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Today’s blog post comes to us from Gillian Muessig, Founding President of SEOmoz As an ecommerce entrepreneur, I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, goody. Just what we needed… another Social Media platform.” But hear me out. Pinterest Is Tailor-Made For Ecommerce Site Owners! Really! Now, I’m not suggesting you throw out all your work on Facebook and Twitter. But I am suggesting you take a look at Pinterest and get in early. You’re going to love this one. It will feed Facebook’s constant need for content. It will give you something to Tweet about. It will actually make your life easier, not more complicated. And it will get photos of your wonderful products in front of a lot more eyeballs. Now how’s that for a springtime gift? How Does It Work And What Do I Have To Do? Pinterest is a corkboard… online. You pin pictures on it and share them with your friends. People may already pinning images of items from your website on Pinterest and sharing these photos with their friends right now. This is a really good thing. What you want to do is get some photos up yourself, thank the folks who are sharing your photos already, and connect with folks who seem to be interested in the things you sell who aren’t yet acquainted with your website. Here’s How Add the Pin It button to your browser so you need only select any image from any url you happen to be on and click the Pin It button in order to add it to your Pinterest boards. Get the Pin It button and simple instructions here. Label Boards on your Pinterest account. Each Board is like a bulletin board. Keep them simple and well organized. Got shoes? Put casual shoes for men on one Board and evening shoes for women on another. Scarves? Put men’s scarves on one Board and women’s on another. In time, you’ll have boards with shoes that match your scarves, Best scarf being worn by movie stars, Most elegant use of a scarf, sexiest scarves, and surprising scarf applications boards… you get the idea. Start simple. Keep things organized as you go. Select some photos from your website to “pin” on your Boards. That’s a good start! Check out this step by step instruction for getting started on Pinterest. It’s truly simple. Now select items from other Pinterests that are somehow related to your subject. If you sell walking sticks, share photos from other Pinterests that either include walking sticks or perhaps are photos of amazing places around the world where you would want to see your walking sticks in use. The idea is to share on a BROADER LEVEL - don’t just put photos of your own stuff up there. How Can You Increase Interest In Your Wares And Boost Your Bottom Line With Pinterest? First, connect your customers to your Pinterest page. Send out an email that announces that you’ll be sharing new products, photos from customers using your products so everyone can great ideas (excellent if you sell wearables, home decor or craft items) and of course, special sale notices. Once you have a bit of a following… Run A Contest Ask your followers to send in their photos wearing your product, using your jigsaw or of the dollhouse they made with it, or of the home decor item that they purchased from you in place and looking great. Choose the best 1 or 3 or 5 and award prizes. Post their images on what you will call the ‘User Generated Board’. You’ll need to name it something wonderful for your readers of course. Something like: Live And In Action! for a sporting goods Pinterest page or Weddings Always Make Us Cry for a wedding gown shop. The idea is to get engagement from your current customers who will send the photo to be pinned. Encourage them to share that photo with their friends via Twitter and Facebook because their photo is good enough to be selected to be on your Board. That goes double for the prize winners. And the prize winners get badges saying they had the best photo of the month, the year, or the variety… you choose whatever works for you. They get a badge from you as well saying they are a winner. Encourage them to post that badge on their Facebook page, tweet about it, and put it on their personal blog if they have one as well. Note: no cash prizes for pinning your products or re-pinning your pins (pictures). Paying for pins is like buying links or buying Facebook fans. Just don’t do it. Offer Deals People like consistency. And when you get folks accustomed to seeing something or checking in on something on a regular basis, it becomes habit. Offer a deal of the week on the same day every week. Pinterest Mondays (or any other day) can be your day to make a special offer. You can keep all the offers on an Offer Board and you even re-run some offers that are particularly popular. Play A Game With Prizes Share some images of folks using your products. Give clues as to where it is and when folks find the photo; give them a discount or another prize. Spread the game via Twitter and Facebook. Tell people to RT (retweet) you and share the game with their friends, too. Be imaginative. It’s easy and fun to play games and hold contests around taking photos related to your products and sharing them. It engages your customers and encourages them to stop by regularly to see what the newest game looks like and what the prizes and offers are. When you pin something on Pinterest, tweet about the new image. Not every image; that’s just annoying. Tweet about the best, the funniest, the most amazing, outrageous, etc. When you find other pins related to your website, share those and give credit where it’s due. You can - and should - include a link to the originating website with your images. That’s how people browsing through the great photos on Pinterest get to the website where they can take action… like buy your product! Have fun, everyone. Pinterest was BORN to be used by e-commerce website owners and marketers. And finally, you’ll have something to write about on Facecbook and Twitter without spending hours thinking up what to say. Gillian Muessig Founding President SEOmoz CEO Coach at WebmasterRadio.fm @SEOmoz & @SEOmom  

When you’re in charge of managing a Facebook page, Twitter profile, or other social media profile for your company, you have the always fun, and sometimes far-reaching responsibility of being your company’s voice in the social media sphere.  Assuming the identity of a corporation online can be a great opportunity to grow an online community, and to interact with people and other companies at the same time.  Social media management, particularly on the Facebook and Twitter platforms, is also a great opportunity to showcase your excellent customer service skills. If you think that social media doesn’t have a customer service component, there isn’t a nice way for me to say this—you’re wrong. As a social media manager, whether by default as a small business owner trying to build the social presence of your company, or by position as someone hired to do so, social media managers have the opportunity to take advantage of valuable customer service opportunities because: You’re A Face To A Name Whether you have a visible social media profile focused on promoting your company under your own name, or you use the company’s name, as a social media manager you will become, over time, the face to the name, so to speak of your company online.  Customers will get used to (and come to expect) your online persona, your syntax, and anticipate the types of post and tweets that you make on behalf of your company.  You’re An Initial Point Of Contact When a customer reaches out via social media to your company, they reach out to you. You have the first opportunity to respond to them and make sure that they receive the answers that they are looking for.  You’re A Direct Link To The Inside When customers have questions, you may not always have the answer, but the chances are very good that you have an idea of who in your company does.  This segues nicely into our next point. . . Social Media Managers Can Take Advantage Of Their Unique Role By Responding To all Messages, Posts, And Inquiries Quickly If the idea of an angry customer directing angry words at your company, and by extension, you, makes you nervous, it’s time to toughen up. Social media managers understand that customers are more likely to be vocal when they are upset, as opposed to pleased with a company, product, or service.  When angry, frustrated, or otherwise upset customers express their feelings via social media (and they will) the best thing that you can do for your company is to respond as quickly as possible.  Even if you don’t know the answer to their question or what the best solution to their problem is right away, you can at least send a quick message to them acknowledging that you received their message and will get back to them as soon as you have the answer. Personalizing Your Communications On social networking sites, particularly Facebook, you have the ability to know the name (or at least the social media handle) of the person that you are talking to.  Since you have this information, why not use it? Address the person by name, as in “Aura, thanks for your inquiry. We will check into this and get back to you.” It only takes a few seconds to type a name, but the message that it sends to the customer that you (as in the company) are personally interested in helping them, goes a long way towards fostering the kind of customer service reputation that your company needs in order to stand out from the competition. Asking Your Own Questions  If you want to know what your customers think about your products or company, use your social media channels to ask them.  I’ve seen many of our Miva Merchant storeowners do this by posting up product prototypes and asking their Facebook fans to vote for their favorites, and asking for feedback on new products.  Always Keeping In Mind That Social Media Is All About Social Engagement.   People like social media because it gives them the ability to interact with one another, and with their favorite businesses and brands.  View your social media interactions with your fans, followers, and customers as positive experiences, even when dealing with people who have less than positive things to say about your company.  Remember, every interaction is a chance to present your company in a positive light.

I recently read an article that mentioned a study conducted by the Cornell School of Behavioral Administration about restaurant tipping behavior in the United States.  That same day, I read another article about social media lessons that companies can learn from food truck operators. Both of these articles made me think about how interesting it is that industries that appear to have very little do with each other (the restaurant and food industries and ecommerce, for example)  can actually learn a lot from one another in some cases. The following are my ecommerce-focused expansions on three of the points that both of the articles touched on. Make Human Contact The Cornell study found that tip amounts left by diners actually increased about 3 percent when servers made the extra effort to make eye contact with their customers.  Of course, ecommerce store owners can’t do this literally, but extra customer service touches, such as easy- to- find answers to FAQ, (frequently asked questions) a chat helpline, and a prominently displayed telephone number can all go a long way towards making customers feel like you care, eye contact or not. Advertise And Promote Your Daily Specials In other words, communicate in real time.  The article about social media lessons that companies can learn from food trucks stressed the importance of frequent, real-time updates. When it comes to food trucks, the article explained, customers like to get excited about what is happening today, not two weeks from now. You can take this same idea and apply it to sales and product launches happening within your ecommerce store.  While it is a good idea to promote these things in advance, it is even more important to create hype about your new product being launched or your spectacular once-a-year sale immediately before and during the event so that you can stay fresh in the minds of your customers and not run the risk of losing any momentum that you might have built up about your product launch, sale, or other in-store event. Cater To Your Demographic Fast food restaurants specialize in one thing: fast, cheap food. Their customers expect a consistent product at a consistent price, and don’t want to have to wait around very long in order to get it.  Food trucks have the reputation of offering unique food items that their customers can’t find anywhere else.  Upscale restaurants have the reputation of being, well . . .upscale. The bottom line is, you wouldn’t use the same promotional campaign for a five-star steakhouse that you would for a fast-food burger restaurant, or a food truck.  Take the time to identify the wants and needs of your key demographic, and then make sure that you tailor your product offerings, promotional approach, and overall branding strategy to accommodate these wants and needs.

Today’s blog post comes to us from Gillian Muessig, Founding President of SEOmoz

Credit for this actionable, ecommerce-focused checklist goes to Casey of Slingshot SEO in Indianapolis. An SEOmoz recommended consultancy, Slingshot SEO was recently listed number 58 of the Inc 500 fastest growing companies. Woohoo! I love it when Mozzers do well! You can read the original post, complete with information on related primary research

Social commerce, once a buzzword with a vague meaning and an even vaguer real-world application, is now almost as ubiquitous online as social media itself.  There are many reasons for this, including the fact that consumers can now access the Internet and shop from their desktops, laptops, phones, and tablets. 

The main reason, though, is that social commerce is a natural extension of an activity that the majority of Internet users engage in on a daily basis: interacting with their friends on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Essentially, social commerce works because:

Social Commerce Is Intuitive

“Liking” (or “plussing” or “tweeting,” etc.) content online has become second nature for many people,  and can be used to show preference for a news story, a funny photo, and even individual products within an ecommerce storefront.

Once people see that their friends like a product, they may be more inclined to read reviews of the product, visit the website and social media pages of the store that sells the product, and ultimately, to purchase the product.  If they can complete this last step directly from an ecommerce store’s social media profile, this makes for an even more integrated social shopping experience, and segues directly into our next point.

Social Commerce Meets People Where They Are

Put simply, social commerce, particularly in the form of an integrated Facebook page, allows social media users to transition into ecommerce customers quickly and easily once they have found a product that they are interested in buying. 

Clicking on a product takes them to the online storefront where they can purchase it, eliminating the need for the customer to leave the store’s social media page to search for the product themselves.

Social Commerce Strengthens Online Relationships

Social media users are now used to interacting directly with the people behind the social media profiles of both companies and celebrities. Once this happens, a company stops being a faceless corporation and begins to be viewed a social media “friend.”

As a result, loyalty naturally increases, announcements about online sales, promotions, and new store arrivals are easier for consumers to keep track of (since they are automatically notified of them) Social commerce bridges the gap between liking and recommending products online and actually purchasing them.  In today’s increasingly Internet-based society, that is a valuable gap to bridge.

 

Since Google unveiled Google+ Pages for businesses a little over a week ago, a number of businesses have been scrambling to create profiles.  Many companies that specialize in providing Facebook marketing services for corporations have also been preparing to offer similar services for Google + business marketing. 

If you have recently created a Google+ Page for your business, but aren’t sure how to get started , you’re not alone.  While similar in some ways to Facebook, Plus has its own unique format, navigation, and rules that users must familiarize themselves with.

Here are some tips about building and managing your circles on Google + to help you get started:

Building Your Circles

Business pages on Google+ can’t follow people unless they are following them. This means that it is in your best interests to tell your customers, colleagues, Facebook fans and Twitter followers about your new page and invite them to follow you so you can follow and connect with them in turn.

Managing Your Circles

Google + lets you control what you share and who you share it with. When you create an update, you can choose which of your circles can see your update, and can also decide whether or not to make your update public.

You can create circles by clicking on the circles icon in the menu at the top of your profile page. Once you do, you’ll see the people in your circles, as well as your existing circles. Click on a circle to change its name. You can add a new circle, and add people to these circles from this page.

Personalizing Your Messages Within Your Circles

You can personalize the messages and updates that you share on Google +. Have a message that is specifically for your customers and another for your business partners? You can use Google+ circles to get your personalized message across.

Once you get the hang of circles, you will be well on your way towards building your presence on Google + and interacting with your customers, contacts, friends, and followers. 

While you’re getting started with Google + don’t forget to add Miva Merchant and Aura Miva (me) to your circles to stay connected with the Miva Merchant community online.

 

 

 

Today’s blog post comes to us from Gillian Muessig, Founding President of SEOmoz

Social media had been the watchword of the day for months now. As ecommerce site owners, we are exhorted to set up Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles, Twitter accounts. We’re supposed to get our customers to check in on FourSquare, and give us a thumbs up on Google Plus. Will it never end?

Well, yes. And no. Expect the social media space to continue to burgeon over time. Mobile apps, social platforms, and crowdsourcing platforms will continue to grow and diversify for the near future. After awhile, however, things will not just settle down, the platforms will begin to buy each other up and converge again. So keep breathing. This post will make you feel better about the effort you’ve been (and will be) putting in to your social media efforts.

As an ecommerce site owner, you’ll appreciate this case study from Lane Bryant on Facebook. In case you never visit a shopping mall anywhere in the US, Lane Bryant specializes in women’s plus size clothing.

I know the gentleman who manages Lane Bryant’s Facebook page. He’s middle aged, of Chinese birth, educated in the US, a brilliant technologist, totally unattached (no spouse or lover), and the very definition of ‘geek’. Hmmm. The perfect manager for a women’s plus size clothing community, you should be thinking. Well…. Actually, you’d be surprised.

This marketer, Dennis really knows his craft and is bringing an amazing ROI to his client.

Most companies put a static image to the home page. Lane Bryant has a rotating offer and links to the deal.

This post in the center of the page is another deal. It’s OK to provide real value to your followers to keep them around.

Don’t miss the row of images just below the page name either. Those printable discount coupons are a frequent occurrence on this page.

And finally, check out the text above the larger coupon on the center of the image. Friendly, welcoming, informal. Not too corporate; just right.

Here’s another nice little image showing nearly ½ a million – yes, ½ million! – followers. How did he do that?

Lane Bryant purchased Facebook ads and targeted women with specific keywords in their interests to build the initial group of followers. Then, Dennis engaged them. One of the most powerful examples of how he builds and continually engages his audience was demonstrated live at a conference. As the administrator, he wrote the following question into the Lane Bryant page:

“What color do you feel like this morning?”

Not, “What color do you like?” or “How do you feel today?” Note the careful turn of the wording. It’s beautiful, encourages response beyond a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. It addresses the moment – morning.

And then the magic began. Within seconds, seven responses came in. Before his presentation was completed 335 minutes later, more than 700 responses had been logged. Within the hour, more than 1,000 responses had been entered.

While many of the responses were mono-terms, some were florid, poetic, and beautiful.

“Blue”
“Baby blue”
“Lavender, like the soft dawn outside my window”
“Soft pink, like the light streaming onto my desk as I prepare for morning with my twins”

Amazing. That’s the kind of depth of engagement every ecommerce brand is looking for. What can you do with this data? What’s the ROI?

Well, for starters, you can address and reward the responses. Try this:

“If you answered ‘lavender’, you’re in luck. All lavender shirts are on sale through tomorrow. Use the code ‘LAVENDER’ to get your favorite colors today.”

Or look down the road a bit…

If you’re the product manager or buyer at Lane Bryant, you just crowd-sourced next year’s product line. You’ll be buying and manufacturing lavender under garments in time for the holiday season!

In essence, the tactics you want to take away from this post are:

Set goals for social media platforms and shoot for success. If you want people to engage, be prepared to pay for a few facebook ads and target people whose profile indicate they are interested in your subject/products.
      Give people a REASON to follow you. Offer deals, special access to events, news, first access to new products
      Engage your followers with open ended questions, not ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions. Encourage them to be creative and ask questions that will give you answers to questions you care about.
      Crowd source the design, color, development, and purchasing of your prouct line. What better way to optimize sales than to ask your customers what they want, how much they are willing to pay for it, and what sizes and colors they want and need? 

Social media, whether through Facebook or twitter or other social media platforms will help you increase your sales and optimize your product development and purchasing processes.

And perhaps this is the best news. Whether you or not you are a member of your own target market, you as the merchant can engage your customers in ways that are meaningful for both your business and their interests.

Till Next Month-

Gillian Muessig
Founding President SEOmoz
CEO Coach at WebmasterRadio.fm
@SEOmoz & @SEOmom