In a blogspotting article by Business Week, the results of a social commerce study on myYearbook were revealed.
This study revolved around the interaction of social media and e-commerce, which has yet to reach its full potential and gain widespread traction (though some notable exceptions exist, including Zappos and Dell).
A few things become clear when reading the results
A overwhelming percentage of respondents (83%) have not posted information about a purchase they’re planning to make on their profile or in a status message in order to gather their friends opinions.
People are more likely to ask about “Small ticket” items such as movie tickets, music recommendations and video games instead of “large ticket” items, such as vacation destinations, new homes, or appliances.
We believe that the payoff for consumer adoption of social shopping can have huge impacts to bottom-line revenues, even for small ticket items in the short-term.
Adoption
As you can see, the majority of social network users have not vetted purchase decisions with their online friends. But of the 17%, or more than 5,700 who have, their responses are surprising:
* 81% received advice from their friends and followers
* 74% of those who received advice were influenced by it
That is a huge statistic. To translate these percentages into real numbers, out of the 30,000+ people polled, just over 4,000 were influenced by advice received from their personal network about a potential purchase decision.
E-Commerce companies and retailers may still be figuring our how to integrate their platforms with social media tools to socialize the buying cycle, but the potential is there, and the payoff could be huge.
After speaking with Geoff Merrick about our newest product, Ripple6 OnDemand, I decided to get a few words from our CEO, Sang Kim.
This short (1:38) video explains a bit about how we’ve used our experience working with enterprise-level clients to develop a product which is not only powerful and scalable, but easy to implement.
In an apparent first, a social network www.MixingBowl.com has launched a print publication – Mixing Bowl Magazine. The magazine is a special edition from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications and appears on US newsstands until August 25, 2009.
Mixing Bowl is a social cookbook, created by the makers of Better Homes and Gardens, and full of 100% User Generated Content. Better Homes and Gardens maintains an active presence on the site, but keeps their triple-tested recipes, which appear in the regular edition of their publication, separate from their social network – one which is truly a ‘social cookbook’.
Users have certainly stepped up to the plate (the dinner plate) and dished up some great numbers! According to Compete.com, MixingBowl.com served over 2.1 million page views in July, spanning 200,000 unique visitors and over 40,000 members. Mixers have created 17,300 recipes and 500+ public groups since the sites launch earlier this year.
This is an example of a thriving online community being created and growing based upon an affinity for food. Is a paper spin-off of a successful online site the future of magazines? Perhaps, especially considering that a second edition of the magazine is slated for January, 2010.
What we do know today is that BH&G and the Mixing Bowl crew are doing something right. The site is growing quickly and people are finding what they want there.
NOTE: In Dec 2007 Dennis Publishing in the UK printed a Facebook “bookazine” which was a single printing. It wasn’t intended to be a magazine. Mixing Bowl Magazine’s future is yet to be decided but it is definitely the first social website to print it’s own magazine as an offline companion to the online site.
My job as the Ripple6 Marketing Manager keeps me busy talking with many of our different departments. I caught up with our VP of Professional Services, Geoff Merrick, yesterday afternoon to talk a bit about our new product offering, Ripple6 OnDemand.
Geoff and his team are responsible for the development and implementation of our products and this short video explains a bit about our new product from a technical perspective.
We recently launched a new product, Ripple6 OnDemand, designed to serve small to medium-sized publishers and marketers. Ripple6 OnDemand has a few key benefits: scalability, turnkey implementation and new monetization opportunities.
You may have heard of it during the Robert Scoble interview, but if not (and even if so), we’re here to tell you more about this new offering.
Ripple6 OnDemand is a template version of our White Label offering, able to be implemented in as little as 24 hours.
Here’s what you’ll find if you dig around a bit:
Ripple6 proprietary features are included:
Social Insights allows you to conduct research within your community and across others on our platform
Brand Communities delivers another way to monetize your site without cannibalizing existing display or PPC ad revenue
Ask/Answer helps to encourage new members to join your community while also connecting current members 1-to-1
Facebook Connect comes with Ripple6 OnDemand.
We’re finding that our customers are viewing this tool as increasingly important, and wanted this product to support this application out of the box.
We took care to design this product with our customers’ top concerns in mind. Publishers want and need to generate incremental revenue, especially with social tools.
We’ve noticed growing frustration about the current monetization ‘limits’ (subscription-based revenue and PPC advertising revenue) and am happy to offer this product as a true alternative.
In an apparent first, a social network www.MixingBowl.com has launched a print publication – Mixing Bowl Magazine. The magazine is a special edition from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications and appears on US newsstands until August 25, 2009.
