1 s-commerce: An opportunity for marketers to reach beyond MySpace and YouTube October 12, 2006
May 13, 2015
1
s-commerce: An opportunity for marketers to reach beyond MySpace
and YouTubeOctober 12, 2006
2Confidential © 2006 Compete, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2
What we’ll cover today
State of social networking
Marketing challenges
Social Commerce as a solution
Getting off to a smart start
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The MySpace phenomenon
Seventh largest site
56 million visitors
18 visits each month
1000+ page views per person
30 minutes per stay
Refers 35% of visits to Facebook and 13% to Google
myspace backgrounds, myspace layouts top searches on eBay
snapshot:
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The web is becoming more social
Two out of three online consumers have visited a social networking site
Fastest growing online category: 109% growth in people, 414% growth in usage (pages viewed) since January 2004
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Social networking motivations
Meet people
Be entertained
Learn something
Influence others
78% join to communicate with existing colleagues or develop new acquaintances
47% join in order to find entertaining content such as photos, music or videos
38% join to get information from other people about topics that hold particular interest to them
23% join to express their opinions in a forum where their ideas could be discussed or acted upon
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Characteristics of online socialites
Attractive demographics
Younger: 37 years old
Higher household income: $78,000
Greater discretionary income: $8,000
Media & buying habits
35% spend less time with traditional media
75% seek input from peers before buying
25% of total purchases made onlineMarketers’ equals
Early adopters: 40% are the first to buy
Influential: 37% influence others’ opinions
Credible: 63% trust reviews from other consumers as much as experts
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Social saturation tempers growth
Average online socialite already frequents three sites, only has enough bandwidth to join one additional site
Marketers’ demand for new advertising outlets exceeds supply of consumers’ time
14%
18%
24%
20%
12%
3% 2% 1% 0%
7%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+
How many social networking sites would you consider being a part of?
ave
rag
e
Total number of social networks online socialites are willing to join
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s-commerce offers marketers a new approach
“s-commerce” goes beyond advertising on social networking
sites
Links transactions and online
communities
Broadens benefits of social
networking
Thrives on consumer participation
Incorporates best practices from
• e-commerce: online sales & marketing performance
• social networking: fast growth, deep engagement
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Emerging s-commerce models
Corporate brands grow social New brands create mash-ups
Branded micro-sites Customer Forums Ratings & Reviews
Peer-to-Peer selling Community-created
products Product blogs/forums
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“When it comes to beer, sharing is caring.”
Miller Lite becomes the voice of men
In concert with a new television campaign, Miller Lite launched ManLaws.com to develop a new code of conduct by men for men. Customers that go to the site can view each ad as well as contribute and vote on new entries to the Manlawpedia – the official book of laws that governs all men. Adoption: 50,000 visitors spend over 10 minutes
interacting with the microsite each month
Engagement: Customers submit video auditions to appear alongside “men of the square table”
Influence: Over 50,000 new laws have been submitted to the Manlawpedia by customers
Positioning: 750+ daily blog posts containing ManLaws enhances Miller Lite’s brand among male beer drinkers
Other examples of microsites to study:
Boldmoves; Seventeen & Aquafina MySpace profiles
Manlaws.com Unique Visitors
0
25,000
50,000
75,000
100,000
May-06 Jun-06 Jul-06 Aug-06 Sep-06
0
400
800
1,200
1,600
Accumulated minutes viewed (000’s)
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“What security software do I need?”
Dell Online Forum Unique Visitors
Dell forum helps customers help each other
Dell’s active community forum consists of threaded discussions among Dell employees and community members. Participants create profiles to personalize their posts and add credibility. Dell rewards participants with exclusive promotions & offers for community members. Community: 52% of visitors surveyed said they
feel like a part of a Dell community
Service: 75% trust the content within the community and do not require support from Dell
Loyalty: 68% of members are likely to purchase their next computer through Dell
Advocacy: 90% of members will recommend the online forum to friends and/or family
Other examples of online customer forums to study:
Cingular, Samsung, Microsoft0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
Sep-05 Dec-05 Mar-06 Jun-06 Sep-06
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“Getting out of two mortgage payments after condo fire.”
Borrowers bond with lenders at Prosper
Other examples of peer-to-peer sites to study:
Zopa, Lala, Peerflix
Inspired by eBay, Prosper is building a new social-financial marketplace. Borrowers use Prosper’s online platform to create loan listings; lenders then bid down the interest rate to compete for the loan. Borrower profiles, bid histories and “groups” make the process straightforward, transparent and safe. Adoption: 145,000 visitors each month, 50% are
registered Prosper users
Engagement: Users visit the site 3.6 times each month and view nearly over 65 pages per visit
Community: Approximately 3,800 active loans totaling $18.1 million (loans in default: 4)
Affinity: 3,250 borrower groups have formed to pool like people, mitigate risk and lower the interest rates offered by lenders
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
Apr-06 May-06 Jun-06 Jul-06 Aug-06 Sep-06
Prosper Unique Visitors
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“California-style burger joints in Boston?”
Yelp Unique Visitors
Local businesses & opinionated reviews at Yelp
Other examples of product-focused forums to study:
Woot, Insiderpages, Judy’sBook
Yelp is quickly becoming the definitive city guide by offering community-generated reviews on local businesses from restaurants to dentists. Consumers post reviews to Yelp, and can collect and organize recommendations from peers. Advertisers participate via email ads, enhanced business listings and sponsored search results. Adoption: 500,000 monthly users: 15% submit at
least one review each month
Community: Yelp members are very active contributors; in San Francisco, the average Mexican restaurant has 50 reviews, and the average member has contributed over 100 posts
Influential: 80% of Yelp members consider community reviews as trustworthy as advice from family member or friend
0
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
Apr-06 May-06 Jun-06 Jul-06 Aug-06 Sep-06
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Roadmap for launching s-commerce initiatives
Research consumers, while they research you and your rivals.
• Develop new online research program• Benchmark usage and adoption of social sites• Survey consumers to understand motivations
Create a channel to connect consumers and your brand.
• Design, launch and iterate s-commerce site• Focus on sales, service, or positioning brand• Seek customer input into site features
Engage consumers in conversation: listen, learn & leverage.
• Contribute to the dialog and reinforce your value• Participate via questions, discussions, offers• Apply learning throughout sales and marketing
Research
Channel
Engage
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Taking our own medicine – compete.com
Launching compete.com as a consumer service on November 1
Consumers benefit directly from sharing their clicks with each other, Compete and marketers
compete.com – clickstreams as consumer-generated content
Trust:
Detects dangerous phishing sites and spyware offenders
Deals:
Promotions and discount codes across more than 2,000 online retailers
Site profiles:
Timely, accurate website analytics including visitors, rank, pageviews, time spent, etc.
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Questions from registrants
• How does s-commerce relate to my market (travel, auto, financial services)?
• What are the issues around privacy and hosting consumer-generated content?
• What are cost effective ways to incorporate s-commerce into a consumer website?
• How viable an advertising channel are social sites for high-consideration products?
• How effective are profile and sponsored pages on social networking sites?
• What impact are communities having on sales, marketing and/or customer service?
• What specific tools or features impact conversion rates?
• What are online communities three most pressing issues?
• How should marketers partner with social networking sites?
• Do consumers really pay attention to ads on these social networking sites?
For copies of both presentations, please email Max Freiert at [email protected]
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