Social Commerce
Using Social Commerce to Sell Products Online
While Facebook is still the go-to site for hundreds of millions of folks sharing their lives and following the likes of Justin Bieber, it's also emerging as a contender to Amazon and other online retailers. Content Ping keeps readers informed about the rise of social commerce and discusses what the changing e-commerce landscape means for content merchandising and companies that sell products online.
Shopcade’s Roxanne Varza: Social Commerce in Action
Are you a tea drinker? On the hunt for a bacon-related gift? Or maybe just a fan of paisley? Roxanne Varza has shopping suggestions for you and for the 1,078 others who follow her on Shopcade. How does Shopcade work? The social commerce site aggregates 70 million products from 260 merchants. Users pick and choose from these products,... read more »
WOMMA’s Suzanne Fanning: “Likes” Are Not Enough
In order for your products to succeed, you need to convince loyal customers to spread the word about your brand. Developing an organic and transparent relationship with customers is no easy task. That's where the expertise of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) comes in. WOMMA provides marketers, brand advocates, and... read more »
Piehead’s Cassandra Moore: Creating Multichannel Content
Just last weekend I found myself clicking around an Australian website in search of shipping information. I'd seen the rates earlier in my shopping session, but got increasingly cold feet when I couldn't located them a second time. So I ditched the site and bought a similar product on Amazon. Like most online shoppers, I expect... read more »
Bing Liu: The Science of Detecting Fake Reviews
The dark art of rigging reviews is widespread across the web and has even ensnared several content26 clients over the years. The temptation to post fake reviews is high for companies that sell products online. The going rate for a fake five-star review seems to be about $5. Think about it--a mere $500 could pay for 100 5-star... read more »
Panos Ipeirotis: Bad Reviews? Don’t Freak Out
Can negative product reviews boost sales? Are paid reviews more reliable than those written by amateurs? Do online shoppers care about grammar? Panos Ipeirotis of New York University has drawn a lot of attention from major e-commerce companies due to his groundbreaking research on these topics and others related to user-generated... read more »
Expedia’s Emily Pearce: User Reviews Rule the Roost
When traveling to a faraway spot, I like to know there's a comfy bed waiting for me (preferably the clean kind that won't provide inspiration for bed bug haikus). Enter Expedia, which offers professional content (hotel descriptions and photos) alongside user-generated content (guest ratings and reviews). When I research products... read more »
Curata’s Pawan Deshpande: Content Curation
To succeed in e-commerce, brands need to craft exceptional content and present it in an engaging way. But they also need to use that content to get customers talking about their industry, brand, and products. Content curation, which refers to the process of finding and presenting content organized around a specific industry or topic,... read more »
Dell’s Damien Cummings: Joining the Swarm
It's been three years since Dell Swarm launched in Singapore. We think Dell's foray into social commerce has huge potential. But are there plans to launch the group buying concept in the US? Is the company planning to add more robust product information? I recently caught up with Damien Cummings, Dell's online director for Asia,... read more »
Interview with Optify’s Anthony Joseph: Google Gets Social
Since launching in January, Google's awkwardly named Search Plus Your World (SPYW) has begun adding Google+ information to Google search results. This means that if I begin Googling for sunglasses, information from people and brands I follow on Google+ would turn up as part of my search. Personalized search will not only have a huge... read more »
Engage and Educate Customers for Improved WOMM
Consumers are jaded. This is probably not news to you, but it's a fact that deserves your attention. To borrow from Public Enemy, we don't believe the hype. We tune out the thousands of advertising messages we encounter every day, and when we do pay attention we can usually see through them, meeting their overblown claims, promises,... read more »
