Social media common sense

Using social media does not have to be convoluted or complicated. Since your social media presence can make or break your business, you better think ahead… Some tips to start without failing

• don’t have to have it all figured out to get started. Just get started !
• Pick your name wisely, it’s your brand. Don’t over complicate it… (mine is @delphineRB. I wished @delphine wasn’t taken…)
• Be consistent across social networks. (With your name, logos and branding.) Create your digital presence
• People will judge you by your profile picture.
• People want to network with People, not a brand. Make it personal
• MySpace isn’t MySpace anymore. Everything changes, learn to adapt.
• What you share on the Internet, lives forever and ever, and ever
• Don’t create and abandon. Start with one social media presence and build on it.
• Ask lots of questions. It’s a great way to learn, meet people and build a community.
• Unfriending is much harder than friending.
• You are what you tweet, facebook, +1, blog etc…
• What you get out of your social networks depends on what you put into them.
• Social media isn’t free. You’re investing your time and you will eventually invest in people, and tools.

Social media should be taken as seriously as you would any other business endeavor. Would you start a business without a business plan? So don’t treat using social media any differently.

Extend the brand experience to social networks – Social Commerce

Thought on Social Commerce

The melding of social media with digital commerce has opened an incredible breadth of opportunities for brands, to surfacing new populations and markets, to tracking the effectiveness of promotions and social strategy, and beyond.

Did you know that 69% percent of consumers who buy mostly online visit social networking sites?

Yet social commerce comes with its own unique challenges. The market is crowded, noisy, and always changing.

But what Social Commerce is really about? Definition time…

Social Commerce is a new phenomenon that has taken the e-commerce world by storm. Unlike many technologies to emerge over the years, social commerce has had a rapid adoption. A few years ago, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn were not common terms in our vocabulary. Few could have predicted how pervasive the social technologies have become not only online, but also in our daily lives.

Put simply, social commerce is the concept of word-of-mouth, applied to e-commerce.

Social commerce has taken word-of-mouth where it never really existed before, the online shopping world. Customers now are looking for ways to leverage each other’s expertise, understand what they are purchasing, and make more informed and accurate purchase decisions. Retailers need to understand their customers and what they expect out of the shopping experience to develop a successful social commerce strategy.

Some questions that comes to mind on this rainy Tuesday morning  :

“Going social” can be profitable, but it’s up to sellers to figure out how. How can sellers track their efforts, effectively measure their impact, and plot the course for future strategy? When do fans, friends, check-ins, retweets, page- views and other metrics make a profit?

Distinguishing  product in the roar of digital noise across many platforms is a real challenge. What’s the best way to get someone’s attention using social media– and translate it into sales? What are the specific tips for different consumer use cases?

Why would you want your customers posting reviews on your site that range from “heck yes” to “this stunk”? Because it’s good for business? Yes… It is! And in fact, I would add that the main benefit of implementing a social commerce strategy is increased engagement, so you can’t do this with just kind words. You can disagree, argue even…This engagement is created primarily by integrating social applications into the core site , and that can include ratings and reviews for instance.

So, in conclusion, by having a social commerce strategy in place, you will be able to :

• Engage customers based on their social behavior with your brand
• Provide your customers with a reason to your return to your website
• Give clients a reason to talk about your brand on your website
• Provide all the necessary information on your website for your clients to research, compare, make a decision and purchase from you and not your competitor

So ae you ready to launch an social commerce initiative?

#socialcommerce

Thought of my day

“What’s happening is that we might, in fact, be at a time in our history where we’re being domesticated by these great big societal things, such as Facebook and the Internet. We’re being domesticated by them, because fewer and fewer and fewer of us have to be innovators to get by. And so, in the cold calculus of evolution by natural selection, at no greater time in history than ever before, copiers are probably doing better than innovators. Because innovation is extraordinarily hard.”

— Mark Pagel, fellow of the Royal Society and professor of evolutionary biology, in conversation with Edge.org

The Check-In Goes Platinum

In March last year, American Express and foursquare announced a partnership in which users were encouraged to sync their credit card and their foursquare account.  By checking in at various merchants, participating users would receive a credit on their next AmEx statement.  A few months later, the partnership went national, and AmEx now offers significant discounts on purchases for cardmembers that check in via foursquare or Facebook.  While special offers have long been a part of the check-in experience, the AmEx program removes the hassle of redeeming coupons or explaining a “mayor special” at the register.

Foursquare knows that it’s going to take more than badges and mayor contests to keep people checking in. Over the summer, the company announced a series of features that make it easier for merchants to create and manage specials.  The company also introduced a Merchant API, which allows companies to integrate foursquare data into their existing business dashboards, making it much easier for large merchants with multiple locations to manage deals and track consumer behavior.

But adding more Deals isn’t enough if consumers forget to check in.  Apps like RunKeeper use GPS to track a user’s location and share information about your fitness regimen. With the launch of iOS 5 this fall, foursquare introduced Radar, an optional feature that will notify users when they’re close to restaurants on a list they’re following, or if they’re passing by a venue that is popular with their friends.  “Now we can deliver users information that is contextual and relevant without them having to do anything at all,” says Alex Rainert, foursquare’s head of product.

These types of innovations will keep foursquare at the head of the class when it comes to check-in apps, and help prevent check-in fatigue among consumers. Our prediction for 2012? Merchants and brands will get more creative with check-in marketing, too.

The Five Keys To Great Marketing In 2012

Via Scoop.it – Social Business strategies

Industry contributor Rishad Tobaccowala welcomes you to 2012 with some marketing pointers. Primary among them: get real.
Via www.fastcocreate.com

My talk at Sciences-Po Paris, 19.01.2012

I was invited to present at Sciences Po Paris, on January 19th. I carry on this article in French, the subject was about the impact that social media is having in large companies today, I presented the IBM case study.

In French, the subject was:

Impact et mise en application des médias sociaux au sein des grandes entreprises
L’exemple d’IBM : après l’expérimentation, quels retours sur investissement ?

Thank you Donatienne Lefort for the invitation. It was a small but of quality audience. And a huge thanks to Caroline Deleuze who was a life saver, technology wise!

You can read more about my presentation on an article written by  Benoit Zante , Associate Director, Petit Web . Read it  here:

Alumni Sciences Po

26, rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris, France

Facebook takes over Google-owned Orkut social network in Brazil

Facebook  is now the No. 1 social networking site in Brazil, according to new comScore data.

Facebook opened it first ad sales office in Brazil few months ago  and promises to become an important digital marketing platform there just as it has in the U.S. Digital marketing pundits largely consider Brazil to be a key frontier in their space as the Latin American country’s economy has been growing while other international markets have struggled.

Brazil has always been a particularly social market and currently owns the fifth largest social networking population in the world. But despite the cultural affinity for social media, Facebook adoption had traditionally lagged in the market.

Now that Facebook dominates Brazilian social networking, there are only six countries remaining — China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Poland and Russia — where Facebook is not the premiere network.

Meanwhile, Twitter also had a positive 2011 in Brazil, increasing users by 40 percent% exceeding 12 million, according to Reston, VA-based comScore. Brazil’s population during July 2011 was more than 203 million.

Social Media growth in South Africa

As I was catching up with my family and friends from South Africa yesterday via Instagram, I realised that the use of Social Media in  South Africa is growing at an impressive path…And rightly so, if you think of the geography position of South Africa. How best to connect to the  rest of the world than leveraging the social web.

A recent study shows that  MXit and Facebook have the most user numbers, while Twitter has seen the most dramatic growth in social networking in the past year.

“The question of how many South Africans use each of the major social networks comes up so often, it became a priority for us to pin down the numbers,” Fuseware MD and report co-author Michal Wronski said in a statement this week.

Personalities driving Twitter growth

There were  1.1-million Twitter users in South Africa in mid-2011

“One of the drivers of growth of Twitter is the media obsession with the network,” said report co-author Arthur Goldstuck. “Most radio and TV personalities with large audiences are engaged in intensive campaigns to drive their listeners and viewers to both Twitter and Facebook.

“The former, coming off a very low base, is therefore seeing the greatest growth.”

As in the global environment, not all Twitter users are active users, with only 40% tweeting, but probably as many simply watching, following and using it as a breaking news service.

MXit remains most popular

MXit remains the most popular social network in South Africa, with approximately 10-million active users. Its demographic mix runs counter to the popular media image of MXit as a teen-dominated environment, with no less than 76% of the male user base of MXit and 73% of female users aged 18 or over.

A surprising finding emerged from analysis of Facebook data, which shows that of approximately 4.2-million Facebook users in South Africa (by August 2011), only 3.2-million had visited the site in the year-to-date.

“This is partly a factor of many users moving on once the novelty of the site had worn off, as well as a result of the fickle nature of the youth market,” said Wronski.

Business owners using LinkedIn

While LinkedIn, aimed at professional users, also reached the 1.1-million mark, it came off a far higher base – but still saw 83% growth of South African users from 2010 to 2011. Of these, 112 000 or 10% are business owners.

Consumer research analysed in the report revealed that future intention of usage of most social networks is strongly related to age – the younger the user, the greater the intention of usage.

“This is only one of many micro-trends shaping social networking,” said Goldstuck. “MXit, Facebook and BBM statistics illustrate, for example, that as social networks become more mainstream, their penetration within all age ranges deepens.

“This, in turn, will result in the continual flattening of the age curve as social networks mature.”

Have you started on Google + yet?

Google+ cannot be missed from your social business strategy.

I’m very much active on  Google+ and I like the clean, non-cluttered experience that I get.

Google+ has had a growth rate much faster than that of Facebook or Twitter.  And Google is rolling out a navigation system across these products that subtly and effectively promotes Google+.

Google+ is literally everywhere once you get started,  If you are on Gmail, you’ll see a red notifications box alerting you to any update to your posts or posts you’ve interacted with.  It’s really easy to check them without even leaving the page.

Google’s search is now using the +1 button (the Google+ version of a Facebook “Like”) to help influence its search results. You’ll notice more  blogs  are  adding Google+ “+1″ buttons to the existing Facebook and Twitter buttons.

Easy steps to get you started on Google+

Sign up

Register for a Google+ profile. Pretty easy, even more if you’re already using Gmail.

Upload avatars

Much better to have a  picture of yourself than logos of your business. You can create a business page later; right now you want to create a personal profile.…

Google+ is filled with cool animation designs, and one of them happens on your profile. If you have more than one profile picture, each time you click on the image, it will flip to the next one.

A useful glitch in your profile.

The next time you’re on Google+, try hovering over people’s names. Do you notice how some people have lots of text describing what they do and some have very little?

Connect with the rest of your social networks

On your “about” page, check out the  “other profiles” section.

• Links to other social media networks
• Links to your business sites
• Links to special pages on your website

Engage! Look for interesting people

If you’re not following people, Google+ it will get boring. So start circling people you want to follow. The search field in Google+ keeps getting better.

In addition to following people, be sure to +1 their posts and comment on them. Try resharing posts to specific circles of people. Experiment with hangouts. I did one recently with Caisse D’Epargne  and I was blown away by the technology.

Play with the type of posts they share on Google+. Some people are simply reposting their blog links. Others are finding Google+ to be a phenomenal tool for sharing pictures and videos.

I think it’s important to offer something different on each social networks. Try something different with Google+.

After you’ve gotten familiar with Google+ as a person, then repeat the process in making a Google+ page for your business!

Oh and as I’m writting this blog,I read that Cadbury  UK chooses Google+ to launch Dairy Milk Bubbly yesterday

Writing on its brand page  the firm wrote: “Remember this moment: the first time Cadbury revealed a new product on Google+. The delicious new Dairy Milk Bubbly, available with milk or white bubbles, will be the first of many we hope!”

When Instagram meet Facebook

Instagram has been growing super fast with over 15 millions users in the World. Considering, it’s only available as an iPhone app… And its social features have been at the heart of it, even if Instagram is in essence a photo sharing app,  is now expanding its own integration with a smart new feature, the ability to upload full size photos to the social network Facebook.  All Instagram photos shared to Facebook will be added to a dedicated Instagram folder. There, your friends will be able to browse the photos in full view.

You can also share Instagram photos from that folder to your timeline or a friend’s timeline as well as in private messages and pretty much anywhere on Facebook.

After The White House  joined Foursquare in August. The President Obama recently joined Instagram. Instagram touted its newest member in a blog post.

“We’re excited to welcome President Barack Obama to Instagram!” CEO Kevin Systrom wrote. “We look forward to seeing how President Obama uses Instagram to give folks a visual sense of what happens in the everyday life of the President of the United States.

Instagram feels like Facebook in the early days. I go there for a pure social experience and to see what my friends and family are up to and see the photos they are sharing.

There are  three things you can do on the app :

1/ following people

2/ commenting

3/ liking photos

And that is plenty…  I don’t really want to be doing anything else when I’m on Instagram and the experience is incredibly simple and social at the same time. Join me on Instagram. I’m DelphineRB there too