Article for Wednesday, 16th of March 2011

Today, I chose to treat the article "Seven tips for embracing Social Commerce". This article gives us the key ideas to sell successfully on the social media. It is indeed becoming crucial for the companies to use properly this distribution channel as more and more customers buy directly from the brand social sites and 2011 will be THE  year when social media trend dramatically grows. Understanding how social commerce works and how to catch your followers' attention is definately a huge competitive advantage. Let's see what the author's advices are...

As the title suggests, the writter gives us 7 main recommandations to implement a winning strategy:

• Check your analytics
• Understand how social your customers are
• Start using your Facebook Page to promote products
• Socialize your website
• Use a Facebook shopping app
• Investigate bespoke solutions
• Don't just sell

Basically, the idea is to make sure that your business will benefit from the presence of an e-boutique on your social media, to build an attractive and relevant landing page that will drive your customers to your site and convert them into buyers and to facilitate the purchasing process by adding shopping app and communicating with your fans. The author also insists that you should not only focus on selling and on your brand but on socialising and sharing more with your followers.

This article really well summarized the steps to develop your social commerce successfully. I am convinced that this trend will grow in the next few months and that social media may eventually replace the brand sites as the customers will find all the information they need, as well as reviews from other users and tips and special offers directly from the sellers, without mentioning the various loyalty programs and contests that may be organized by the brand on its social sites.

Still, I think that one additional advice we could give to the companies that is missing in the article is to provide a securitized online payment. It may seem obvious but it is fundamental. As I said, Social Commerce may become the main selling channel as the brand will not only be able to reach a large community of fans, share and know more about them, what they like, do not like and answer their questions and doubts immediately, give them tips and suggestions about a product and even offer their most loyal fans discounts and special gifts. Last but not the least, the social platform may facilitate the after sales services and fix the problems directly, reducing the percentage of unsatisfied customers. What is great I think with social commerce is that advantages are both for the buyers and the sellers. In other words, it is a win-win practice and companies should not neglect this new trend.