2010 Social Media Trends: From Enagement to ECommerce
Social media is evolving from an engagement platform to an ecommerce platform.
With the year ending, I’ve been thinking a lot about where I was and what I was doing around this time last year. In December 2008, I was presenting to all my clients a Twitter 101 deck and giving them a practical, logical reasoning of why they should consider jumping on Twitter. Fastforward 12 months and my agency is not only running and growing over 10 Twitter feeds for our clients, but we’ve gathered a rich historical database of our results.
I want to try and imagine now, how the next 12 months are going to surprise me and knock the breath out of me. Social media and it’s evolution excites me. And for 2010, I’m putting my stake in the ground for E-commerce.
We are going to witness a major shift in how we approach social media. 2010 is going to demand stronger measuring tactics and more importantly, tangible results. Brand building, awareness, buzz and fan activation are important goals but clients and agencies alike will now push for more tangible goals: sales. A direct increase in revenue.
Dell just announced today that it credits about $6.5 million of its revenues to Twitter. Dell’s aggregate presence on social media (Facebook & Twitter) and its own community sites (Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm) has 3.5 Million + fans and followers that have collectively contributed to the $6.5 Mil rev. achieved.
What’s important to consider is the astounding growth (more than double!) in just three months following Dell’s announcement in June at having reached a 3 Mil revenue mark. Will the numbers reach 12 Million+ by 2010 ?
Granted $6.5 Million is a tiny piece of Dell’s $60 Billion revenues – but the unparalleled (100%+) growth in just three months alone is worth noting.
We are just beginning to see the potential of driving sales through social media.
Another point to consider:
As financial and human-resources investment in social media continues to grow, it will only get more time-intensive and expensive for a brand to push their audiences to three different web-based destinations: 1) It’s own website 2) It’s Facebook profile and 3) It’s Twitter page.
I think by late 2010, it will be fair to expect brands to start prioritizing their investment and efforts, and arguably giving first preference to its social media destinations. I know it sounds far-fetched. The idea that a brand’s website can be completely cannibalized by its social media presences seems preposterous, but it just makes sense to me logically.
If I can grow the impact of my brand and my revenues ten times faster on the social web than via my website – why wouldn’t I just put more resources into my Facebook page?
Also, it is a LOT to ask a customer to fan you, follow you and also sign up for your email newsletter. Ecommerce needs to get streamlined – content needs to get streamlined.
Signs are already point
ting in this direction. Earlier this year, 1800-Flowers quietly opened an E-commerce store on its Facebook fan page.
On it Facebook page, 1800 Flowers accepts payments with all major credit cards and will soon implement Facebook’s proprietary payment platform. (Although the company only has about 8000 fans on its page (and not much fan activity – but that you can attribute to the fact that 1800 Flowers it not exactly what you’d call a passion brand.)
A friend of mine who works at a luxury fashion brand informed me that her company is “definitely” selling products on Facebook starting 2010. Facebook is one of their strongest focus for next year.
These are just my top level thoughts on a topic that is going to become very important and talked about next year. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you are a brand, I want to know more about how you are looking at measuring success in social media. Let’s keep this discussion going!
Hello,
Good article. I totally agree with you that companies will require more analytics when it comes to social media as to what is working, who is clicking on their links and who is converting.
I think other challenge that lot of businesses will try to tackle would be how to align social media into their overall marketing plan. Lot of businesses are just warming up to social media. It’s impact on bottom line is still unclear. Case studies like Dell may not work for all types of businesses but i think it’s a good start. Also, to attract more followers lot of retailers will start offering “Twitter Only” promotions. I imagine companies assigning relatively very little budget to social media even in 2010. At the end of the day it comes down how much money can social media add to their bottom line and that question is still an enigma.
Also, besides using social networking sites like Twitter and FB to listen to customers, businesses will need to figure out how best to sell their products without selling. Be it product placements from influential tweeps or highlighting wins from regular customers. Businesses will need to understand that social media is two way road.
Tejas
Hi Jinal!
Great focus on what could potentially be one of the major evolutions of Social Media in 2010.
I do feel that the concept of “social shopping” is increasingly going to be more and more powerful and that brands will start the necessary shift from company owned websites to social media platforms.
These platforms created new needs but more than that, they changed the way we communicate, exchange information and perceive content. We do not feel the need to look for the information anymore, it comes to us. And so should brands. Understanding this shift in the way of communicating will be, I think, the best way to suceed in doing e-commerce via social media tools.
Nassima
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