 92 per cent of this audience would either “certainly” or “probably” recommend companies and products they “like” on Facebook to their friends
• Fans want to feel more like a VIP who can access exclusive content and information about new products and special offers before the general public can
• 39 per cent of DDB’s interviewees said fan pages could be improved through supplying advance information and previews

Next week, we’ll be writing another post looking specifically at some of the sector findings of the research and providing some top tips on how to engage Twitter and Facebook followers.

In case you’re new to the immediate future blog, we released a major piece of research this week exploring the motivations and mindsets of consumers online (you can get a flavour for some of our findings in previous posts, Should we reward customers for social media recommendations and our introductory post, The Social Shopping Explosion).

You can download the report by visiting http://bit.ly/Social-Shopping

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The Explosion in Social Shopping

Developing brand loyalty and encouraging repeat sales is a challenge for online retailers, particularly in an increasingly competitive and crowded marketplace. With the ability to move between retailers at the click of a mouse and with a multitude of comparison sites for the savvy shopper, encouraging brand loyalty can feel like an uphill battle.

But social is providing a new route.

Reviews, recommendations and recognition

Our research, The Social Shopping Explosion, demonstrates that product reviews are on the up. 53% of respondents had reviewed a product or service in the past six month.

We also demonstrated that the review is rapidly catching up with both search and word of mouth in terms of influencing purchasing decision.

Consumers are increasingly writing reviews – and they are increasingly making purchases based on recommendations.

But it’s not quite clear where the retailers fit in.

The ethics of recognising customer recommendation

Recognising customer contribution is often approached with caution. There are whisperings of bribery or manipulation or undermining review authenticity. And as a social media agency, with our own reputation to manage, we tend towards caution.

However, only 3% of consumers would think negatively about a brand that recognised customer contribution.

53% would think more positively.

It’s a win-win situation. And the preferred form of recognition is not a discounted price.

The impact on brand perception if consumers are given incentives for recommendations

Recognising your customer with a bit of retail love

83% of survey respondents would like a combination of transactional and experiential recognitions; and there is a marked trend towards exclusive offers and developing a closer relationship with the brand. The preferred forms of recognition, including “exclusive insight about the retailer” and “the ability to interact and talk to real people at the company” demonstrate a growing appetite for brand advocacy; and present a compelling opportunity for e-retailers to extend their relationship with customers beyond the point of sale.

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Today we are launching our report on social shopping and its impact on consumer behaviour.

Online retail has traditionally been characterised by price-driven sales and purchase-driven consumers. The focus, for retailers, has been on engaging the latter and maximising the former.

And as a social media agency, we are seeing how social connections are changing this behaviour.

Social relationships on the web have transformed how shoppers are behaving online and dramatically changed the online customer journey. It’s an exciting time for retailers and The Social Shopping Explosion report highlights some of the new opportunities that social retail affords.

Research shows new social behavioural trends

With the rapid growth of social networks and the socialising of the internet, the question of where social media and e-commerce meet  – and how  –  is of huge relevance for retailers today. Particularly in the UK, where internet users continue to lead the way in purchasing online.

In August 2010, social media agency immediate future conducted an independent survey of 2,000 UK internet users to understand how consumers are behaving online.

The results are surprising; the implications for retailers, huge.

Changing the path to purchase

The social web has opened up the purchase cycle. It’s made it easier for consumers to talk online and easier for consumers to share opinions, information and advice. This means that purchase decisions are based on different criteria: the social shopper is increasingly buying on review, recommendation and the advice of other consumers.

Our research found that 46% of consumers are no longer searching purely on price.

This means that retailers can now engage with consumers before they’ve decided what they’re going to buy.

The empowered social shopper

The social shopper is empowered, vocal and increasingly collaborative. They are savvy, knowledgeable, demanding and the rules of engagement are different.

Broadcasting no longer works: brands and customers are talking; and, in the online space, it’s what other consumers say that really counts.

Our research found that 37% of respondents had reviewed or talked about a product online after purchase, fast catching up with those who had discussed it face to face (38.4%). Word of mouth is nothing new. What’s different is where it’s taking place.

Social spaces have created wider networks and, as such, have created a much bigger opportunity for retailers. Our research has found that consumers trust other consumers, even if they are people that they don’t know. This means that every consumer can now drive traffic and purchases via social.

The Social Shopping landscape is in growth

Recent reports from the IMRG/BPS Internet Access and Online Shopping in Britain report shows that online shopping continues to increase. It also finds that the number of internet users visiting social networking and blogging sites for the second quarter in 2010 has increased fourfold when compared to the same period in 2008.

Understanding this changing landscape is key to retailers; and understanding the social shopper is at the heart of their future success.

Exploring the types of shopping behaviour online and investigating how social touchpoints are affecting the customer journey, The Social Shopping Explosion provides up to the minute insights for brands operating in this new social marketplace.

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I attended the interesting, informative and insightful Social Collective (see #socol for tweets from the event) last week. One of the subjects touched upon was how far negative comments/activity on social media impacted a brand’s reputation. It got me thinking about some of the brand “gaffes” that have happened since I’ve been working in the industry.

For a while, I’ve been somewhat suspicious about the actual impact of these so-called reputation destroying moments. To those of us working in the social media industry, we relish the chance to say ‘I told you so’ to non-client brands and spend hours waxing lyrical about what they should have done i.e. set employee guidelines, listen before engaging etc. But I have a sneaky suspicion that in most cases, the damage ends there. Your average Joe consumer is unlikely to read about the incident and even if they do, it probably won’t have a long-term impact on them buying the products or services.

Let’s take the Vodafone tweet incident as an example:

Recap – employee posts inappropriate tweet about homosexuals and beaver

Brand reaction – Vodafone tries to delete the tweet and then spends the rest of the day @replying a very repetitive apologetic tweet to everyone

Results – the tweet is captured and circulated furiously via Twitter. Numerous blogs pick up the story as does Guardian Tech and The Register

In summary, the story was picked up by influential blogs and did cause a storm on Twitter. However, a Google search for the week following shows virtually no posts on the subject and the results for the term “Vodafone” actually return the story “Vodafone is UK’s most valued brand” as one of the top results.

I realise this is only one case and an analysis of other social media gaffes may tell a different story. But, it does illustrate the point that the stories that make headlines in our social media bubble are not necessarily having an impact on consumer behaviour. Use them as case-studies yes, but not to scaremonger clients into a situation where they are terrified to put a foot wrong for fear of the backlash. Experimentation is one of the most exciting things about working in social media and we should encourage our clients to take some risks. They might end up being the next Vodafone, but there’s a chance they may become the next Old Spice!

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I am always keen to research and review a new industry trend or topic, therefore, I wanted to draw your attention to a new kid on the social media block – Geomium!

With over 550 million users, Facebook is undisputedly the cream of the crop, but a relatively small British online networking start-up believes that it can take on the giant and some experts are inclined to agree.

Although  Geomium has clearly taken inspiration from both Facebook Places and Foursquare, the company believe it is bringing something new to the table. Michael Ferguson, CEO of Geomium, feels that it is going further in offering clients better usability than either of its two larger competitors. He believes that Facebook is not meant to serve as a geo locator site, while Foursquare is missing some key elements that tech savvy users are looking for.

Drawing data from Yelp, Qype and Eventful, the new location service has the advantage of launching with an established collection of useful features. Often the hardest part of starting one of these services is accruing the necessary base of initial users.

It aims to provide a better user experience by not only offering basic information on each user’s location, but by also putting them in contact with other people in their area who share their interests, as well as providing them with useful consumer information on products or services nearby that match their interests and needs.

Geomium’s users can track down locations where their friends have left public messages, called “shouts.” Additionally, the new website allows users to view similar messages – often in the form of tips – from people who may not be friends, but who either live in the area or may share similar interests.

Geomium is currently only available for iPhone, but the app is coming soon to Android, Blackberry, Nokia, and other Smartphones. The London launch yesterday will be followed by launches in other UK cities by early 2011. European and United States launches re planned to come shortly after that.

Some forecasted that Facebook’s entry into the market, with Places, would shatter all the hopes of any budding startups and diminish further growth of even the most established services, like Foursquare, but tech experts believe that Geomium may have an edge over its competition in that it is more business-friendly. So, let’s watch this space….

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“The key to social commerce is understanding the roles of the social consumer and the parts they play in the grand production of your marketplace.”[1]

By 2012, online retail sales in the UK are predicted to hit £44.9bn.

And social is changing the way we shop.

Image by dominiccampbell via Flickr

In 2007, Gartner identified two types of online shoppers: hunters and gatherers; those who shopped on price and those who researched products online before making their purchase decision.

Traditionally, online retailers have catered towards the hunters. They’ve recruited customers via search and retained them via email marketing. Price has often been the deciding factor: these customers have already decided what they want to buy.

In August 2010, immediate future surveyed 2,000 UK internet users.  As a social media agency, it’s important to us that we really understand how people behave online.

We found that nearly 50% of consumers are still in the consideration phase. They haven’t yet reached the point in the purchase cycle where they know what they want.

We also found that there are new opportunities for retaining customers post purchase.

Social retail is fundamentally changing the way that consumers shop, and the relationship between customer and brand. It is creating new opportunities for interaction that open up the consideration phase; and different ways of keeping the relationship going beyond the initial sale.

On the 12^th of October, immediate future will be sharing the results of this research at the Internet Retailing Conference.  We will reveal:

• How social retail is transforming the customer journey for online shoppers
• How different types of online shoppers behave along the purchase process
• Motivations to buy and incentives to return for online shoppers
• How online shoppers are talking across social spaces
• How online shoppers would like to engage with the top online retailers

If you’d like to reserve a copy of this report, please click here http://www.immediatefuture.co.uk/resources/social-shopping-explosion

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