Advertising, until now, has always been about ‘Push’ Strategies. Concretely it means two things:

- You spend a lot of money to put your products and services in the face of your audience, hoping for them to enjoy the effort and creativity or simply the product itself. If they buy it –or at least enough of it– you win. Your campaign has been successful, and you can go on and work on improving the current product, or lower its price, or work on new projects…

- The relationship you build with your customer is a short-term relationship: as One would put it, you are the playboy at the party who’s there for a one night stand. You show off, do what you have to do, and once the task accomplished, you move on.

This is the old model, this is pretty much how it has been ever since the creation of advertising.

NXTCLICK SOLUTIONS:

Here are a few solutions that I could come with after a long reflection, and some inspiration:

• Using ‘Pull’ strategies:

There is one fundamental thing to understand about when social media. Yes it is online, but No the relations you have on Facebook or Twitter are not less important than in real-life. To sum up, you need to behave on social networks the way you would in real life. You need to be transparent and create a loyalty/trust bond with your customers. If you do, and if you pay attention to them, the rewards will be unmeasurable simply because you would have earned your customers loyalty, and this, to any brand is the best you can ever do to a customer.

• Shut up and listen:

Before, when a company launched a product, you had to run surveys and market studies to get a feeling of how the audience would receive a new offer on the market. TV ratings, for example, are still calculated today through a handful of people using special remotes sending the data to Nielsen. This is not representative of the overall population, sadly.

But here’s where it all time to change: Social Media gives users a voice. The only thing left to do is to listen!

Concretely, on Twitter, you can search for your brand or your product, and on Facebook, you can monitor your page closely. You can learn a lot from your customers too: if they start following you and engaging with you, why not spend some time looking at who they are and what they like? Understanding your customer isn’t rocket science: they are human beings like you and I and have passions, hobbies, and things that drive them nuts too.

My point is, by paying attention to your customers the way you would pay attention to your friends and family, you are not just building a community, you are building a relationship.

•  Education, from the ground up:

The shift that is happening from a one-way conversation to a dialogue between brands and consumers is happening now. It probably started without you, and it’s moving fast!

So there are two things that needs to be addressed:

- for current companies, models and establishment, this shift needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast. Companies that are stuck or unwilling to accept this change will see their  business drown. It is certain and there are no discussion possible.

- for the current students, teachers, and young advertisers: you need to incorporate these social values in the work and learning that you do everyday. If you start in the business world  with these principles, you will be ahead of those big corporations you are hoping to work for in your wildest dreams!

by Darren@ClickEarnGrow.Net

Booz Allen forecasts that today the social commerce oppotunity is worth $5 Billion and by 2015 it will be worth $30 Billion (a 600% increase!). There is a lot of money to be made by brands who introduce social commerce to their communities now and grow with them over the next several years.

Learn more on Social Commerce with Darren@ClickEarnGrow.Net

Create a Google+ Page

The first step to getting set up with Google Plus is to create your Business Page. This is different from a Personal Profile. You can set up a Business Page here:
https://plus.google.com/pages/manage

Add The +1 Button

In order to facilitate easy sharing of the products and pages on your website, you will want to add the “plus one” button. The code for that can be found here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/

Add A Google+ Profile Badge

Then ext step is to get customers and site visitors to follow you on Google+. The best way to do this would be to display the Google+ Profile Button. Go to your Google+ Business Page and copy the URL. Paste it into the form on this page and it will output the correct code for your profile:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/profilebutton/

Find out more about eCommerce on Google+ by contacting Darren@ClickEarnGrow.Net

It has been reported in Bloomberg this week (February 17th 2012), that more and more virtual shops on Facebook (know as F-Commerce) are shutting shop.

F-Commerce is a terminology used nearly two years now, and many Facebook Investors are looking at new ways for Facebook to earn revenue other than Advertising.

The key questions for Ecommerce owners and retailers are what is the real advantage of duplicating on to another platform, and how do we really obtain our return on investment?

Overall, everyone is monitoring this social commerce space. It will take time to mature and see value. But, overall “Word of Mouth” is great and powerful, and is a good way to share products and services with friends and families, based on good old fashion trust and honestly.

To find more information about Social and F-Commerce please contact Darren@ClickEarnGrow.Net