Facebook Gifts, the Next Power Move in Social Commerce

Facebook gifts is the new platform based on e-commerce that let their users purchase directly from Facebook. User will be able to buy and send physical gifts like gift cards, flowers, candies and lots of different products to their friends, by opening a new application through a friend’s profile page whenever an event occurs; such as a graduation, birthdate, engagement, etc. As we know, social commerce has been present online, they publish storefronts of recognized brands that appear on the side of the site, but they have been not having the expected ROI. The new idea of Facebook Gifts seems to be completely diverse because the user will be more integrated into the purchasing and social experience, with the difference that now users can send a gift, even without knowing the physical address of their friend through the Facebook’s latest iOS app update that allows to send gifts via mobile. The new Facebook application is a promising non-advertising revenue stream; the interesting part is that the new method will help to make the leap from a Like to a sale. By experts this new commerce-related is considerate the new goldmine, this application will not only make users but also brands and investors happy. Let’s surprise our friends with one of these cool gifts!

Social Media Expert "Chris Brogan"

Chris Brogan is CEO & President of Human Business Works (business design company) that works with publishing and media to help professionals with their businesses. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Impact Equation, and a sought-after professional keynote speaker. Well, after some social media research throughout Twitter, I found one of the main important experts on this field. I find all Chris Brogan Tweets really useful and his website even better. He provides lots of tips based on different topics; he uses a minimalistic, colorful, and user-friendly design. I highly recommend to visit his website, if you are dealing with the creation or with the improvement of your business social media, you can get lots of ideas from this excellent professional. http://www.chrisbrogan.com

unethical? or not appropiate?

American Apparel, a recognized fashion store, caused a big scandal last week by using Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to launch a sale campaign. An email was sent to the customers they have on their database that lived in the affected area. The e-mail included the following text “In case you’re bored during the storm, 20 percent off everything for the next 36 hours”. It also was accompanied by the code “sandystorm”. Few hours later, lots of furious people published their fury on social platforms. American Apparel hasn’t issued an apology yet, but whether they meant well or not, they caused a big offense. This is another case when companies take advantage and publish or release their products in an unethical way. One more opportunity to learn and evaluate how and when is the right moment to make use of the social media!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NzB5Cb6HNk&feature=player_embedded

One more time, Converse amazed me with its cool ideas!!

One more time, Converse amazed me with its cool ideas!!

This app seems to be in the market for a while, but this week while I was searching for the most successful campaigns, I found that Converse is been kicking the market since they launched in 2010 their “The Sampler” App. It is so easy to use, if you are the kind of person that hates to visits malls, well, here is your solution. You just have to download the application to your mobile, take a picture of your shoe, select the converse shoe style you like the most, and try it on your feet. This couldn’t be easier, you can try as many styles as you want, wherever you are, you can complete the whole experience starting from trying the whole store, finishing by paying through the app. This is just another cool example of the reality that converse bring to our lives.

Definitively, people like to try things out before making a purchase; this clear behavior Converse respects and understands. So, why not to take advantage of technology?
I invite you to try this, Check out the video below,try the app for yourself, and confirm if visiting malls is still necessary!

Digital Marketing Risks

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Nowadays, most of the population uses digital technologies and its channels to communicate. Taking advantage of that tendency, the digital marketing has been growing rapidly. Now, thanks to the digital marketing services, people can get as many and strangest things as they want, for example, it varies from purchasing everyday products to finding your true love. So far everything sound great, but what are some of the hidden issues customers can face by using these sites? Well, sadly there are unscrupulous and unethical companies that want to take advantage of this by using your personal information for their own benefits. For examples, there are some sites that sell their own email database to third parties that use them to advertise their products. It takes just few seconds to provide your personal information to any website, but it can take you months to be removed from this unstoppable marketing lists. Taking control of this issue seems to not be easy. Learning the best digital marketing strategies is not the hardest part, the really issue is to let unethical people to manage websites. The respect of others privacy is getting important within the last years, now protect you personal information can save you from spam messages, identity theft risk and financial frauds. The most recent problem related with this personal information, is the one that is been received by millions of cellphone users. There is a text message spam requesting credit card information on behalf of Bank of America, so where these unscrupulous people obtained this list of cellphone numbers?

To concrete, use, have fun and take advantage of all the benefits the digital marketing bring to our lives, but don’t forget to be careful and identify where and what information you provide every time you enroll or get a product.

                                            

FMCG social sampling

What can be better than trying a product before you finally purchase it?

 

Well, this is another interesting marketing way. Free sample purpose is to familiarize consumers with a new product, letting them to try out a product before purchasing it. This method is been used by many companies through their own sites or social media channels, encouraging customers to start using their products. Some sample offers, involve consumers to complete a survey or refer a friend, in order to qualify for their free sample, they have to complete all the requirements, and that is the way companies gather information of potentially interested customers. Moreover, there is a new movement called “Social Sampling” where customers not only get their free trials, but also can follow product reviews through social media channels.

As an example I found an interesting video, it is about how successful can be Facebook to achieve brand measurable results. The case study is about Aveeno, a Johnson& Johnson body lotion. Aveeno used Facebook page to offer their product free samples. The campaign was completely successful; they created awareness of the brand, at the point that in just in a week they got rid of their entire samples. Customers filled their information and received Aveeno free samples with coupons to redeem on their next purchase. By using Facebook, Aveeno targeted over 2 million women, increased their sales in a 7%, received 1325 comments, 360.000 post views, and accessed to 2, 7 million fans.

One more time, we confirmed how useful can be social media channel to promote or release new products, so let’s open an account, don't forget social media use is for free!

Take a look to this video: http://vimeo.com/48508716