by Roger Katz

Within the last year, marketers have raced to grow their legions of Facebook fans. In fact, it has become a badge of honor, so to speak, among brands to reach the million-person-Facebook fan count. The reasoning goes, “Once I build up a size-able fan base, I’ll figure out if, and how, I can monetize them.”   Many see social commerce as poised to experience massive growth in the next few years. Booz & Company recently predicted that sales from social commerce will hit $30 billion worldwide and $14 billion in the U.S. by 2015. And with a majority (58 percent) of consumers now researching products online before purchasing, it’s time to close the loyalty loop and try integrating true social elements into the online purchase. What does that mean? I buy something. I tell two friends. And they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on (our nod to the 80s Faberge commercials).

But the reality is that even the savviest marketers still aren’t sure how to leverage the inherently social nature of Facebook to monetize fans. Some big brands often just “iFrame” their stores on a Facebook page and claim that social commerce is “mission accomplished.” Others have posted about a product, then had fans click off to a separate store website to browse and buy, and called that social commerce. Some brands are selling only fan merchandise on their Facebook pages — they’re fans, right? They must only want fanwear. It’s all part of the brand struggle to determine what their Facebook presence is best suited for: brand advocacy, brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand insight, customer service, commerce, or just plain and simple ROI.

What’s missing in many current social commerce campaigns is the opportunity to truly socialize the experience. Social media lets people express an important part of themselves to their friends. The car they drive, the clothes they wear, the movies they see, the places they travel, the recipes they love to cook — these all say something important about who they are to their friends. We see that fans are perfectly willing to share their love of a brand just as passionately as they share their love for, say, a sports team, if the brand encourages them in just the right way. Facebook represents the largest community of brand advocates available to marketers, and research has shown that younger consumers are far more likely to interact with a brand on Facebook than on that same brand’s website. Weaving that interaction into the purchase process is a huge opportunity for socially savvy brands.

So, it’s time for brands to convert their “likes” to “loves.” It’s time to move fans from the “I’m interested in your brand” stage, through the “I’m engaged with your brand” stage (where most brands currently are sitting), to the “I’m going to buy and recommend your brand to my friends” stage. And the perfect place to do that is on Facebook, where connected friends spend more time online than on any other website.

Here are some ways to jumpstart your thinking about social commerce on Facebook:

• Respect the context. Don’t just iFrame your store. Shopping in an online store is a lonely experience, while the point of being on Facebook is social. Respect the context, and think about how you can keep the experience social. Maybe you’ll offer a subset of targeted, seasonally appropriate products related to an ongoing Facebook conversation. Maybe you’ll let fans “try it on for size” with their friends. Maybe you’ll show what other Facebook fans are considering and highlight those products. And wherever feasible, avoid spinning your fans off to another website. If they’re interacting with you on Facebook, they want to stay on Facebook. As soon as you send them somewhere else, they’ve lost their social context.
• Socialize the event. For inherently “social” happenings, like going to concerts or seeing movies, let fans browse, choose, share, and invite all on Facebook. Socialize the experience, turn it into a Facebook event, and never direct the fan to another site. Close the loop on Facebook.
• Make it special. Offer Facebook fans something unique they can’t get anywhere else, and allow them to share it with their friends on Facebook. Everyone loves to share a deal or an incredible new product. And when they share on Facebook, they’ll also be telling their friends that they’ve “endorsed” you.
• Share the dream. For big ticket items, like cars, let your fans dream. Have them build their dream car and share it with their friends. Chances are, if a friend is thinking about buying a tricked out Hyundai, their friends will consider it too. We realize not all purchases will happen on Facebook, but pre-purchase comments and discussions are natural in a social community.
• Put fans to work. With your brand advocates directly connected to you on Facebook, take the opportunity to learn. Gain insights into new products. Learn from purchases made, and try out new ideas. There’s a huge amount of insight to be gained from the fans that are willing to talk about what they’ve bought.
• Embrace the dialogue. Let fans post reviews — even critical ones. For everyone who dislikes a product, there will be another fan who offers a counter argument. Research shows that sites with reviews that are objective and authentic sell more products.

There is huge value when a brand can showcase a person’s desire to share — whether its photos, stories, links, ideas, something they’ve just bought, or something they’re thinking of buying. Using those “social actions” as the lubrication for commerce is a game changer. Those brands that are committed to implementing socialized commerce are at a distinct advantage, both in cultivating greater communities and increasing their bottom line. One day, we’ll remember the time before friend-to-friend social commerce and wonder why shopping was such a lonely experience.

by Christine Erickson

Nobody wants to visit a Facebook Page with an enticing offer, only to learn that it’s not available in their region. Nor do they want to land on a brand page where all the content is in another language.

Here are some quick strategies for providing localized content:

• Give your fans an incentive to visit your business by providing them with a recent, active “walk-in” promotion in their area.
• Allow users to recognize that you are connected with their location by providing details and assets specific to where they are.
• Geotarget your posts even if you don’t have multiple locations — you wouldn’t want to offer a walk-in special to your fans in New York if your business is in Los Angeles

When you have to target languages, Facebook allows you to make status updates for users with certain language settings. So, Facebook users who have French or Spanish as their default language on the site will only see your content that’s in their native tongue.

• 1. Click on “Custom”

• 2. A pop-up will come up that will look like this:

• 3. Once you’ve entered your specific targeting information, you can hit “Okay” and proceed with your status update, geared for that specific audience. It’s local and relevant for those language settings selected.

by MC Marketing Charts

Travel site categories accounted for 4 of the 10 top-gaining web categories by percentage change in January 2012, including Transactions sites, which grew 28% month-over-month to 3.7 million visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix data. Car Rental sites reached 6.2 million visitors during the month (up 22%), while Hotels/Resort sites attracted 33.2 million visitors in January, representing a 18% increase. Ground/Cruise sites (16%) also posted double-digit gains.

TravelPN.com ranked as the category leader among Transactions sites with 798,000 visitors, an 11% month-over-month increase. Viator.com came in second with 642,000 visitors (up 9%), followed by WWTE.com with 442,000 (up 86%) and OneTime.com with 278,000 (up 48%).

Within the Car Rental site category, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company led with 3.2 million visitors, up 14%. Avis Budget Group ranked second with nearly 2 million visitors (up 19%), followed by Hertz with 1.3 million (up 21%), CarRentals.com with 793,000 (up 30%), and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc., with 790,000 (up 27%).

Meanwhile, Marriott secured the #1 position in the Hotels/Resorts category with 5.1 million visitors (up 30%), ahead of Disney Parks & Travel with 4.8 million (up 36%), Hilton Hotels with 4.6 million (up 25%) and Expedia Hotels with 3.3 million.

Americans Check Out Job Options Online

Career Services & Development site categories also performed well in January, accounting for 3 of the 10 top-gaining web categories. Traffic to Job Search sites rose 27% in January to reach 24.2 million visitors. Indeed.com Job Search was the category leader with 13.7 million visitors (up 33%), followed by CareerBuilder.com Job Search with 9.8 million (up 27%), Monster.com Job Search with 5 million (up 28%) and SimplyHired.com with 3.5 million (up 42%).

Training and Education sites also saw increased traffic, up 23% to 14.7 million visitors. LiveCareer.com led the category with 1.2 million visitors (up 58%), trailed by AesopOnline.com with 940,000 (up 44%), FastWeb.com with 736,000 (up 30%), and Learn4Good.com with 599,000.

Tax Sites Still Spiking

Tax sites ranked as the fastest-growing category, a position it also held in December. More than 30.7 million Americans visited a Tax site in January, up an impressive 357% after rising 29% a month earlier.

According to comScore data, total US internet audience inched down to 220.2 million from about 220.4 million in December.

by Douglas Wray

Deals Prove Influential

by MC Marketing Charts

26% of consumers in Q4 said that they were buying more of their Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) basket on deal compared to the previous year, while 1 in 3 consumers indicated that they were purchasing 50% or more of their basket on deal. 53% of shoppers said they stock up on items because they are on sale. One-third of the respondents said they buy brands other than their preferred brands because they are on sale.

According to an October 2011 survey by Accenture, about 2 in 5 US consumers would switch from brand name to generic grocery items as a result of a 10-20% price increase, and roughly 1 in 5 would also make the switch given a price increase of less than 10%.

by MC Marketing Charts

US retail e-commerce spending reached a new peak of $161.5 billion in 2011, representing a 13% increase from $142.5 billion in 2010, according to February 2012 figures from comScore.

Online retail spending reached $49.7 billion in Q4, marking a 14% increase from $43.4 billion in Q4 2010, and a 27% rise from $39 billion in Q4 2009.

In fact, Q4’s growth rate was the 9th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth and the 5th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates.

The top-performing online product categories in Q4 2011 all grew at least 18% compared to a year earlier. These were: digital content & subscriptions; jewelry & watches; consumer electronics; toys & hobbies; and computer software.

by MC marketing Charts

Data from Econsultancy’s “2012: Email in Action” indicates that 69% of marketers are including social sharing icons in emails, while a further 13% have a plan in place to do so.

The remaining 18% not including sharing icons or planning to do so may want to look at analysis released in January 2012 by GetReponse, which examined more than 2 billion emails sent by its clients, and found that emails that include social sharing buttons have a click-through rate 115% higher than those do not (5.6% vs. 2.6%).

by FullTraffic

Do you think that social media marketing benefits your business? If so, then you are definitely not alone. According to a recent study conducted, a whopping 97% of marketers believe that social media marketing is helpful to their business. Conducted in November 2011, participants of the survey consisted of 700 marketers from all around the world. Aside from revealing just how valuable social media is in the marketing industry, the study also shed light on how marketers are using social media, and how the various networks stack up against each other.

Why Social Media?
So what do marketers get out of social media? When asked about its benefits, 88% of respondents answered that social media can increase brand awareness. On the other hand, 85% of them also said that blogs and sites like Facebook and Twitter allow them to talk to members of the community, while 58% said that they were able to increase sales and partnerships because of social networks. Meanwhile, only 41% of respondents answered “cost reduction” as a benefit of social media.

Regarding Facebook fans, 44% of marketers value fans because they can potentially turn them into actual customers, while 18% of respondents believe that fans have higher conversion rates and make purchases more often.

The Social Network Scoreboard
The study also asked marketers to rank various social networks according to their importance. Unsurprisingly, Facebook emerged on top, with 94% of respondents ranking it as the most significant. It was followed by Twitter (74%), Blogs/Blogging Community (41%), LinkedIn (32%), YouTube (30%), and others (6%).

Social Media Spending
When it comes to shelling out funds, findings show that 75% of respondents are planning to increase their social media budget. This statistic could indicate a lot of things. It could mean that businesses will be investing more on employing social media experts and community managers. You can also expect to see companies spend more money on Facebook ads, Promoted Tweets, and the production of viral Internet campaigns.

The Yardstick for Measuring Success
When it comes to measuring ROI, the study found that “Marketers currently have no standard measurement of social media success.” But this doesn’t mean that social media ROI can’t be measured. 38% of marketers measure success with the amount of likes, comments, and interactions that they get, while 24% use revenue to measure ROI in social media.