Brands are going social with the right mix of communications technology and consumer values. Social is a catalyst that is driving unprecedented loyalty, built not at one stage but across various stages and elements of the shopping process.

by Vandana U.Photo Credit: zion fiction

Social as aDriver ofLoyalty

In the age of social commerce, where traditional e-commerce is no more even a nomenclature, loyalty seems to spell a new pattern with new trends. With several factors determining shopping- ranging from best prices, proximity, recommendations, to mood-swings even; it is necessary to understand not only how loyalty and social commerce go hand in hand but understand how social is a driver of loyalty. It goes without saying that shopping has always been a social activity. A lot of definitions place social commerce under the huge umbrella term of e-commerce. Currently, as defined by Renata Gonçalves Curty and Ping Zhang, “Social commerce is broadly considered to encompass commerce activities mediated by social media where people do commerce or intentionally explore commerce opportunities by participating and/or engaging in a collaborative online environment.”To the process of buying and selling online, social adds layers of conversations and interactions between consumers, communities, and businesses. These conversations are the new points-of-sales. Businesses are leveraging social, making it highly integrated and highly relevant to see new growth. The assumption is obvious: if social elements are necessary to drive in engagement, they are vital to driving loyalty too.

Being Social

The ontology of online commerce now is social as the smart-technology-driven buyer is no longer merely a buyer nor is passive. The buyer today is socially nourished through elements such as sharing, likes, conversations, reviews, and interests. The use of social

Campaigns

Kuliza

network serves social interaction and encourages user contribution throughout the purchase process - right from research to activities for post the purchase. There is a sure transfer of power because advertising alone would not generate that much needed buzz. Whether one terms it ‘social’, ‘viral’ or calls it ‘word of mouth,’ sharing is an unstoppable activity.

A brand that goes ‘social’ brings in the elements that revolve around a customer not only in a terms of being a part of the ‘target’ market but include the entire social world of the shopper. Interests, behaviours, shopping patterns, activities of the shopper and that of the shopper’s friend circle are all roped in. Customers have varied and new ways to research, compare, evaluate, purchase, and provide feedback on products and services. The agenda of engaging a shopper personally does not mean providing attention alone, but making sure anything the person needs, would like, and would want help, guidance from are all available. The superlative bit of it is that it is effortless for the shopper. After such a shopping experience the brand becomes the sought-after destination. It is these brands that, irrespective of whether they have the product the customer is looking for, will be relied on and people will be loyal to.

Elements of Social

A typical purchasing process begins with awareness- about a brand, its utility, etc, moving on to being interested in the product and finally purchasing it. Radically working out commerce includes layers of social in each of the stages in the process. There are different aspects on which businesses are creating conversations. Consumers may end up finding themselves in situations, unable to make purchase decisions. In such a situation when the next step to take is not known, advices, recommendations, support all kick in. The people in the person’s social world around the customer act as guides towards decision making.

The following are some of the identified elements of being social:

• Content: A great social experience includes presenting the right content to the right customer at the right time. Curation is a serious affair in social commerce. From purchase history to what devices people are on, content has to be new, useful, and that adds value to consumers.

• Referrals and recommendations: A report made by Nielsen indicated that 92 percent of people go by recommendations for a purchase online rather than believing in advertisements.

• Reviews and ratings: Showcasing reviews from satisfied customers, friends from their social networks adds to the credibility of the brand and is extremely influential in conversions.

• News feed: Friends see stories as they appear in the news feed. Any and every activity is again a point of sale. This stream flows and connects brands to people super fast.

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Top: Stuart ConnorMiddle: Aural AsiaBottom: iBaNe

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• Reward: Rewards increase repeat purchases and build loyalty. Ranking people, awarding points, and offering rewards tempt people to stick around longer and even work towards it.

• Encourage advocacy: Authentic advocacy influences the purchase decisions of everyone around.

There are applications, tools, and technologies that make all of the above happen. Tools have been made that measure social ROI rather accurately: from tracking number of likes, tweets, followers, pins, re-pins, to influences. Sophisticated analyses, metrics, campaigns designed based on insights for right targeting, conversions, word-of-mouth to generate great loyalty have come up. The surplus data about behaviours, psyche, etc., offer companies opportunities to even predict shopping patterns.

Comprehend and work on the entire shopping behaviour cycle with the right suites of applications. Social commerce is about customer-satisfaction, providing great experiences, and being customer centred over the traditional sense of being profit and transactional driven. There is a great deal of focus on relationships; the motive is no longer sale but repeat sales along with achieving a dollop of loyalty. To sell better and build loyalty from social audiences stimulate them, add value, and transfer the power of transaction to them. Create environments and platforms that actively engage with users, maintain relationships in a personal manner- that replicates building one to one rapport. The feminists fought for their rights with the motto “The personal is political” and social commerce is making its stand with “The personal is social.”

References

Cavazza, Fred. “The Six Pillars of Social Commerce.” Forbes. 02 Jan

2012.

Chaney, Paul. “Word of Mouth Still Most Trusted Resource Says

Nielsen; Implications for Social Commerce.” Social Commerce Today.

16 Apr 2012.

Curty, Renata Gonçalves, and Ping Zhang. “American Society

for Information Science and Technology.” American Society for

Information Science and Technology. 48.1 (2012): 1-10.

“Social Commerce.” Wikipedia Inc. 10 Sep 2012.

“Starbucks Card.” Starbucks. Starbucks Corporation. Web. 10 Oct

2012.

• Group buying: Just as how news spreads quickly, group buying, group gifting spread word about a brand, offering convenience in terms of gaining discounts and making gifting easy. It is no wonder that group buying can make brands go viral.

• Exclusives: Exclusive fan deals, discounts for sharing, personalized shopping experiences, pop-up shops, help make brands stand out. Offering a privilege or a benefit, and a bonus that no one else offers ensure people stay and the cycle of recommendations and referrals continues.

• Rewards: Incentives drive people to respond. Through social, make users perform targeted, marketing actions. Offer rewards for expressing views, writing a review, clicking a link, sharing a promotion, referring a friend, etc. Adding game techniques to the incentives is another brilliant move.

• Socially driven loyalty programs: Starbucks is famous for its loyalty cards and programs. Making a move to going social with gifting cards, rewards, and points, the program gets better with the convenience it offers in terms of technology. The card can be added to the Starbucks mobile app, there is an app that allows users to check the level they havee reached in the program using the “star” - My Starbuck Rewards’ currency, and there are elements of fun. When one makes a purchase and goes to that tab on the mobile app, one sees a star actually fall into a cup and that tracks progress over time. This is evidence enough to show that loyalty programs are now no longer for ensuring repeat purchases built around points and rewards and repeat purchases but built around people: enabling social mechanics and designing a simple user engagement model.

Going Social

Going social is about redefining engagement. Engagement is not about interacting with random games and making offers after one accumulates fans. There are various touch points in all the phases of the shopping experience where engagement and personalization need to be driven.

• Acquaint: To drive awareness around a brand that claims being ‘social’ it’s is necessary to reflect that in the awareness drive, which has to be social in nature to elicit interest. With the plethora of data available, set up campaigns that involve people together be it a contest or a basic game.

• Drive: Create a social world where people can participate in activities together. Be it in the form of extending referrals or group buying, make the world a personalized one with the help of that deluge of data available about online behaviours and activities.

• Support: In order to be a core part of people’s lives, engage, talk, and extend support in forms of content, stories, expressions, etc. Conversations that will help the community will also build brand advocates. They curate information, influence other buyers, and communicate about brands across different social networks.