Welcome to Social Commerce News - Trends and news from the frontline of social commerce
By: Max Buxbaum
On Monday afternoon Wishpot hosted an informational meeting discussing our thoughts and experiences surrounding the Heroku Ruby Rails platform. Heroku is a great cloud platform to get started on, but expect growing pains (particularly if you have API calls). Heroku makes it very simple to host applications and has a large selection of useful add-ons such as New Relic and Apogee. Their customer service needs improvement however, along with their limited requests architecture and documentation.
We had some great conversation and some great pizza, as well as established useful connections. We are looking forward to similar meetings in the future!
People who attended the event included:
.Max Ciccotosto: Wishpot CEO, managing 15,000 domains for 500 customers,
.Tom Lianza: CTO at Wishpot
.Erica Sanders: engineer at Wishpot
.Greg Martin: the lead developer on product portal at Wishpot
.Andy: Photorocket engineer
.Deepak: consults on projects
.John Wedgewood: 1000 markets, was CEO - looking for next opportunity with small apps on Heroku
.Matt: Android, iPhone, Webapps - excited about Heroku possibilities.
.Jake Craft: medical research: social healthcare technology
.Evan Jacobs: done a dozen projects, looking at “rapid prototyping as a service.”
.Ron Driver: health care related ideas
.Myk O - moonlighter-looking at a buch
.Brian: Photorocket engineer
.Mae: founder at Jobfully.com
.Matt Dyor: skypresso.com, leanfounder.com
(Image Courtesy of Top News)
By: Max Buxbaum
With more and more content overloading Mashable’s site, they created Mashable Follow, a new “social layer” that creates a “custom tailored experience” for users. Here are four features that make this new social tool worth using.
- Profile Pages: Mashable Follow allows users to create a personalized account simply through a Facebook or Twitter login. This new feature allows users to connect and interact with community members with similar interests, as well as post links to other social media accounts.
- Follow Topics: This new format allows users to easily select which topics they are interested. Whenever a new story is published that matches an interest, it will automatically be synced into a users “My Stories” feed.
- Sharing: Spreading content has never been as effortless. With one click, users can post articles to their Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google Buzz or Digg accounts.
- Badges: This fun system rewards users for “sharing stories, connecting with other Mashable users, commenting on articles, following topics and more.”
These new features place Mashable in transition between a news and social networking site. Follow is just a starting point for them, for they want to be more than just a digital news source, they “want our community to power the news.”
(Image Courtesy of Mashable)
Have you ever wondered what the Facebook social plugins are doing to help drive traffic to your site? Facebook is now providing new Insights for the interactions people have between a business’s website and Facebook. This new set of analytical data being released will give businesses real-time analytics helping them to better optimize the Facebook tools on their website.
The new version of Insights explores how people interact with content from your website on Facebook. Each new feature provides in-depth analysis of how people are using your Facebook social-plugins and how this translates into traffic on Facebook.
These new features can be broken down into four sections; Website Overview, Like Button Overview,
Shares Overview, and Comments Box Overview. Within each section provides Insights to what content from your website received the most attention from your Fan base, and the gender and age of the people interacting with your site.
The new version of Facebook Insights should automatically update itself with your website and can be viewed at www.facebook.com/insights. If you don’t see your domain here, then you can easily get Insights for your domain by adding a meta tag to your homepage. To create a meta tag visit www.facebook.com/insights and click on ‘Insights for your Domain’ button, and allow access to user or admin of the Page. Here is further help on how to claim Insights to your domain, http://developers.facebook.com/docs/insights/.
If you have questions, Wishpot is always here to help! Email us at support@wishpot.com.
*Update: Anyone that is an admin for a Facebook Page will be able to access the FB Insights for that website. If you would like to share your insights with colleagues, simply add them as an admin to that Page.
(Image courtesy of Starbucks)
Wednesday morning marked a change for the Starbucks logo. The siren is no longer inside a circle. The re-design also drops the words “Starbucks Coffee”. Many companies have been taking the minimalist approach to their logos and packaging. Reviews seem to be mixed on whether Starbucks fans like the new logo or not.
What do you think of the minimalistic approach for the new logo? Throughout Starbucks history which has been your favorite logo?
The year is coming to an end, so it seems most appropriate now to take a look at some of the sharing trends for 2010. AddThis put together a pretty sweet chart showing us which method we chose to share with the most. Have a Happy New Year!
The Facebook Data Team has composed a study looking at the words people use in their status updates. They comprised the words into 68 different word categories, and found patterns in age, timing, and popularity.
The chart on the right shows the word usage of more ‘popular’ people, those with a higher friend count, versus someone one with a smaller friend count. What someone says who has higher friend count is listed on the top, and what someone says with a lower friend count is listed on the bottom.
7 tips to take away from this study:
- Use words like ‘you’ and other second person pronouns more often
- Write longer status updates
- Reference music and sports more frequently
- Talk less about family
- Be less emotional in a status update
- Use fewer words related to time
- Use fewer verbs related to past or present tense
Managing your social network accounts can be fun and rewarding means of developing potential customers. The most successful social network accounts have a couple of things in common, they are well managed, thought out, and have a plan guiding them to through their goals.
Wishpot can provide the edge in you need to establish a successful social network! Contact Matthew@wishpot.com to see what we can do for you!
Intimidating road blocks and how to get past them
Social media is still a relatively new outlet for reaching customers. There are always reservations when adopting a new strategy or practice. We’ve gathered five of the most common concerns about implementing social media in business so our retailers can put any anxiety to rest and maximize customer engagement.
1. Brand Needs to Available 24 Hours a Day
Many businesses are concerned that they’ll have to be on social media every minute of the day. While replies or inquiries may arrive at any time of the day, as long as the brand is clear on the times they are available and respond within that time-frame customers will know what to expect. A daily sign-off or listing hours of availability in a bio will let customers know when they may receive a reply.
2. No Extra Time
Designating a person solely to social media is not always possible, which leaves time management a legitimate concern. Tools like auto-posting or hootsuite make monitoring brands easier, even allowing for ambient awareness of social media all day long without it becoming a separate task. It is common to find that once engaged on social media, other departments such as customer service can find their usual customers there, freeing up time that may have spent in a more lengthy phone call. Wishpot also offers social media management services that maximize online engagement and increase brand reach.
3. Open to Customer complaints
A very common concern is being open to complaints from anyone and everyone. While this does make a brand easily accessible, think of it as a method of harnessing customer opinions rather than a target for complaints. A business can not control what is said about them, only how they respond to what is said. Replying to comments, good or bad, paints a positive image overall by showing that no comment goes unnoticed. It is far better to receive customer thoughts directly rather than somewhere they may never be seen by the brand they are aimed at.
4. Visible to Competition
It is highly likely that competitors are already using social media. Today transparency is key to gainingcustomer loyalty which allows small businesses to not just survive but thrive. A new study shows that over 50% of those who are fans or followers of a brand on Facebook or Twitter, respectively, are significantly more likely to buy products and services or recommend the brand to a friend. Social media provides access to a vast audience, allowing similar companies to discover a unique and separate following.
5. Low Interest for Product Posts on Facebook and Twitter
Fans and followers exist because they are interested in a product or service. In order to maintain them, they need to see not only relevant but interesting posts. The idea is to enhance the user experience by adding value, useful information or entertainment without a direct product push. Incorporating useful content not only encourages direct interaction, it makes customers want to share with others within their social network.
Much of the resistance to adopting social media is built around the unknown. Once familiar with the effective tools and methods it will run seamlessly as part of your marketing efforts.
Feel free to contact us to learn more about how Wishpot can help with your social media campaign.
(Roadblock photo by HurwiczRocks; Alarm clock photo by Sun Ladder)
I read an awful lot of social commerce articles every day, and share many of them on twitter as @VendozaTweet. Here’s a list of my 5 favorite links so far this week.
1. The World’s 10 Most Popular Company Facebook Pages
Jeff Bullas outlines the top 10 brand pages on Facebook and shows us what makes them so successful. Oddly, there’s a lot of food products on the list.
2. 8 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Measuring
One of my favorite social media blogs, Social Media Examiner, has drafted an extremely useful guide to social media metrics, covering things like conversion rates, growth rates, and campaign successes. This one is a must-read.
3. Analytics: the Spark That Lights the Social CRM Fire
In this post from the ecommerce times, you’ll learn about the role that analytics plays in social CRM. (That’s customer relations management, in case you were wondering)
4. 3 Social Commerce Reports
Social Commerce Today linked to 3 (quite lengthy) reports on the state and growth of social commerce. One of the reports is in German, unfortunately, but the other two are quite informative.
5. The 3 C’s of Social Networking: Consumption, Curation, Creation
Brian Solis gives us his take on three different aspects of social networking, and how you should adapt your content to be most effective.
Image Courtesy Brian Solis and Social Media Today
If you didn’t get a chance to read it, here’s a link to my weekly round up for november 5th.
We work hard at Wishpot tracking down the latest and greatest news and events in social media, so you don’t have to. Here’s our top 5 for the week.
1. Facebook “Places” Update Incorporates Social Commerce Features
Image Courtesy Facebook
A major announcement from Facebook regarding new commerce functions embedded in “places” has set the stage for location-based services to become significantly more popular among social shoppers. Competing services Foursquare and Gowalla haven’t responded, but expect new developments throughout the month.
2. 11 twitter and Social Media Tools to Try in 2011
Social Media Today has put together another great list of helpful tools to increase your social media productivity. Highlighting several new tracking and search tools, this batch should be great for fine tuning your analytics.
3. How Ford Got More Sales with Social Media
Social Media Examiner interviewed Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media to gain some insight into what’s working for Ford when it comes to connecting with potential customers online.
4. The Dawn of the Social Consumer
Another article describing the increasing prevalence of social commerce, and how larger online retailers are starting to become trendsetters.
5. What is Social CRM?
Customer relationship management is a confusing enough idea without the added element of social networking thrown into the mix. This article does a great job defining social CRM, and explaining how it has become an essential element of online retail.
Image Courtesy Social Media Examiner
Straight from PR Junkie, here are the most visited websites in september. How many of your frequently visited sites made the list?
Google was the most visited website in September, registering more than 146 million unique visitors, according to data from Compete.com.
Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia rounded out the top five.
Twitter ranked No. 29 on the list, between Weather.com (No. 28) and CNN (No. 30). The first newspaper to appear on the list is USA Today at No. 40, followed by The New York Times at 42. They are the only newspapers to crack the top 50.
Here’s the full list:
Courtesy Marketwire.com
