Building CommunitySocial media and the new conversations of e-commerce
Thomas Purves, April 22, 2007 More: http://thomaspurves.com
3rd Annual Visa E-Commerce SummitToronto, On
Social Media is Shifting the Landscape Customers are getting smarter
Capturing attention is getting harder
Costs of production are dropping but also reducing barriers to entry
For e-commerce, constant innovation is key to survival
New Gatekeepers emerging: iTunes, google etc.
Network effects matter (more than ever) … how strong is your community?
Building Community…
If, right now, all of your customers could be having a great big
conversation with each other…
Photo by denkrahm http://flickr.com/photos/station_nord/10340948/
…needs only to answer one simple question
What might they say?
Photo by presta http://flickr.com/photos/presta/101334755/ NewMindSpace Pillow fight Flash Mob NYC
Three Stages of CommunityPeer Promotion• Community
is the new Word of Mouth Marketing
Peer- support• Community
is the new help desk
Peer-production• Community
is the new R&D Department
Basic Stuff: Blogging, Flickr account etc.
Costs: People time, all other costs insignificant
Positive ROI of executive blogging (200k/year)
Dell: Peer-Promotion
Standard Corporate Blogging, nowadays a no-brainer.
Dell: Peer-Promotion
New Trends, video segments and user-generated video(If BYO don’t forget to make it linkable, embedable)
Dell Peer-Support
You Customers might provide even better support than you can
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/
cprieto87BronzePosts: 2Registered: 04-18-2007Viewed 1011 timess
Koaz: You're a GOD! I was having similar problem with rolling back a Vista machine to XP - changed the SATA drive and voila XP loads! Yeah - I called Dell Support, and they were useless. confused and bewildered
Great, so long as you don’t mind quite how they phrase it.
Dell: Peer-Production
It turns out, the kids are crazy for Linux.(but consider, how representative is the audience?)
NCIX.com NCIX managing
Many, many SKU’s
User community helps maintain product info, upload images, post reviews, discuss and recommend hardware
Active users rewarded with “points” as recognition and redeemable for product
Threadless.com
The power of co-creation
Photo by Brian Oberkirch, by way of Davidcrow.ca
“Crazy Awesome”
“Sorta Awesome”
“Crazy Awesome”
SkinnyCorp and Threadless
Entirely community-centric model
From Sorta Awesome to Crazy Awesome in just a few years
Other lessons: sellT-shirts
Create Something to Talk About
Disruptive Marketing:
The Specialized Angel
1,125 blog posts260k google hits53 facebook group members
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwc/127795364/
Social Experiments: Specialized Rider’s Club
Chris Matthews, Specialized’s Marketing Guru
Over 10,000 members in 5 months (all demographics)
Premium membership: $50
Combines online + offline experiences.
Metrics are an issue
Connects dealer network as well as riders.
100% positive feedback
Specialized Rider’s Club
Sample Ride Profile Page
Value to Community
Find rides in your area
Socialize with fellow riders
Learn about the sport
Post pictures, journal entries, rider and bike profiles
The secret: letting customers talk to each other
A Great Story Will Tell Itself
I’d never heard of “Blendtech”, but how could you *not* want to see what happens with iPod in a blender, or:• hockey pucks• Light bulbs• Glowsticks?
Ipod in a blender: 3.3 Million views
I really want this blender
Openess is key to findabilityKayak.com
Mashing up travel data
Standards, APIs, and data accessibility allow for sometimes great stuff
The sematic web is an ecosystem
Email is for old people
New media Trends to Watch The consumer controls the format, the channels
Email is dying, static web content is dead already
RSS goes mainstream, feedburner gives you metrics, is the glue for everything
Social presence: status updates, twitter, jaiku, plazes
Looking Ahead: Social Presence as a Marketing Channel
Source: Mad dog in the foghttp://www.mdoeff.com/blog/2007/03/21/the-future-of-twitter/
Conceptual Vision of Twitter as aMarketing Channel .
What realtime status updates could drive value for your customers?
Key Early players in Social Presence:
Twitter.com Jaiku.com Facebook Plazes, Last.fm (this list will change)
Darth Vader is already Twitting(why aren’t you?)
“One of those stupid little floor polishing droids almost just tripped me. The Death Star R&D department will pay dearly for this”
- darthvader
Social Media, Not Just for Marketing Anymore
InternetWeb 2.0 Communities includingend customers,stakeholders, public
Channel 2.0 Communities includingbusiness & channel partners, etc
Enterprise 2.0Communities ofemployees.
Intranet
Extranet
Do!
Support open standards (microformats, rss, mashability)
Love your 1%Be authenticTake a chance, let your community run with it.
Be awesome Photo credit: shiny red type http://flickr.com/photos/shinyredtype/169168887/