Compete, Inc. just released a “Spark! brief” research report on the topic of how social commerce is becoming the new way of customer engagement. The report highlights some interesting findings, and can be read here.
Most interesting were some of the following comments and recommendations, that are also reflective of our experience with Kalivo:
- Committing to a social commerce strategy means welcoming consumer participation into the marketing process
- Treating consumers as equal participants is a new skill for marketers; blending your own marketing objectives with consumer trust and transparency will likely require repeated experimentation
- Social networkers are increasingly turning away from traditional media and toward their peers for information and product recommendations
Compete goes on to recommend a few approaches for capitalizing on the trend toward social commerce, or s-commerce as they call it:
- Research consumers, while they research you and your rivals – Develop an online research program …. conduct surveys … use dashboards to track changes
- Create a channel to connect customers and your brand – Launch a community site … experiment with new ways to increase community value … invite influential customers to shape the product roadmap
- Engage consumers in a conversation: listen, learn and leverage – Join the dialog … frequent valued participation … apply experiences in the community throughout your business
