Social Status

With the emergence of Snapchat as a brand tool and the new features launched by ever-evolving platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, there’s a definite excitement around social marketing. But when considering social’s ability to engage with or “sell” consumers, some are optimistic and there’s still plenty of doubt.On one end, consumers are using mobile phones more than ever: A women’s shopper study from Blackhawk Engagement Solutions released in February showed more than 70% of women over 18 owned and used a smartphone daily – and social ranked as the No. 1 use case. Then, during the 2015 holiday season, more than $12 billion of a $69 billion e-commerce pull was done over a mobile phone, according to comScore. That number was an increase of 58% versus the year before.So what could be the problem?Jason Goldberg, SVP, commerce and content practice, Razorfish, says when it comes to social commerce, there are a lot of exciting articles of reputable brands launching pilots with exciting social platforms that make for great trade copy, “but when you look behind the covers, the volume of utilization and the level of adoption of any of those pilots are miniscule and don’t justify the amount of effort it took to launch the pilot.”A buy button on Pinterest for “major brands” maybe generates 10 units of sales, Goldberg says. “Engagement rates for Snapchat’s geolocation feature have been tiny. Buy buttons on Twitter haven’t generated meaningful volumes. Social networks are simply not referring a relevant amount of traffic to e-commerce sites.”It has nothing to do with the platforms or brands themselves, he says, but that consumers in the West aren’t culturally in tune compared to the East, where “it’s the predominant way they shop. You can sell 300 Mercedes smart cars in 10 minutes on Snapchat.” Goldberg says that consumers in the East routinely begin shopping missions on WeChat, Line, KakaoTalk and others.+ + +There are successful niche cases in the West, however. Eva Smith, head of marketing communications and insights at Pinterest, says 75% of all pins to the network come from businesses, so they’re driving a lot of the interaction.In terms of buying, Smith cites boutiques such as Spool No. 72, a small clothing boutique that has seen 84% of sales come from “Buyable Pins” or buy buttons. And Madesmith, an online marketplace for handmade goods, saw more than 7% of total orders from July to September come from Buyable Pins, and all were new customers. Also, Daily Chic, an online apparel company, saw a 30% bump from Buyable Pins over the summer.Pinterest sees success in conversion because it’s not quite the same as a traditional social network where friends come to socialize. It acts more as a catalog of ideas and product recommendations, Smith says.Goldberg says another factor slowing the use of social as a shoppable means: It’s not easy to shop on the phone. Smith agrees: “Industry data, which is supported from our own conversion pixel data, shows that while consumers are very open to researching on mobile, it seems that they are more comfortable and find it easier converting on desktop. Converting on mobile is often challenging, and what consumers are really craving is a frictionless shopping experience.”Until that is ironed out, it appears social marketing will remain at the top of the funnel, driving awareness, where it has tremendous value, Goldberg says.“Social networks are simply not referring a relevant amount of traffic to e-commerce sites.”— Jason Goldberg+ + +Rodney Mason, GVP, marketing, Blackhawk Engagement Solutions, believes 2016 will be a breakout year for social. He believes that brands don’t promote social enough. “It’s a cultural thing in the retail industry, and there needs to be a mindshift, because the consumer has shifted and the industry has not.” He cites Blackhawks’ study on Millennials that showed 55% use social media to learn about products, sales and shopping news. That beats Google (45%) and Amazon (37%), he says.Toys “R” Us uses social to create “compelling two-way dialogue,” says Jeanne Caso, executive director, digital marketing, integrated marketing. That includes promoting hot toys and deals, celebrating holidays, highlighting upcoming in-store events or raising awareness of charitable campaigns.She says the retailer recently began testing Instagram carousel ads. Facebook created the carousel ad for its network and brought it to Instagram. The ads enable brands to showcase multiple images and links in one ad post. Video has been added to the carousel format, too.Another new Facebook feature is Canvas, which expects to enhance how Facebook users browse products after clicking an ad they like. For example, if there’s an ad in the feed that gets their attention, as opposed to clicking it and being redirected to another website, Canvas will present a quicker-loading, full-screen experience to browse additional products before going to that external link to buy. The network is also instituting buy buttons into the mobile news feed for direct purchase.Snapchat is a popular social network, but one that has been quiet among retailers until recently. The network launched geofilters that retailers and brands can utilize. They’re overlays added to a Snapchat message that can only be accessed in that location.Toys “R” Us has been an early adopter, leveraging it for the 2015 holiday season. “We instantly saw increased engagement within our Snapchat community and our followers grew by 750%,” Caso says. Snapchat users received a sneak peek of 15 hot toys before anyone else and the platform also helped provide access to live events, too.Caso says “user-generated content” is a key strategy for them going forward. For example, with its #BabysFirstKiss campaign, Babies “R” Us asked consumers to share photos of their New Year’s kiss with their babies. Twitter parties with bloggers, social influencers and partnering brands such as World Wrestling Entertainment and Activision have also proved successful, she says.+ + +Twitter relies on a set of core advertising products: Promoted Tweets (native ads in a user’s feed), Promoted Accounts (a way to boost a brand’s account and awareness among people), Promoted Trends (a way to drive a trending hashtag, for example) and Promoted Video (autoplaying videos in timelines). Twitter owns popular looping video site Vine and has been recently promoting the live streaming video app it owns called Periscope. Both see brand and retailer involvement.Pinterest announced a few new tools in the fall like a Visual Search tool that enables users to zoom in on a specific object in a Pin image and get more information about that object, which may include a Buyable Pin or Pins that are similar visually via colors, patterns and more. Pinterest is growing its Buyable Pins feature for retailers, too. Smith says they have activated more than 60 million Buyable Pins since launch and have partnered with merchants like Macy’s, Wayfair, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and ecommerce platforms such as Magento, Bigcommerce, IBM Commerce, Demandware and Shopify. Another new feature is a “price drop notification,” notifying users of a cheaper price on any Buyable Pins they had saved to be tracked.Along with more socially driven content, customer service may be a larger driving force of social going forward. Goldberg of Razorfish is excited to see messenger apps such as the next iteration of Facebook Messenger as a way for consumers to chat with brands for product info and more, and potentially receive a link to buy there. In China, messenger apps like WeChat are already very popular, he says.“What I love about social is how it humanizes brands,” says Walgreens’ Adam Kmiec senior director, mobile, social, content and performance marketing. “Social is such a personal medium. When you Tweet ‘@wagsocialcare’, our customer care handle, you’ll always get a genuinely human response. We don’t use bots or auto-response messages. We also give you the initials of who’s reaching out to you.”+ + +“It’s really hard to create an audience that’s engaged and wants to come back and hear what you have to say over and over again.”— Ali Mirian According to those interviewed here, tapping into social influencers, such as Instagram bloggers, YouTube content creators, Pinterest influencers and so on who already have a dedicated audience, seems to be one of the most effective ways to use and monetize social.Ali Mirian, SVP of products at Collective Bias, a firm that helps connect brands with influencers says, “Our belief is content is inherently social and influencer-generated content even moreso. Ads are not shareable. We allow marketers to capitalize on that and give influencers a chance to make more content and earn income.”He says 2015 was an “inflection point,” where brands they met with showed increased sophistication and knowledge around social as well as earmarked budgets. “We’re entering the second-inning of influencer marketing.”The challenge for brands with social is generating content. “You ask any blogger who has things to say and they’ll always tell you no matter how much you have to say, it’s really hard to create an audience that’s engaged and wants to come back and hear what you have to say over and over again,” Mirian says. “That’s really hard for a brand because they’re focused on what they do best.”Mirian says an advertorial broadcasts to an audience, whereas an influencer has an intimate relationship with an audience, and a brand can enlist 10 to 200 of these influencers across platforms and reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people without much effort from the brand or production cost. What’s yet to be seen is any large impact in terms of connecting influencers with buy buttons or direct ways to buy online. Mirian says getting in calls to action will continue to be tested.

Social Status

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

Business Topic

Company

Market Segment

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

Related Articles

Business Topic

Company

Market Segment