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After creating a successful pop-up shop in Facebook for their Rachel Roy brand, Jones Apparel Group decided to create a “fan shop” for their Nine West brand. Only fans of Nine West on Facebook can access the “Shop Lookbook,” and they get a 15% discount through the end of the month on the items offered.

The flash-based store within Facebook (shown above) was easy to navigate. Several products were available, and fans are allowed to “like” and “share” them. Items are added to a shopping cart, and clicking on “Go to Shopping Bag” takes the user to the Nine West e-commerce site where they can view their cart and see the 15% discount. Its a pretty seamless experience that leverages the e-commerce site nicely.

Due to theses efforts, both of the Nine West brands have significantly increased their “fans” in Facebook. This is the equivalent of opting-in for future wall postings, which are typically promotions.

Social Retailing will continue in new and innovative ways and it is essential for retailers to recognize the need to take the store to the customers and instead of expecting customers to always seek them out.

1. Profiling/Foot-printing/Mapping

• Identify social network channels, e.g; social media neighborhoods, third party influencers, etc

• Identify activists target habits – online by segment

• Identify Opinion leaders in the group – This is done by targeting activists who frequently offer or are elicited for category-related advice

• Identify the best “Social media marketing” practices against each group and their habits

• Listen and monitor the tone of the communications online, so any social material we create is in the “tone and speak” of the online communities.

2. When in Rome!

No social media campaign should be undertaken without due diligence. The community not organizations owns the social channel. Due diligence in social media is to “listen”. Providing a clear insight into “What’s on our minds”; “What’s our emotive triggers”; “How are we speaking – tone and language” ; “Where are we hanging out online – What is the online social neighborhood?”.

This research and preparation grounds any strategy and recommendations, it is also a process of ongoing analysis to keep up with our society and their thoughts to best serve the right message, the right engagement, at the right time, for maximum viral input.

3. Monitor

* So you can use blogs for ongoing research and, following the conversation threads to track influencers and engage with them as advocates
* Posting feedback, helping your client through training to conduct an ongoing, resource light post back strategy and implementation
* Providing snap-shot tracking reports
* Monitor the activity with access to your own analytics to see where the uptake and successes are to prove:
* Measure the volume of traffic
* Breakout the volume of uptake generated by the social media marketing activity as opposed to the normal traffic
* Measure the impact of the social media marketing activity

4. Engage Meaningfully

We will engage with specific elements of the blog community to create new highly emotive conversations and useful content pieces to the online wider audience than the traditional activist base you already has. We will create debate to the broadest reach of audience who may not even be aware of the issues. We will put the issues front of mind through powerful emotive commentary that they can connect with. We will understand the emotive arc through the initial research phase of the activity, because we will ask them.

5. Enable the Discussion by:

* Listening to online conversations
* Identifying opinion leaders
* Developing content based on what is learned
* Participating, commenting and generating interest
* Becoming a resource
* Supporting your client to build your online personality through the training program
* Syndicating RSS content
* Using your social media user generated content, cut up and repurposed for Online Consumer Relations.

6. Optimize By:

* Increasing your linkability
* Making tagging and bookmarking easy
* Rewarding inbound links
* Helping your content travel
* Encouraging the mash-up
* Implementing “Keyword” strategy incorporation
* Developing contextual links within the body of the content
* Citation strategy

7. Report KPI’s

1. Pre-activity word of mouth benchmark report will be supplied at the start of the research,
2. Ongoing snap-shot reports to measure results. The reports will measure social media marketing & advocacy success
3. Ensuring Check’s and Benchmarks are enabled by: 1.Using ‘control areas’ where the word of mouth campaign is run in order to measure the effect of the campaign, 2. Measuring changes in word of mouth pre-and post-actions and track online word of mouth to measure changes of the ratio of word of mouth, 3. Tracking recommendation rates and how they change over time, 4. Including an online element that allows use of web statistics and online feedback to measure reach and participation levels, 5.* Reporting on the brand behavior within the environment and the impact on the brand as a result of the new social contact methods
4. Final Report: In Summary What Should be the Outcomes of the Social Media Marketing?
   * Speaking the voice of the individual
   * Targeting influentials
   * Encouraging engagement with the community
   * Being sensitive to “social speak”
   * Creating critical authenticity
   * Becoming highly interconnected
   * Make news travel fast
   * Enabling feedback and interaction as a fundamental core of your activities

The majority of today’s “traditional” marketers use outbound marketing to reach their audiences. For
message distribution, they use print media, radio and TV. For lead generation, they use direct mail, cold calls and email blasts. These methods may have worked in the past; however, by using tools like
TIVO/DVR, email spam‐blockers and caller ID, consumers block messages they don’t want. People now
control how they consume media and what messages they care to hear.
But all is not lost! Consumers still want to learn about the best products and services for their needs.
The key is they want to find this information on their own, most often by using the Internet. For
example, someone might peruse the blogosphere to read first‐hand experiences with a particular
product. Maybe that person will also search for reviews online or engage with others in social media to
learn other views and opinions.
Instead of continuing to push marketing messages out, effective marketers adapt to this consumer
behavior by creating marketing campaigns that pull people into their business. This strategy is called
inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers. In other words, instead of taking the time and resources to go out and find customers, you set yourself up in such a way that the right kinds of qualified leads find you. Inbound marketing, focused on areas like search engine optimization, content and social media, is cheaper and better targeted than traditional outbound marketing like advertising, cold calling, direct mail and email blasts. Inbound marketers offer the public useful information, tools and resources to
attract people to their site, while also interacting and developing relationships with consumers on the
web. Inbound marketing tools include blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization, social
media and social networks.
As 2010 approaches “being found” should be on the top of this list of any effective marketing plan.

One of the number one complaints about social media is that it takes too much time.

Companies considering the leap into the land of blogs and tweets often run screaming into the night after they glimpse the reality of what it takes to launch and maintain a worthwhile social media presence.

I don’t blame them. The onslaught of digital information is overwhelming, but there is hope. The key is in being selective.

We all know that it’s the kiss of branding death to try and be all things to all people.

The same goes for social media engagement. Unless you have a dedicated staff ready to spend all day, every day monitoring every inch of the Web and churning out top-notch content, you need to be choosy about how and where you spend your time.

This isn’t rocket science, you say? You’re right. But it’s amazing how many people - even professionals - fall into the trap of trying to be everywhere, all the time. In this highly competitive market, it’s easy to start making judgments based on the fear of missing out on something.

The 24/7, real-time nature of social media sets businesses running faster and faster on the proverbial hamster wheel. You start by monitoring here and there, then you launch a company blog, set up a facebook fan page, start tweeting, create a professional group on LinkedIn, develop a collaborative community for crowd-sourcing industry-specific solutions, and so on and on and on. Before you know it, running your social media efforts takes nearly as much time as running your core business.

Instead of jumping on every shiny, new wagon recommended by the so-called gurus, take control of your social media journey. Here are six steps for making sure things don’t get out of hand:

1. Strategy first:  You want to make sure the plan is custom-fit to your needs and capabilities as well as the needs of your target audience.

2. Have contingencies: Even the best strategy sometimes goes awry. Your project is going to be a huge success, but - just in case - make sure you are prepared for anything.

3. Roll-out in phases: Get your toes wet before you attempt a backwards triple somersault with a half pike and a twist. Start small and grow your presence in as organic a manner as possible. Listen well, and your audience will tell you what your next step should be.

4. Enable : In the best case scenario, social media becomes part of your company culture, not a specialty that’s handled by a few select members of your marketing department. Deputize people across your business to monitor and engage, but be sure to keep an overall eye on the conversation, watching for consistency and balance.

5. Target,Target,Target: Finally, narrow your focus. Be brutal. Though it’s highly unlikely that your company can stand out everywhere, if you concentrate on a few key areas, there’s a better chance for greater impact. Even if you wind up with a smaller audience, you’ll be able to have a deeper dialog, and it’s the deeper dialog that leads to actual relationships, a perception of leadership, and business deals.

Are you already engaged in social media? How did you get started? What worked for you, and what was an utter failure? What advice would YOU give to a business getting ready to take the plunge?

The

Great analysis from a recent post from Merlin Mann:

1. Good blogs have a voice. Who wrote this? What is their name? What can I figure out about who they are that they have never overtly told me? What’s their personality like and what do they have to contribute – even when it’s “just” curation. What tics and foibles fascinate make me about this blog and the person who makes it? Most importantly: what obsesses this person?
2. Good blogs reflect focused obsessions. People start real blogs because they think about something a lot. Maybe even five things. But, their brain so overflows with curiosity about a family of topics that they can’t stop reading and writing about it. They make and consume smart forebrain porn. So: where do this person’s obsessions take them?
3. Good blogs are the product of “Attention times Interest.” A blog shows me where someone’s attention tends to go. Then, on some level, they encourage me to follow the evolution of their interest through a day or a year. There’s a story here. Ethical “via” links make it easy for me to follow their specific trail of attention, then join them for a walk made out of words.
4. Good blog posts are made of paragraphs. Blog posts are written, not defecated. They show some level of craft, thinking, and continuity beyond the word count mandated by the Owner of Your Plantation. If a blog has fixed limits on post minimums and maximums? It’s not a blog: it’s a website that hires writers. Which is fine. But, it’s not really a blog.
5. Good “non-post” blogs have style and curation. Some of the best blogs use unusual formats, employ only photos and video, or utilize the list format to artistic effect. I regret there are not more blogs that see format as the container for creativity – rather than an excuse to write less or link without context more.
6. Good blogs are unpredictable. Blogs occasionally vex readers with the degree to which the blogger’s obsession will inevitably diverge from the reader’s. If this isn’t happening every few weeks, the blogger is either bored, half-assing, or taking new medication.
7. Good blogs make you want to start your own blog. At some point, everyone wants to kill the Buddha and make their own obsessions the focus. This is good. It means you care.
8. Good blogs try. I’ve come to believe that creative life in the first-world comes down to those who try just a little bit harder. Then, there’s the other 98%. They’re still eating the free continental breakfast over at FriendFeed. A good blog is written by a blogger who thinks longer, works harder, and obsesses more. Ultimately, a good blogger tries. That’s why “good” is getting rare.

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