Warren Knight

Social Media has established itself as a huge success for many companies and, moving into the first calendar month for 2011; things can only get better for the ever developing world of Social Commerce. Social media has proved successful for businesses because it helps them reach out to their customers and communicate with a broader range of the Social Media community.

In this article I will highlight 6 areas of Social Commerce to watch out for in 2011 with their rating on Measurability, Likelihood of Success and Difficulty. (Based on the popular networking site; Facebook).

1.      Promotional offers through Wall Posts to connect with your fan base.

By this I mean using Facebook to show your promotional offers which will link back to your website. This may not reach the full potential in regards to views as the amount of advertisement wall posts viewed by possible clientele is very minimal. When discussing facts and figures, only 40% of your fan base will see your message posted in their ‘Top News’ in comparison to the other 60% reading your post in their most recent ‘News feed’ (Low reading rate in News Feed). When testing your Promotions on Facebook you will need to make sure that you;

-Avoid being “Hidden” – When you are ‘hidden’ by one of your Facebook fans, they will no longer be able to see anything you post which will, in time, damage your overall campaign. Make sure you measure your PHR (Post hide rate) on a regular basis.

-Make your posts ‘Likeable’- Find out which of your posts create the highest TPR (Top posting rates) and create similar posts to ensure your company grows in popularity.

-Financially back your Fan base- use the calculation of; AWP (Annual wall posts) x TPR (Top posting rates) x CTR (Click through rate) x AOV (Average order value) to give you a clear vision of each reachable member of your fan base.

-Unique Promotional Codes- This is to make sure that each promotion is targeted in a different way so that no interest is lost by the reader. Make sure that any in-store promotions have an online link which enables readers to print the voucher.

Measurability (High), Likelihood of Success (High) and Difficulty (High).

2.      Advertising through Facebook

When dealing with Facebook advertising, you have to overcome many difficulties to achieve the best possible result. After discussions with marketers that specialise in ecommerce, they will highlight;

-Acquisition Tool- Facebook ads have proven more effective in luring customers into a product rather than using the ‘Click Through’ process.

-Targeting- When producing your ad, you need to make sure that the text and graphics used in the advertisement are easily understood by your consumer otherwise they will overlook your offer due to confusion.

Measurability (High), Likelihood of Success (Med) and Difficulty (High)

3.      Games & Promotions

Using a game simulator or promotion to keep your customers interested is a great way to advertise your brands point of relevance. You will need to make sure that your game or promotion is time worthy otherwise your Facebook fan will easily lose concentration and click the ‘x’ button on your website. It can also be difficult to measure the usage of your game/ promotion if your fans forward it to their friends or re-post it on their Facebook.

When dealing with games and promotions, you don’t want to make them too complex otherwise they will feel inferior to your brand and not want to waste their time. You also have to be careful when asking personal questions as it is possible that your customers may not want to answer these questions and therefore, will avoid your game/promotion.

Measurability (Med), Likelihood of Success (High) and Difficulty (Med)

4.      Co-Marketing

When deciding to co-market with another company you are choosing to give your customers two brands in one which means your brand will not be the entire focus. If you feel this will help you with popularity and value, then this is a good route for you. When choosing to co-market you need to make sure that you are only sharing a message rather than offering them two separate products as this will cause confusion.

5.      Email to operate Facebook

When building a campaign around your product, using email for your campaign will encourage current customers to link email and Facebook leading them to “like” your advertisement. When using email with Facebook, you need to make sure that;

-Great deals on offer for your consumers- As most companies will use Facebook to launch their offers; you need to make sure that yours stand out from the day to day offers that most people make an effort to ignore! The problem with using emails to entice people into your offer is that most people will delete the message before it has even been open- to avoid this make your offer powerful so that your readers cannot refuse!!

-Your customers have a link to Facebook- this is crucial otherwise your consumers will be irrelevant to your sales demand data. To avoid this try and link “influencer” score data to your email file to focus your efforts on the right customers.

- Make your Facebook email promotion better when the consumer forwards it to their contacts.  The use of a Groupon style application will help for embedding into your FB page which will help increase the activity on your Facebook base.

6.      Facebook Search = Google Search

We should look at Facebook search like it is similar to Google Search. Our customers have begun to follow this trend and so must we. When a keyword is entered, how does your business fare?   Nothing is clear in this department; the only way to find out the best solution is to test this concept.

Its 2011 and its time for a New Year’s Resolution, use these ideas to help you link your business with Facebook. Weighing the good and the bad, Facebook has the potential to further your brand but remember, every brand has a different response; make yours worthwhile!!

Warren Knight wishes you all  a Happy New Year and welcome to the world of Social Commerce!