Social Media News
SoLoMo.
The sound bite
Walmart has been fighting off eTailers with a "social, local, mobile (SoLoMo)" approach. This uses smart phone-based interaction and perks to keep shoppers in stores. The chain will soon up the ante with a program called "Print Plus."
Our take
Walmart has taken an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach to luring shoppers away from their computers and into stores. Chris Horton calls it "clicks and mortar." A shopper goes into a store and switches her smartphone's Walmart app from online mode to store mode. The app can then access an interactive in-store circular to find bargains. It can also scan prices or find out-of-stock items online. With "Print Plus," shoppers will get more customized interaction like multicultural marketing, as well as entertaining, up-to-the-minute content like videos. To keep production speedy and costs down, Walmart will mine product suppliers for content. (Picture scanning a jar of spaghetti sauce and getting a video plus a bunch of recipes.) We think such a reach-out is essential for giving in-store customers the kind of targeted, individualized shopping experience they get online. Die-hard couponers and tech enthusiasts will also love the treasure hunt nature of such enhanced shopping. Those who loathe time-consuming bells and whistles may steer clear of Print Plus. Then again, they probably never left the brick-and-mortar fold to begin with. For them, aisles free of cyberstuff are still an option. In other words, everybody wins.
Follow this.
The sound bite
Facebook has added a feature that allows users to reply to individual comments, creating conversation threads. It will also move the most active chatters to the top of the comment queue.
Our take
This seemingly minor tweak will make Facebook comments much more like chat rooms, with threads that are easier for users to navigate and easier for administrators to manage. What's more, moving the most vocal commenters to the head of the line will give them extra incentive to keep up the comments. All of this might be nice for individual users, but it's gold for brand pages. Facebook knows this. Currently, the new reply feature will only be applied to profiles with more than 10,000 followers or to brand pages that opt in. While personal use of Facebook is faltering among some populations, the social network seems to be getting more powerful as a marketing tool. Changes like this one will only add fuel to that fire and we expect to see more marketing-friendly tweaks in Facebook's future.
It's a fact
77% of B2C companies and 43% of B2B companies acquired customers from Facebook.
—Business2Community
Pinning our way to health.
The sound bite
A host of media companies and Pinterest are teaming up with Partnership for a Healthier America to give consumers easy access to healthy recipes.
Our take
We've all heard about the Partnership for a Healthier America (Michelle Obama is its honorary chair), the USDA's MyPlate eating guidelines, and Mrs. Obama's Let's Move exercise campaign. These programs are well-meaning and chock-full of great ideas, but Americans are still facing an obesity epidemic. They need help. So media companies that include Epicurious, Food Network, Hearst Magazines, Meredith, and Time, Inc. will produce 250 MyPlate-inspired recipes each month for the next two years. Consumers can find recipes at a host of websites, from Everyday with Rachael Ray to Recipe.com to Parents. But all 3,000 recipes will make it to the program's Pinterest page, where they'll be organized by any category you could wish for, from "In Season," to "Prep Now, Eat Later," from "Beans & Legumes" to "Beef." We love that so many players are cooperating to help Americans get healthier. But we think the success of this endeavor will lie in the social media that consolidates all those efforts into one easily-digestible click. For so long, Pinterest was simply a warehouse of cute. It's now organizing itself into a more powerful social network, circulating high-impact tools that we can (and should) really use. That's the other piece of good news in this story.
Women pick BlackBerry.
The sound bite
BlackBerry 10's target audience is women, specifically working moms, and even more specifically, Alicia Keys.
Our take
As the world breathlessly awaits the any-minute-now BlackBerry Z10, we are eager to see how BlackBerry's marketing-to-women plan continues to unfold. It began at the BlackBerry10 launch in late January, when CEO Thorsten Heins introduced the ultimate working mom, Alicia Keys, as the company's new "global creative director." That means that Keys will engage fans by incorporating them into videos that she'll use at concerts and by talking straight in press interviews: "When I think of BlackBerry I think of a more male-dominated space," she recently told USA Today. "But knowing how much the [female] demographic is growing and moving, there needs to be that attention there." We like this so much better than Keys as simply a singing spokesmodel. We also like that BlackBerry is being honest about the need to leave its male-dominated past behind if the company is going to grow. BlackBerry says it will also support the effort to expand its female users with women-focused apps. If they can keep marketing to women in a smart, substantive way, BlackBerry will both honor its wonky brand and gain the loyalty of this very discerning demographic. We'll be watching.
It's a fact
34% of women use social networks to get information, while 20% of women are looking for advice and recommendations.
—Flowtown
Graph Search: Facebook's new era.
The sound bite
Facebook is releasing Graph Search, which will allow users to conduct more streamlined, and highly personalized, searches.
Our take
In creating My Own Private Google (or to be more accurate, Bing) it looks like Facebook might be finding redemption after that whole Timeline debacle. We have high hopes for Graph Search, which enables search phrases such as, "my friends' favorite Chinese restaurants in Detroit" or "my friends' baby photos" or "my friends who can speak French." Graph Search promises to help users find goods and services faster and with more reliable referrals—from your very own friends. (If we were Yelp, we'd be worried.) This will make Facebook that much more attractive to all-important mobile device users. The era of Graph Search will also step up the game for advertisers. "Likes" will be more valuable than ever, and companies will have to get more creative to achieve them. Facebook also gets props for its slow release of a beta version of Graph Search. By putting trial users on a waitlist, Facebook makes the application a hot commodity. Meanwhile, it can tweak mistakes without suffering bad PR. And that honey-drenched, heart-tugging launch video? It had us at the first keyboard click. Get ready, folks. We think Facebook's latest development might be truly transformative.
It's a fact
15,100,000 consumers go to social media channels before making purchase decisions.
-Knowledge Networks
Slide show.
The sound bite
Among the fascinating predictions for 2013 is the anointing of SlideShare as the year's fastest-growing social network.
Our take
SlideShare is the answer to yet another prediction about 2013: it's going to be the year of content. The site is made for those moments when 140 characters or a single Tumblr image won't cut it; when LinkedIn is feeling a little one-note. On SlideShare, you can wield a powerful marketing (and self-marketing) punch by slapping an entire PowerPoint presentation onto your page. The interesting thing about this platform is, it might truly be a place where both professionals and hipsters can play (appropriately) together. The presentations on the site range from technical and nichey to poetic and inspirational, and their diversity is bound to increase. With such cross-cultural appeal and creative potential, we have to agree that SlideShare looks boomworthy (despite the fact that it doesn't even have a .com to its name). We'll be watching, and using, the site with great expectations.
It's a fact
71 percent of social networks and online communities have more female than male users.
-Pingdom
Online shoppers get lucky.
The sound bite
On August 17th, Lucky magazine will launch a new e-shopping app call My Lucky Shops. Users will be able to click-and-buy offerings from a number of different retailers without ever leaving the magazine's website.
Our take
The other day, we shopped at BananaRepublic.com, Athleta.com, and OldNavy.com, stuffed all our items into the same virtual shopping bag and paid a single bill. Revolutionary! My Lucky Shops follows the same model, but it's oh so much better. First, the items are curated by Lucky editors from a broad range of sources. The goods are upscale and down, pragmatic and pretty, mainstream and less so. But with the Lucky stamp of approval, you'll know they're all chic, fun, and shopworthy. The site will even connect you with actual Lucky personnel to confer about your choices if you need a little retail therapy. A New York Times article points out that similar partnerships between magazines and retailers have largely failed. But we think if anyone can make this formula work, it's Lucky. The magazine is in tune with the female shopper's every need. It already helps us comparison shop and wade through an ocean of options. Now Lucky will make it sublimely easy (some would say dangerously easy) to go from wish-listed to purchased in an instant. How lucky are we?
It's a fact:
57% of internet users talk to people online more than they do in real life.
-The Social Skinny
Give me your short, your potbellied, your cankled masses.
The sound bite
Department store websites like www.macys.com and www.nordstrom.com have launched a program called True Fit. Using an algorithm invented by fashionably clad (we presume) mathematicians, the program collects data from shoppers about the brands and sizes in their closets, as well as rather intimate information about their bodies. Then it tells them what size to choose when ordering clothes.
Our take
Will it fit or won't it? This maddening question makes ordering clothes online seem like high stakes gambling. So we did a dance of joy (then hoisted up our too-loose pants) when we heard about True Fit. In theory, the program is a dream come true for hard-to-fit women (which, by the way, includes about 97 percent of us). In practice, True Fit has a ways to go. Nordstrom's program relies heavily on the brands in your closet. If you're not a label collector, you might not have quite enough information to work with. What's more, the program currently only works with dresses, which are by far the easiest article to fit. Still, we're really looking forward to using True Fit when it's fully fleshed out, like a perfect pair of jeans. Surely retailers are even more desperate for this development. In our increasingly hectic culture, stores are relying more upon online commerce—and they're seeing way too much inventory boomerang back to their warehouses due to the infernal issue of fit.
It's a fact
42% of working mothers would chose a 50 percent pay raise over 50 percent more time with their kids.
-AdWeek
Pinterest's new purview.
The sound bite:
Pinterest, otherwise known as the Shangri La of the internet, is changing its ways, upgrading its profile pages and allowing users to pin videos.
Our take:
When Facebook switched things up by introducing Timeline, the outcry was deafening. Pinterest is an equally sacred cow—an oasis, a respite, an island of online purity. It is not to be messed with. Because Pinterest's track record is good, we're going to choose to believe CEO Ben Silbermann when he promises that the new profile pages will be even "more beautiful." We're not going to panic at the idea of videos (though maybe Tumblr should) which are by nature, less perfect than Pinterest's typical snapshots. We're going to trust that the new Pinterest can somehow up its own profits, without compromising our daily fixes of cupcakes, curtains, cute dresses and other online delights.
It's a fact:
Half of women say they regularly influence friends and family to buy or shun a product. -AdWeek
Subway shopping is on the rise.
The sound bite:
Tesco has installed "grocery walls" in South Korean subway stations. Instead of grabbing actual goods, you point your mobile phone at the QR code on a picture of an item. You use your phone to pay and schedule delivery as well. Now Procter & Gamble has installed shopping walls of drugstore items in Prague subway stations.
Our take:
Don't you hate ordering a bottle of sunscreen online, only to be stunned by its smallness when it arrives in the mail? Shopping brightly-lit, life-size product images (for examples, look here and here) would take care of that problem. In fact, subway shopping seems the best of many worlds. You can comparison shop the way you would in a "real" store without having to get yourself to the store or lug your parcels home. Local delivery is bound to be quicker (if not cheaper) than that from an online source. And since we in the frenetic U.S. practically invented multitasking, using our train waiting time to "run" errands is pretty much the American dream. We hope to see shopping walls come to the States soon. When they do, perhaps they'll move above ground to office tower lobbies or even gas stations, especially in subway-deprived cities like Detroit.
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