The buzz surrounding "social shopping" continues to get louder, as two new sites recently launched and a Yahoo/comScore study reports that "brand advocates" use such tools to influence friends and family to buy products they recommend.
The study, "Engaging Advocates Through Search and Social Media," shows how shoppers use e-mail, instant messaging and social networking sites to talk about the brands, products or categories that they like to buy and thereby influence other consumers to purchase them.
"The art, science and humanity required to create great brands has not changed," said Anne Frisbie, vice president of category for Yahoo! Search Marketing. "But search and social media are new tools for brand marketers that allow them to target, listen and authentically engage key opinion leaders to create even deeper and more personal brand relationships."
The study found the following facts:
The Internet has significantly influenced how consumers talk about and recommend brands.
Word of mouth, one of the most trusted sources of information, is amplified online to reach significantly larger audiences.
"Brand Advocates" have emerged online as primary influencers, with at least a two-to-one rate of converting an actual friend or family member to buy the same product or brand.
Brand Advocates are incredibly valuable to marketers because they are better connected consumers with a larger sphere of influence.
Brand Advocates: Who Are They? Of the 2,297 respondents surveyed for the study, a particular group stood apart due to their attitude and behavior and were thus named Brand Advocates. They are adventurous opinion leaders and social influencers who are slightly younger, more educated and affluent, and they spend more time online than do non-advocates. They represent approximately 36 percent of the online purchasers surveyed across four categories including consumer electronics, automobiles, vacations and home mortgages. Brand Advocates are more active searchers and conduct 48 searches per month on average compared with 39 searches per month for non-advocates.
In addition, half of Brand Advocates use search engines to research prior to purchasing, compared with one-third of non-advocates. By investing in the research process, Brand Advocates feel more satisfied with their decisions post-purchase, and, as a result, are more compelled to talk about them.
Advocates Talk About Brands Online The study revealed that post-purchase, approximately half of all Brand Advocates speak to their friends, family and even strangers about their purchases through a variety of online channels. Sixty percent of Brand Advocates believe that good brands are worth talking about versus 26 percent of non-advocates. Brand Advocates spend their time promoting a brand far more often than negating it, with approximately 90 percent writing something positive about a purchase they made.
The Key: Social Media Study findings also showed that Brand Advocates are taking full advantage of social media tools and use them for product purchases. Through instant messaging, chat, community, photo sites and blogging, Brand Advocates are able to influence their vast online social circle. They are 40 percent more likely to use instant messaging when compared to non-advocates and 119 percent more likely to use podcasts. Brand Advocates are also nearly twice as likely to e-mail someone for their opinion and twice as likely to ask or post a question online compared with non-advocates.
Implications For Web Shop Owners Overall, the study found Brand Advocates are avid researchers who consider more brands, making them more open to dialogue with marketers. Post-purchase, they have higher levels of brand commitment, are more likely to recommend brands and tend to talk about positive experiences.
Additionally, Brand Advocates are opinion leaders who influence other people's purchase decisions, telling at least twice as many people about their purchases than non-advocates. They are more than twice as likely to persuade others to buy compared with non-advocates. Clearly, marketers should engage and influence Brand Advocates through search, social media and online communication tools to capture this extremely valuable audience and amplify the influence of people who favor their brand.
StuffPals Unveils Beta, StyleFeeder Adds Celebs In other social shopping news, StuffPals, formerly WhaBAM, just launched a beta version of its site that offers community networking and sells items in about two dozen categories, including pet supplies, musical instruments, health and beauty, jewelry, arts and crafts, real estate and antiques.
For sellers, there are two plans available: The "Fee Buster" service lets you list and sell unlimited items for $49.99 a month. The "Fee Saver" account is 1 percent of final sales price, with a maximum of $25 per transaction.
There is also an affiliate program through a partnership with Commission Junction. Here's how it works: StuffPals pays you $99.90 for each "paid, active, Fee Buster seller account" on StuffPals, which is defined as a Fee Buster program member who has completed at least one transaction within a 30-day period. When a person becomes a paying member, the user has 30 days to sell an item in order for you to be compensated. StuffPals will pay you within 30 days of that user transaction for referring people to the site and encouraging them to upgrade their accounts.
Meanwhile, StyleFeeder is yet another way for sellers to get their goods in front of interested consumers. The new site is a social shopping venture that lets people perusing products online to find, share, and keep track of stuff they like by using visual bookmarks.
StyleFeeder lets members browse shopping lists by creator or keyword to find people and items with the "right style," even identifying their own online personal shoppers who become trusted, go-to sources for style choices. In a move mirroring Like.com, which allows shoppers to buy knock-offs of celebrity accessories and clothing, StyleFeeder just enlisted the Olsen twins to post at the site.
Members can post their StyleFeed items in blocks of images at MySpace, blogs or personal Web pages. This is good news for e-tailers because recent HitWise USA studies show that MySpace is playing a much larger role in driving retail traffic than a year ago, accounting for 6.16 percent for the week ending Dec. 2, 2006, up from about 2 percent last year.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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