Online shopping is making present buying a breeze for those of us that don’t want to brave the busy shops this Christmas.

But is social media changing the way we buy? Are we becoming more and more influenced by our peers on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter?

More and more retailers have recognised that social networks can help with communicating a brand to a larger audience. We now see Twitter and Facebook icons appearing on big retailer sites such as Marks & Spencer, Littlewoods and TOPSHOP. All are offering links to join their social media platforms.

Littlewoods however, is a brand ahead of the game (and no, not because Colleen Rooney has shifted the brand’s slightly granny reputation). When browsing products online shoppers are presented with icons to tweet or send Facebook messages about what they think of products, sharing this information with their nearest and dearest – and giving Little Woods a little hat trip.

If retailers start to copy this tactic, it won’t be long before we just look at a friend of family member’s online activity before deciding what to get them! And the days of unwanted presents may soon be a thing of the past….

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By Kate Eglinton

Last summer whilst researching graduate positions in communications and public relations, I was drawn in by the social media buzz that has taken the PR industry by storm in recent years.  Social media seemed to be big business. With my curiosity piqued and a brand new Twitter profile, I decided to take the leap into online PR – and managed to secure myself an internship at immediate future, where I’ve been for the last few weeks.

3 key learnings from my stint at IF:

Social media is without a doubt, social.

Social media has widened our communication horizons by an immeasurable amount. It’s human nature to want to share and discuss with others and social media allows us do this – wherever, whenever, non-stop.  The popularity of social media platforms is evidence enough in itself – we love to communicate. With social media you can have fun, be inspired, get involved, learn… and all a super speedy rate. I think there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

It is also diverse.

Each social media platform serves a plethora of purposes and is used differently by different people. We must be careful not to lump all platforms into one social media box just because they come under the same label. I use Twitter to learn from tweeting PR and social media professionals and to keep-up-date with the latest news. Others use it for chitchat and staying in touch, which I save for Facebook. There are no rules of how to use social media – it’s entirely up to you! This diversity extends to brands and businesses…

A career in social media is equally diverse

Working in social media is surprisingly vibrant. From being at IF, I’ve learnt that social media still requires the creativity and communication prowess that traditional PR and marketing demands – with an element of geek which I love. It’s exciting to be involved in such a fast developing and ever-changing arena of business. And I don’t want to get left behind.

To round off…

I think social media’s brilliant. It’s a fabulous new way of communicating – but it’s also a big change which can scare some people. It took me a while to take the plunge and even now I’m a little nervous about tweeting. However, the social media sphere isn’t going to disappear and I believe there is something in it for everyone, whether brand or individual

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The immediate future dashboard has been tracking festive online activity in order to bring you some irrefutable predictions* and scientifically proven* observations for Christmas 2010.

Earlier we found that while ‘presents for men’ was the top search on Google Insights, ‘gifts for women’ was a breakthrough search. As we get closer to the actual event though, it would seem offspring around the UK are beginning to worry.

In the last two days ‘presents for mums’ has been popping in and out of the rising search chart, hitting 150% yesterday. Waves of collective panic for those who can’t find a present for their mothers perhaps?

We’ve also been tracking a selection of the toys tipped to be this year’s best sellers, as predicted by the Toy Retailers Association. The Fireman Sam Fire Station, having performed well in search throughout December,  is now on the decline as we get into the final stretch before Christmas. Furreal, however, continues its consistently stellar track with the most searches. (My tip for the parents – take the batteries out if you want your Furreal dog for Christmas, not for life.)

If social media can predict Christmas there will be an awful lot of Hasbros’ furry pet toys in stockings this year. And possibly some disappointed mums.

For those still panicking about what to buy, let your favourite social media agency calm you with a beautiful digital nativity – number 15 in our advent calendar. You might also want some pacifying if you’re a “girlfriend” – it’s also entered the rising searches today.

*Disclaimer: predictions and observations can be wrong as well as right.

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This year, it seems Christmas is truly social. And for many brands social media marketing is definitely playing a big role

image courtesy of Creative Nerds

in the festive push to consumers. M&S and John Lewis are integrating TV with their social media efforts, whilst Argos is pushing out a Facebook wish list.  Even Angry Birds is jingling with their advent calendar downloads.

The next few days will see the final turbo charge of social activity – leaving brands dripping in new fans, followers and influencer relationships.

And after the turkey is but a memory, what exactly will happen to all this hard-won social engagement. How will companies capitalise on the nascent connections with consumers? How you can refresh the relationships, tap into the long term value, and maybe learn a thing or two to inform your 2011 initiatives. The first steps to spring-boarding from your festive success into next year are:

Intelligence

What data can you extract from your Christmas activity? Are there trends in purchase behaviour? What were the triggers that inspired sharing, friendship, interest? Look for the associated interests and the reasons people engaged with you during the festive season.

Filter

Distil your new communities. Who is an advocate, who is leading the pack and can your community be divided into segments or tribes? The aim is to pinpoint those consumers that have influence – the connections that will deliver lifetime value. Look for the people with whom you can connect and form relationships.

Nurturing

Don’t stop talking to your newly connected consumers – manage them as you would any community. This requires curation by the brand. Of course you need content, but you also need to start weaving stories, creating reasons to participate, and inspiring sharing amongst your followers, fans and advocates.

If your Christmas campaign was successful, you punched through the festive noise to extend your marketing reach. Now you need to think about the frequency and longevity of your activity. Done right your investment in Christmas this year could last all through 2011. Now that sounds like a great Christmas present.

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Don’t fancy the hassle of overcrowded shopping malls this Christmas? Do your shopping via social media! Here are some top tips:

Image by Twaize via Flickr

Let someone else try before you buy

Worried you might be buying a turkey? Check out product reviews before you buy. Retailers like Amazon and ebay have a sophisticated consumer review systems. But, try independent sites such as CNET and Electric Pig where you can see reviews from professionals and consumers side-by-side.

Stuck for ideas

Not sure where to start? Well, see what other people are buying and talking about this Xmas on sites like Kaboodle – a social network for shoppers!

Bargain hunting

In these cash-strapped times, keep an ear to the ground for the latest deals via twitter. Follow discount voucher sites like @MyVoucherCodes and @savoo for £££££s off high street brands.

Safety in numbers

Image via Wikipedia

The ultimate social shopping experience: group buying. Club together with your mates (or complete strangers!) to buy the same Christmas gift and benefit from a discount. Check out sites like GroupOn and Crowdity.

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Did you know that…

1 in 3 men wait until Christmas Eve to finish their shopping.

56% of Americans sing holiday carols to their pets.

And 17% of people who Christmas shop via mobile, will be doing it on the bus.

This is the social shopping Christmas story …

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When Santa Claus comes to town, the rules are simple. You watch out, you don’t cry and you don’t pout.

I put to you that in 2009 the social media marketeers ignored every single one of these rules, pedalling Christmas campaigns that involved risks, made people cry and yes, made them pout. For this reason, I propose last year’s social media marketeers did not want Santa Claus to come to town.

The offending articles

Item One

In 2009 Essex couple Jon and Tracy Morter diced with fire when they attempted to topple Simon Cowell’s UK Christmas Number One monopoly.

The couple used Twitter and Facebook to build a groundswell around shunning X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s single, The Climb, for Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 release, Killing in the Name.

The result? More than one million fans joined the Facebook page and Killing in the Name reached the top of the download chart just in time for Christmas.

Item Two

US blogger Jill Kocher wasn’t worried about bringing tears to ours eyes when she launched a campaign to bring SEO to the charities that needed it most.

Kocher, SEO Manager at Groupon by day and blogger for WebPieRat by night, found local-level charities had little knowledge of SEO and optimisation.

Following her findings, she set out on a mission to provide back links to charities in featured posts in the first instance, followed by arming them with the skills to embed optimised terms into their sites in time for Christmas 2010.

Item Three

Fashionista definitely wanted you to pout. Last year the augmented reality tool was developed for fashion retail sites to help shoppers virtually try on their Christmas party outfits and share the pictures with friends via Facebook.

I think the evidence is clear, social media marketeers do not want Santa Claus to come to town.

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It’s that time of year again: lists, retrospectives, best ofs, highs and lows. Take twelve months of experience and package it up into a pithy blog post or a commemorative special issue. I am, frankly, powerless to resist. My list of the top ten albums of 2010 has been under construction for quite some time now.

Rather than bore you all with my tales of joy from this year (including Las Vegas and the Champions League final), I thought I would give an extended hat tip to a couple of my favourite blogs that have kept me entertained and informed in equal measure over the past twelve months. Digital Buzz Blog is pretty much always my first stop when I open up feedly of a morning. Written by the New Zealand based Aden Hepburn, it covers the wide world of digital activity with a deft and selective hand. Whilst I love Gizmodo and Engadget, the sheer volume of posts every day constantly leaves me feeling that I might have missed something. Digital Buzz Blog prefer to post two or three articles a day, but almost always provide something that is worthy of a tweet, a mention in a meeting or that provides a creative spark which leads to something new being concocted.

Fave articles from the past year:

Diesel Cam: Connecting Stores With Facebook

Diesel Facepark: The Analog Version of Facebook

YouTube Launches The “Life In A Day” Project

Chat Roulette: HIV Guerrilla Marketing

Heading up the category of ‘entertaining’ more than ‘informing’, I can’t get enough of Will Sturgeon’s The Media Blog. It’s a fairly UK-centric look at the increasingly ridiculous world of newspapers and their websites: the frenzy to get the latest stories, give people what they think they want and aid ailing sales. There’s a lot of laughing at the Daily Mail too, which is always nice to see. On a more serious note, Will’s articles also take in the hot PR topics of the moment, such as the muddied waters of relationships between PRs and journalists, and also how the position of the dailies is changing from being moral guardians and arbiters of taste into something much more reactionary (in both senses of the word).

Fave articles from 2010:

If you only go on one ‘trianing’ course this year…

Old alcohol bad, new alcohol good?

More evidence the Sun gets its headlines from Twitter

On a very personal note, I also love Nerd Boyfriend. Pictures of celebs looking cool ‘n’ nerdy, along with links where you can buy the clothes yourself. Nice.

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Recently, Econsultancy published a piece on ten great e-commerce product pages. Following our research into the social shopping explosion we wanted to find out exactly how ‘social’ some of these retailers are. All of which will be popular destinations for consumers this Christmas.

We’ve judged these ground-breaking online retailers on the following criteria:

• Do they provide on-site reviews (1 pt per method of review)
• Do they have links to off-site social media estates (1 pt per platform)
• Do they actively engage and interact with customers (1 pt per platform engaging on)
• Personalised site recommendations (4 pts)
• Innovative, quirky, value added social media offerings (1 pt per offering)
• Exclusive offers for members? (1 pt)
• Colourful and entertaining campaigns (1 pt per campaign)
• Blogs (1 pt)

We all know Amazon will be a big hit for consumers this Christmas and the customer review ratings and personalised recommendations on the site provide useful tools for purchasing decisions.  In terms of being truly ‘social’ though it’s the fashion retailer that takes  advantage of social media channels to gain fans, really involving and engaging with them.  Asos even allows fans to review items via its own YouTube videos and engage with each other via community pages.  We’ve seen a rise in popularity of collaborative online shopping through sites like Groupon, so is this the next big step for retailers in 2011?

It’s apparent from our research on social commerce, the articles and conversations we pick up on, that it’s an exciting time for retailers. Especially when it comes to social media.  Do you have any recommendations for great sites and product pages that are being smart with social media?  As ever, we’d like to hear your thoughts…

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Because we’re slightly geeky and we like to spot a trend, we’ve been keeping an eye on a few key Christmas search terms over on our Christmas dashboard page.

Amongst other things (like kids’ presents and favourite Christmas puddings), we’ve been monitoring Google searches for “Christmas presents.” For the past few days, “presents for men” has been forging ahead. This suggests that, as we predicted, shopping for men can prove to be a bit of a headache.

An interesting anomaly emerged today.

It appears that men might be struggling even more than women – it’s just that they don’t use the same words.

The table below shows Google searches relating to “Christmas gifts.” A slight turn in phrase and the picture is entirely different.

There’s a lesson there in semantics and making sure that the search terms are right….

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