Ready for Social Commerce? TopRank Marketing Newsletter October2010

Industry News to Know

Are Companies Ready For Social Commerce?

What could possibly influence a buying decision more than feedback from an individual trusted source? How about feedback gathered from every Tweet, comment and customer review? This is one of the ideas behind social commerce - an unprecedented scaling-up of the personal testimonial - to include syndication of as much relevant social content describing a product or service as possible. Why are some companies not prepared for this trend? As Fast Company blogger Marcia Conner states, social commerce depends on a culture of extreme engagement - where each sale represents a person with a name, rather than a sale with a denomination. Social commerce also relies on a new level of transparency, where negative reviews live freely on a company's website and customers are openly communicated with in social channels. Read more about how best to prepare for social commerce in Conner's article above.

Critical Social Commerce Error #1: Forgetting The Social

When a company is close enough to a sale that it can feel it in its bones, it's perfectly natural to pounce. But in the world of social commerce, where buyers prefer to be guided rather than led, this tendency can be surprisingly counter-productive. In this piece from Marketing Vox, find three tips that can help any company keep the 'social' in 'social commerce' firmly in mind, along with stories of success from Proctor & Gamble and J Crew.

More Lucrative: Facebook Privacy or Advertising Revenue?

A marketer's 'list' is one of their most critical assets. And with the ownership of such an asset, comes the temptation to monetize it. Questionable list practices are at the heart of two recent stories involving Facebook. According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, "Many of the most popular Facebook applications have been transmitting identifying information - including names and friends' names - to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies." What this means is that if you've played popular online games, including FarmVille by Zynga, your personal information may already be compromised.

Report of this leak, and the naming of Zynga in a class-action lawsuit, has overshadowed a recent major announcement by Facebook: the launch of Facebook Groups. This new feature enables Facebook users to create circles of friends or contacts with whom semi-private conversations. As Larry Magid notes in an article published to the Huffington Post, however, this feature can further jeopardize privacy as groups expand their intended immediate circle without the option of opt-in participation.

Walmart Gets Social With Groupon-Like Application

Walmart, the largest global retailer jumps into social commerce by taking a page from Groupon. They have launched the deals app Crowdsaver, which unlocks a discount once enough consumers opt in -- much like the group deals phenomenon the start-up Groupon has made popular in recent months.

Digital Marketing Tips

Come Meet The Millennials

No big game trophy is hung without first engaging in stuffed without a long, strategic hunt. Marketers targeting 18-34 year old 'millennials,' simultaneously the most connected and fragmented audience in history, will likely take this metaphor to heart. Those seeking fresh strategies and tactics to reach this market would benefit greatly from the tips offered by Vijay Pullur of iMedia Connection. For example, if you can make your brand relevant to millennials, they will take it upon themselves to spread your message.

Your 10-Step Site Migration Checklist

Any number of reasons could force marketers to migrate their website to a new URL or domain name. Luckily, these ten steps from SearchEngineWatch and Simon Heseltine will cover nearly any scenario to help website owners avoid losing organic search traffic as they make major website changes.

Do Your Blog Posts Solve Prospect Problems?

Blog marketing, at its root, is a lead generation technique - not a sales technique. The fact that the sales process and lead generation have the same ultimate goal is a paradox for bloggers to come to terms with, not readers. So how do you write blogs that sell without being salesy? The four strategies offered by Copyblogger in this article are a great start.

Stats to Know:
B2B advertising spend on social media and lead generation sites is forecasted to grow at an annualized rate of 21% and 17% respectively to 2013. Source: KingFish Media

Posts From TopRank® Online Marketing Blog

5 Social Media SEO & Analytics Tools Worth Checking Out

Checking out new tools is part of what we do to stay current and find ways to be more efficient with Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. Sometimes a few tools offer interesting features or stand out for some reason and rather than keep those goodies to ourselves, we share them with you.

Can Geotagging Blog Posts Increase Local Search Marketing Performance?

When you think of geotagging, or checking in, what do you think of? Probably GPS, FourSquare, Facebook Places or letting a photo site like Flickr know where a photo was taken. But it can also be done for blog posts.

How to: Use B2B Social Media for Lead Generation

B2B social media can be surprisingly successful with a specific focus on lead generation. If social media is to be taken seriously for B2B by marketing decision makers, it needs to maintain a focus on business objectives and driving sales vs. "fluff".

6 Ways to Dive In to Analytics & User Experience

Web Analytics is an excellent way to ensure your marketing efforts are not in vain. However, looking at Analytics without understanding user behavior may leave you treading water instead of creating a wake your competitors will fear.

Recipe for Blogging Success

Marketers like formulas and what better metaphor for successful online marketing with blogs than a recipe?

What the Online Marketing Blog Community Has to Say

While I agree that all 3 (social media, content, and SEO) are important and work hand in hand, I think B2B needs to shore up their content and SEO strategies before diving into social media. Having appropriate, educational, and interesting content will lead to (in conjunction with other tactics) an effective SEO presence. Once these two marketing "houses" are in order, social media can be used to supplement the on-site efforts -- Acacia Duquette from: B2B Online Marketing Trifecta: Content, Social Media & SEO

#20 - What's your story? That's the question I would ask. Companies need to start thinking of their position in social media as a story and less as a presence. In other words, the big question is why do you matter to anyone in your audience? It's a tough question but it needs to be answered! --Tia Peterson from: 19 Questions to Determine Corporate Social Media Readiness

The last step is one that a lot of companies overlook. You can't just predict what you think content will accomplish, put it out there and think the job is done. What did you really achieve? How can you measure it, analyze it and repeat it? --Paul Yokota from 6 Tips For Making Content Pop on the Social Web

TopRank® Online Marketing Around the Web

Online Marketing Blog One of Top 20 Social Media Blogs

Evan Carmichael at The Entrepreneur Blog named Online Marketing Blog by TopRank to his list of Top 50 Social Media Blog of 2010. Online Marketing Blog placed #19 on this yearly list.

Content SEO Tips Revealed

TopRank CEO Lee Odden reveals content SEO tips in this interview posted to The Trada Blog.TopRank CEO Lee Odden reveals content SEO tips in this interview posted to The Trada Blog.

Six Tips For Social Success

What is the secret to creating social content that absolutely jumps to life? Find out by reading six tips from TopRank CEO Lee Odden, recently picked up by Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

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