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10 Tips for Using Social Media in Holiday Ecommerce Marketing

The holidays will soon be upon us. With just 26 days between Black Friday and Christmas and a reported 15.5 percent growth in ecommerce sales at stake, retailers should leverage every marketing opportunity.

Social media is one such opportunity. It can help extend brand reach, build awareness for promotional efforts, support overall sales activity, and do so at minimal expense to the merchant.

With that in mind, here are 10 social media marketing tips you can employ this holiday season. 

1. Use Social Media as a Layer, Not a Channel
Don’t think of social media as an individual channel, but as a layer that blankets other marketing activities. While it may not prove to be a catalyst that directly contributes to sales, use of social media can support everything else you do. The key is to think omnichannel and integrate social media into every activity.

For example, tie social media into email marketing by asking people to share your message with their friends and followers. Add social sharing buttons (including the Pin It button) to product pages on your website. Create content on your website that people will want to share, as well as social network content that links back to your ecommerce site.

Read my post, “8 Ways to Integrate Social Media with Existing Marketing,” for more ideas. 

2. Decorate Your Social Media Graphics with Holiday Themes
Almost every social network utilizes profile images and cover graphics. Some, like Twitter, also include background images. Put your shoppers in the holiday spirit by updating such imagery with seasonal themes.

If you do not have access to a graphic designer, sites like fcoverphotos.com or Canva offer plenty of ready-made images. Pixlr, a easy-to-use photo-editing tool, enables you to overlay text on graphics. You can also achieve the same effect with PowerPoint.

Example of fcoverphotos Facebook Christmas cover graphic.

Canva is a do-it-yourself image creation and editing tool. 

3. Give Your Content Visual Appeal

One of the biggest social media marketing trends to emerge from 2013 is the use of visuals. So, in keeping with changes to profile and cover graphics, add some visual spice to your holiday posts.

Facebook timeline post graphic featuring a Christmas sale.

As a general rule, include a graphic with most of your social posts. Add a graphic element to blog posts so that when visitors share your content on social networks, the image will appear along with it. 

4. Use Pinterest to Inspire Shopping Ideas
Pinterest is especially popular during the holiday season as people look to it for inspiration on everything from Halloween decorations to Thanksgiving table centerpieces to Chanukah and Christmas gift ideas.

Two simple ways to build on that interest include creating holiday-themed boards and adding Pin It buttons to product pages on your site. 

5. Run Contests on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Contests are a fun way to utilize social media, especially at this time of year. Sites like Offerpop and Antavo have several out-of-the-box contest solutions to make it easy.

Antavo offers six different types of contests. 

6. Send Personal Holiday Greetings to Loyal Customers

Businesses can take a cue from individuals and send special holiday greetings to customers via social media as a way to express appreciation. It’s an unexpected message for them that could lead to increased sales for you.

Create a Vine or Instagram video and post it to your Facebook Page timeline, send out direct messages to customers that follow you on Twitter or host a Google Hangout with your most loyal customers just to say hello. If you happen to be friends with customers on Facebook, send an e-card using an app like the one from 123 Greetings. 

7. Create Relevant, Interesting Content
Posts to your blog, Facebook Page, Twitter feed or another social network should not be just about you and your products. Think in terms of creating content around topics of interest to your customers, particularly during the busy holiday season.

That could include creative seasonal decorating tips, a list of ways to reduce stress during the holidays, ideas for making the holidays more meaningful, inspirational quotes, and more. 

8. Support Organic Efforts with Advertising
Social media ad campaigns are cost-effective when compared to other forms of advertising and are a good way to increase reach and introduce new people to your brand or products. 

9. Draw on Your Customers’ Social Influence
Shoppers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals. Because people tend to trust others with similar interests, it makes sense to draw upon your customers’ influence. Due to its inherent sharing capabilities, social media is a primary outlet to make that happen. 

10. Support a Worthy Cause
People’s minds turn to giving during the holidays, and that doesn’t mean just friends and family; charitable giving tends to rise, too.

Businesses can use social media to achieve social good — by supporting a worthy cause. Aside from the benefits charities receive, it is a way to build goodwill between you and your customers that can result in greater loyalty and increased lifetime value.

Use crowdfunding sites such as Go Fund Me or YouCaring.com to provide your customers with an opportunity to give, as well.

Paul Chaney
Bio  

Attention CEOs: Social Media is Critical in Acquiring New Customers

As a CEO of a small or medium sized business, you have a lot of responsibility. You are in charge of the growth of your company while managing all aspects of the business from IT to accounting and you are also probably one of the top sales people. Sure you have people to help you with these things but ultimately you're are the one responsible for results. One area that you are probably neglecting is Social Media.
Social media is a buzzword that almost everyone is familiar with. Wikipedia define social media as the social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Social media platforms allow you to broadcast messages about your product or service to potential customers. At no other point in history have we had the ability to reach so many of our prospects and customers than we do now. Social media has become one of the most important business tools for you and your sales people in reaching customers.

These virtual communities and networks are composed of things such as (to name but a few):

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Pinterest

You no doubt have heard or even used some of these sites. However, have you created a strategy for your company to leverage these platforms for acquiring new customers?

Chances are the answer is no. Most companies have not given any thought to how Social Media platforms can help them grow their business. Worse yet, many CEOs of small and medium sized businesses have not taken the time to educate themselves about these amazing platforms and how they can help grow their customer base. To help illustrate the importance we've outlined the user base of three of these platforms:

• Facebook: Over 1,000,000,000 users
• Twitter: 650,000,000 users
• LinkedIn: 375,000,000

These numbers are staggering and continuing to grow. Social media allows you, for very little money and effort, to reach your customers where they work, live and play. Online. Social media platforms, in simple terms, are like online cocktail parties. Everyone is on these platforms to engage, get educated and interact with others just like at a cocktail party. If your company is not on social media, it's the equivalent to not being invited to the party. Being on social media and not engaging with people is like being at the party and sitting in the corner not talking to anyone. It's important for your business to be the life of the party.

Posted by Matthew Cook

SOCIAL MEDIA EXPLAINED

7 Deadly Sins Businesses Make With Their Reputation

BY Andy Beal 

Think just hatching a Twitter account will catapult your company to the top of everyone's mind? Or your sporadic Facebook posts will bring your brand's reputation to the next level?

Try again.

The web is littered with good companies that failed to take charge of their brand and wound up as reputation road kill.

To not end up as the next travesty, avoid these seven deadly sins.

Not understanding your audience. Who is the prime audience for your company? While you may instantly be able to verbalize the traits of a perfect customer, they only make up a small portion of your online audience. Bloggers, journalists, business partners, employees -- even jilted lovers -- all have a say in your reputation.

As a business owner, you should know where your customers hang out on the web, what social networks and blogs they frequent, and make it part of your business plan to get to know them.

Not building a presence. Once you understand where your audience likes to hang out, you should make sure you put your “open for business” sign in the same locations. If your customers tend to migrate to Facebook, then you should make sure you have an active Facebook page. If they favor LinkedIn, then that’s where you should invest your time.

You don’t need a huge budget either. Mya-Moe Ukuleles is a small, custom ukulele builder, yet has built a vibrant Facebook community with stunning photos, informational videos and product demos. Take note.

Failing to be congruent. It’s likely you’ll find yourself engaging with your audience in more than one location. When that happens, be sure to provide a congruent experience so that you don’t send mixed messages about your reputation.

Coca Cola and McDonalds both do a great job of this. Whether you visit their Facebook page, Twitter profile or YouTube channel, you’ll see the same look, tone and discussions going on. 

Not being there 24/7. For small businesses it’s impossible to watch the internet all day, every day for conversations about your reputation. That doesn’t mean you can’t have some automated eyes and ears to help you out. Automated social media monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, my company Trackur or Radian6 will listen for any mentions of your brand, allowing you to join conversations you might otherwise have missed.

Taking too long to apologize. When you make a mistake, you should apologize quickly. Think of it as a band-aid on your reputation boo-boo. Rip it off quickly and get the pain over with.

When an Austin, Texas Minibar employee chalked up a beer promotion with the text ”I like my beer like I like my violence: domestic” it could have spelled doom for the drinking establishment. Fortunately, the owner quickly removed the sign, fired the employee and said, “I give my utmost apology and assure it won’t happen again.” He then promised $1 of every domestic beer sold in October would go to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the reputation crisis quickly diffused.

Not being transparent. Along with being quick to apologize, you should also offer some transparency. How did this happen and what are you doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Target has done an admirable job explaining what happened with its data breach.

Outsourcing your reputation. The companies that have the best reputations are the ones that don’t hand the reins of their brand to an outsider. When your business is the one connecting with your audience, you learn more about them, which leads to better communication and improved service. When you outsource that to a PR firm, you not only lose that connection with your customers, but you also risk them pulling a horrible stunt. 

Andy Beal

Andy Beal is the CEO of Trackur.com, a social media monitoring tool. The co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, Beal has spent more than a decade advising individuals and businesses on how to manage their online reputation. His new book, Repped: 30 Days to a Better Online Reputation, provides a practical plan for improving personal and corporate reputations.

The Perfect Tweet

A formula for making those 140 characters count

By: Mira Shenker 

While many a post has been devoted to this subject, what makes people click through to your content from Twitter is still up for debate. It's never going to be a perfect science, but there are ways to increase the chances that your 140-character nuggets will draw people to your website.

Neomobile has created an infographic showing the best construction for a tweet. Most of the advice has been given before (keep it to 100 characters, don't overuse hashtags) but it's useful to see it all in one place. Order matters, and this formula has every tweet starting with a call to action and ending with the URL.  Follow that last piece of advice with caution: placing the URL at the end of a tweet looks neater, but it also means that's the first thing to get cut off if someone adds their own commentary when they retweet you.

The Company Website Is Making a Comeback

For years now, companies have been vying for attention on social streams controlled by the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Hundreds of millions of people flocked to those streams, and corporations figured they had to follow. But now businesses are realizing something has been lost in the transition, that there’s nothing like being able to control exactly how they speak to customers, and the humble website seems to be surging back.

The comeback is bolstered by new interlinks that make it increasingly easy for websites to suck in and selectively repurpose some of the very social content that diminished the open web in the first place. These tools are typically used to highlight particularly interesting online conversations, to aggregate responses to a question posed by a consumer goods seller or media organization, or to facilitate question and answer sessions. So while the content comes from social streams controlled by outside companies like Facebook, it’s reshuffled and re-prioritized in a way that makes sense to the owner of the website.

This allows companies with products to sell to pull off a neat trick: Captivating potential customers by talking about those potential customers, rather than about the product. Everyone likes to hear about themselves. This means that, as cheesy as it might sound, Twitter and Facebook users get an ego boost on seeing their opinions, words, and even faces reflected on a corporate website, even if it’s through a silly contest, poll, or roundup.

“What we do is what I call marketing with a mirror – we hold the mirror up to the audience and they respond to it,” says Sam Decker, whose company Mass Relevance helps companies like Patagonia and HBO sift and repurpose social streams on their own websites. “You know when the camera in the football stadium shines on some people, and they stand up and say, ‘look at me, look at me?’ You just got engagement and participation. And that’s exactly what we’re doing, we’re playing back their own participation in the brand experience. That’s what you can do with owned media, with a website.

Decker says Mass Relevance has grown to 100 employees and 300 clients, doubling its business in the past year. It is riding the same wave as RebelMouse, a New York startup that helps media companies like Time Inc. and Fox and retail partners like Shopify repurpose social data on their own websites. CEO Paul Berry, formerly the Huffington Post’s chief technical officer, says he started the company last year because friends in the media business were constantly asking him to help better showcase fast breaking news from social streams on the websites that generated their advertising revenue.

Now the company is launching an ad product that does the same thing for advertisers, helping them place their Facebook and Twitter posts on other people’s websites, for a price. Those advertisers have been pouring effort into their Twitter and Facebook streams, only to realize it’s not been earning them much return, driving neither traffic nor sales.

“Company blogs and websites are missing their own best stuff,” Berry says. “The people who actually care about you are the ones who come to your site.” 

And with the right content, as fresh as a status update but polished like a magazine ad, those hard-core customers might return again and again.



RebelMouse CEO Paul Berry. Photo: RebelMouse

The Future Of Digital: 10 CEO Predictions At D11

Electric cars, beer-proof tablets and wearable computers were just a few of the ideas (or developing products) dancing across the minds of the D11 guests last week. While perspectives ranged from the foundational to the unbelievable, all shared a vision that is extraordinary in scope and virtue.

When it comes to the future of digital, here’s what the CEOs on stage had to say: 

Big Data ROI
“There is a massive business opportunity in using software to anticipate industrial equipment maintenance needs,” said Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE. “Take the jet engine. It has about 20 sensors that capture real-time continuous data—temperature, engine performance, etc. If I can take that data and use it to model a consumer outcome—say, more time on the wing or less fuel burn—that’s worth an awful lot of money to my customers. A one percent change in fuel burn for an airline is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” 

Connected Stadiums
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai and San Francisco 49ers chief Jed York are teaming up to bring “beer-proof tablets” to the stadium experience. Come 2014, their smart stadium will connect fans in more ways than just replays. The tablets will be capable of showing the best places to park, the best routes to stadium destinations and even ordering food from your seats.

“The camaraderie of being at the game—there’s nothing like that,” York said. “We want to take that great home-entertainment experience and bring it to the stadium.” 

Electric Cars and Trips To Mars
“I think it’s important that we transition to sustainable transport,” said Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity. “Eventually we’ll face extremely high gasoline costs and the economy will grind to a halt if we don’t.”

Musk says the ultimate goal, though, is to get technology to the point where it can take us to Mars.

“Either we spread Earth to other planets, or we risk going extinct,” he said. “An extinction event is inevitable and we’re increasingly doing ourselves in.” 

Fertility Apps
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin’s latest project aims to help women get pregnant. His new fertility company, Glow, uses analytics to track ovulation cycles and advise best times to conceive.

“My wife and I were lucky. We had our children without any issues,” said Levchin. ““But we have people close to us that have gone through multiple IVF trials, and we’ve heard them say, ‘We’re not going to put my wife’s body through this anymore.’”

Beyond pregnancy, Levchin hopes to use this model to give people more data on other areas of their health that will ultimately decrease health care costs overall. 

Internet Of Things
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann thinks his company is well positioned for the future of the Internet.

“Many things were once very text-based and very popular,” Silbermann said. “But instead of being time-based, we made it visual . . . I think the web and media are becoming more visual in general.”

Silbermann also freely admitted that Pinterest isn’t making any money yet, but that it takes “more of a long-term perspective” to build a company that will stick around. 

Mobile Data
“Transport will become free,” said Cisco CEO John Chambers, predicting that cellular data charges will fall like voice cell service. “Architectures will change. With intelligence throughout the network, the network will become the platform of the future.” 

Smarter Phones
This fall, Motorola will release a “hero device” called the Moto X. The new phone will have a variety of always-on sensors that makes it more contextually aware—like knowing when you take it out of your pocket.

“We’re going to play a different game than Motorola has played in the recent past,” said Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside. “It’s not going to radically change the world in the first launch, but we do think that the products will find their markets.” 

TV Disruption
“We’ve recognized that Twitter is the second screen for TV, and TV is more fun with Twitter,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo when asked about the next stage of the company. “There are a bunch of ways that we can be complementary to broadcasters. Traditionally, many in our area have viewed broadcasters as competitors—we think of it as complementary. 

Virtual Assistants
“I think we will see virtual assistants within two years that are quite robust,” said Nuance CEO Paul Ricci. “I also believe that within two years we will see that virtual assistants will work across platforms.” 

Wearable Computers
Wearables were a hot topic at D11 this year, especially with the buzz surrounding Google Glass. Here’s D11’s compilation of prominent speakers (including Hirai, York, Costolo and Tim Cook) sharing their thoughts and feelings about wearable computing devices, the future of that industry and whether they plan to get involved. 

And of course . . . Apple isn’t about to give anything away.
“We release products when they are ready,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “We believe very much in the element of surprise. We think customers love surprises. I have no plan on changing that . . . We have several more game changers in us.”

Author: CEO.com Staff

10 Ways to Add Pinterest to Your Marketing Strategy (Infographic)

BY Karen Leland

 Pinterest may be the third largest social media site after Facebook and Twitter, but it's still a relative newcomer to the scene. Businesses are actively searching to create boards and pins that inspire customers and promote their brands. From integrating with other social media to pin placement to image creation, there is a learning curve for many companies getting started on Pinterest.

The infographic below, from my new book, Ultimate Guide To Pinterest For Business (Entrepreneur Press, 2013) provides the 10 best ways to promote your business using Pinterest:

New Statistics Highlight the Power of Social Media Marketing

Posted by Monica Romeri 

Social media is essential for marketing success in the current business world.  Your company may not even be taken a company seriously without a presence on the big four social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.  However, simply maintaining social media accounts for your business is not sufficient.  Winning social media marketing requires commitment, strategy, deep industry insight, genuine engagement and clever social content curation.  Producing a great deal of original, highly shareable content, genuinely and consistently conversing with industry influencers and building a significant social following could garner you a reputation as a thought leader and amplified exposure and brand recognition for your company.

With the current marketing landscape, it is critical to invest the necessary time and resources to building and maintaining a top-notch social presence for your company.  Strategic social media marketing calls for serious dedication and organization.  There are a wide variety of social resources and tools, which can simply and streamline social content curation—social sharing—and the promotion of your original content on all your social networks, including HootSuite, Klout and Topsy.  Start taking advantage of social media management tools, because they can save you time and increase the effectiveness of your content and social reach.

Social media is here to stay, and its influence continues to increase.  If you have not already gone social, now is the time to adapt.  Neglect social media marketing at your own peril.  Excellent content creation is the foundation of high-quality social media marketing.  Without top-notch, original content, social media success will elude you.  Engage a wide social audience to dramatically increase website traffic and social lead generation and conversion.  If you are still on the fence about the value of social media, these new statistics from HubSpot should help sway you: 

17 New Social Media Statistics 

1. 27% of total US internet time is spent on social networking sites. (Source: Experian)

2.  15% of total US mobile internet time is spent on social networking sites. (Source: Experian) 

3.  Social media produces almost double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail or PPC. (Source: HubSpot) 

4.  Social lead conversion rates are 13% higher than the average lead conversion rate. (Source: HubSpot) 

5.  21% of marketers say that social media has become more important to their company over the past 6 months. (Source: HubSpot) 

6.  74% of all marketers say Facebook is important to their lead generation strategies. (Source: HubSpot) 

7.  Companies that generate more than 1,000 Facebook likes also receive nearly 1,400 website visits daily. (Source: HubSpot) 

8.  52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook in 2013. (Source: HubSpot) 

9.  On Facebook, brand posts achieve 50% of their reach within 30 minutes. (Source: Socialbakers) 

10.  85% of fans of brands on Facebook recommend brands to others, compared to 60% of average users. (Source: Syncapse) 

11.  43% of all marketers have found a customer on LinkedIn in 2013. (Source: HubSpot) 

12.  36% of all marketers have found a customer on Twitter in 2013. (Source:HubSpot) 

13.  59% of Twitter users have visited B2B tech brand sites, compared to only 40% for the average internet population. (Source: Compete and Twitter) 

14.  25% of consumers who complain about products on Facebook or Twitter expect a response within 1 hour. (Source: American Express) 

15.  Women are more likely than men to regularly check out a brand's social page (women: 48%; men: 43%). (Source: Ipsos) 

16.  23% of marketers are investing in blogging and social media this year—a 9% increase from 2012. (Source: HubSpot) 

17.  Approximately 46% of online users rely on social media, when making a purchase decision. (Source: Nielsen) 

 

Posted in: Challenges In Agri-Food & Supply Chain

How to write a strong social media policy

STEVE NICHOLLS  

Special to The Globe and Mail

 

Most business owners are aware that having a social media presence is important for the success of their businesses. While social media presents unthinkable growth opportunity, it also opens the company up to risk.

Thus, it is critical for a business owner to create and implement a strong social media policy that gives the company and its employees the freedom to grow through social media, while putting a set of concrete rules and guidelines in place that will keep the troops in line.

However, when you consider that no two social media policies will be the same because different organizations will have their own unique environments, it is important to call in the experts.

1. Create a task force: Opinions and ethics may vary between different people; it is preferable that all members of upper management be consulted when developing a social media policy so that all reach agreement on policy content.

2. Define appropriate internal use: It is important to outline what is acceptable and what is not to your employees when it comes to using social media platforms in the workplace. How much freedom employees will have when interacting on social media needs to be clarified based on your workplace environment in order to avoid any confusion.

3. Define appropriate external use: As we have seen time and time again, one slip on Facebook or Twitter can ruin a career or a business. Thus, it is important to define who will be allowed to communicate with the public and put an approval process in place.

4. Confidentiality: Content posted on social media platforms need to comply with the organization’s confidentiality and disclosure of proprietary data policies.

5. Accountability: Employees need to be held accountable for everything they write on social media sites.

6. Protect employers reputation: Employees have the duty to protect their employer’s reputation. It would also be useful to make employees aware that competitors might read what they post and thus that sensitive information is not to be disclosed as a consequence.

7. Be clear on copyright issues: It is advisable to include a clause dealing with copyright, plagiarism, libel and defamation of character issues.

8. Regularly review and update policy: Regular reviews need to be organized and performed. A policy is not always consistent with what is actually taking place and the company need to pay attention and adjust accordingly to make sure it is a relevant and effective policy that promotes growth and safety.

9. Work hard, play less: It is important to stress that social networking sites cannot interfere with primary job responsibilities so that employees do not lose perspective

10. To whom does it apply: The social media policy needs to clarify who to treat as internal staff and thus who will follow the social media policy rules when external resources are brought in.

Steve Nicholls is the author of Social Media in Business, international speaker, and social media strategist who helps business executives implement a winning social media strategy into their organization.

Tweets and Tweeps: Top 3 Business Uses for Twitter

 

 

If you’re dipping your toe into social media waters for the first time, you’ll likely hear a whole lot of twattle over Twitter. What’s all the fuss about? And more importantly, is it worth your time? Here’s a quick 6-pack about Twitter to help you decide whether you should start tweeting for fun… or profit.

1) It’s easy to start a Twitter Account. You just need an original 13-character name. Easier than it sounds with over 300 million users and only 13 characters each.

2) You choose to ‘follow’ other Tweeters…  and polite custom dictates that they should follow you back.

3) You have only 140 characters but you can add a link to a website for more information or content.

4) If you send a simple tweet, only your followers can see it. If you don’t build up a following of relevant customers, you’re posting for fun, not profit.

5) You can follow other tweeters and comment on their tweets. The idea is that you join in on the conversation.

6) Conversation topics usually also include hashtags (#) which means that you can follow a topic instead of a person. When people include a hashtag, they’ll be talking about a single current topic (like an election, or a football game, or a conference that they’re all attending), with like-minded tweeters, who may or may not be your followers.

Those are the basics. But, of course, it’s not quite that simple.

• Over 50 million tweets get launched each day so getting heard above the noise is getting tougher by the minute.
• The bulk of tweets for business contain links to other information – blogs, websites, Youtube videos, photographs.
• Research shows that the ‘shelf life’ of a tweet is approximately 45 minutes. After that, your tweet is buried too far down the timeline to be noticed or read.
• It takes a long time to build an audience of qualified and relevant followers. In the meantime, your message will be seen by very few.
• Twitter etiquette is evolving quickly and what was considered polite last month is practically considered spam this month. It’s tough to keep up without looking old school.

That said, we’ve seen a few very practical business uses of Twitter:

• Restaurants posting the daily lunch special to followers who are nearby.
• Nightclubs posting the entertainment schedule, contests and prizes.
• Salons and spas offering last minute schedule fillers at a discount.

Have you seen any other great business uses of Twitter?

Mary Lou Gutscher 

Using Social Media To Make Offline Products More Meaningful

We may have pushed the digital image to its shareable limit, but there is still something nice about that framed desk photo (or album, or personalized tennis shoes).

By:  Kealan Lennon

With Google Street View, Yelp, Foursquare and a host of other location-aware technologies, we have successfully uploaded the world onto the Internet. It’s not enough, though, to have achieved augmented reality--the hyped tech trend that developers and entrepreneurs enthused over back in 2009. Now, as we stream the human experience 24-7, through our mobile devices and social services like Facebook and Instagram, the process is being, yet again, flipped on its head. 

Our lives are coming back offline.

When it comes to the online-to-offline conversation, we immediately think about technologies like QR and bar codes, and companies like Uber and AirbnB that illustrate this model’s ability to translate across any industry and escalate with mobile. As this category matures, other companies have sought to find the same footing.

Instead of the usual rinse-and-repeat, however, new companies like Prinstagram are taking an entirely different tack, and turning the relationships of its online customer base into the product, pushing memories, creativity, and self-expression to the forefront, and making social commerce the most tangible it’s ever been. 

First, Some Cultural Context Today’s human experience has been uploaded as a hazy, sutro-filtered snapshot, a carefully curated bite-sized moment to be easily digested and then swiped away by ever-hungry thumbs. It’s a truly unique and personalized combination of self-expression plus experience. But it’s fleeting, and it’s not enough anymore to simply tweet, update your status, pin and share. While easily consumed, none of this is meaningful or exists in our very real world.

Like never before, our lives’ content is constant, rich with memories and meaning, more beautiful than ever, and created with unheard of ease. The stage is set. 

Bringing the Feed Offline
What today’s social retailers are getting right is that the most compelling content to consumers these days is the media created by the consumers themselves. Like a photo booth or Splash Mountain snapshot, the product is compelling because it captures a story and memory. With the advent of mobile and the flurry of photo-editing apps, the media is personal, but also beautiful, stylized and ready in a snap.

Yes, people’s lives are now instantaneous and attractive--and as people can better document their real-world experiences, they’re finding new ways to bring their lives, now shared in Facebook and edited in Instagram, back off the news feed and into their surroundings. Blurb turns your Facebook photos into photo books, while Instagram has since spawned such companies as Casetagram (your favorite memories on an iPhone case) and Stichtagram (bags and pillows designed with you filtered photos), and a flood of other real-world product ideas, including this Ray-Ban sunglasses Instagram camera project. But that’s nothing compared to when a giant like Nike launches its PHOTOiD line of Instagram-customized sneakers--simply select an Instagram photo and shoe style, and you’ve got a new pair of shoes that aesthetically complement your life.

With so much potential within these social environments, these social channels are being turned into veritable flea markets letting brands and consumers complete transactions with social interactions. We’ve all seen “Facebook storefronts” but companies like Chirpify take it a step further, allowing consumers to buy products with Facebook comments and Tweets.

In the same vein, companies like Wrapp and DropGifts are Facebook-only commerce models that encourage customers to essentially forget the poke or wall post and send a gift instead--all within Facebook from selection and purchase of the gift, to a post that alerts the recipient of the surprise gift.

While the future of these companies is contingent on people continuing to trust and “live” in Facebook, they understand two fundamental components that drive companies around this model: these online social interactions are inherent in modern relationships and people have, through technology, become much more creative. If companies allow their customers to feel empowered in both aspects, the product could be as compelling and as viral as the media that personalizes it. 

Beyond the Wall
While our interactions have become increasingly casual, we’re no less sincere in our relationships and interactions. Our daily lives are chock full of traditional holidays and life milestones and the sentiment surrounding them. But up until now, brands and companies have been aiming to bring in revenue by drumming up conversations and interactions around these events instead of developing products directly from these conversations.

The ultimate goal for these and future companies is to turn these social feeds into a product and revenue source. This is the most meaningful content on the web today, and the race is on.

--Kealan Lennon is the CEO of Cleverbug. 

5 Things Never Heard at the Most Innovative Companies

Kathy Gersch explains that while it may be difficult for your company to generate innovative ideas, high-tech start-ups and other companies we consider to have innovation built into their DNA have just as much difficulty maintaining their innovative edge.

The most interesting thing about the Fast Company Most Innovative Companies 2013 list isn’t who is on it. It’s who isn’t.

Writing about the companies who had fallen off the list (and were obviously upset about it), Robert Safian, Editor of Fast Company magazine said, “It’s not that these businesses suddenly lost their mojo. But in a climate where the velocity of change is accelerating, these companies didn’t have a compelling-enough breakthrough for us to highlight.”

Safian’s remark perfectly illustrates the essential element required for survival in today’s economic environment. If you aren’t constantly innovating, your organization is most likely losing its edge. If your innovations are incremental – not big enough to move the needle – you’re still losing.

What do the companies on Fast Company’s list like Nike, Uber, and Pinterest have that others like Facebook and Twitter don’t? Better new products – which came from innovative ideas, that’s obvious. The mystery is where these ideas come from, how they rise to get noticed, and then how they are brought to market faster than anyone else. This list is a reminder that some of the companies we’ve historically associated with innovation because of their brand name (3M, Facebook, and Twitter) aren’t immune to losing their edge.

While people have spilled much ink on how to create innovation, I’d like to offer an easier way to get there – by process of elimination. Let’s start with five things you will NOT hear at the most innovative organizations. Be on alert for them; These are clear indicators that your company is losing its innovation “mojo.”

1. “Can we do that?” Permission seekers are the mark of unclear company vision. If your company’s vision is clear enough, and has been communicated constantly and consistently, people do not come to you for permission, they come to show you what they’ve already done.
2. “We can’t do that.” On the flip side of the previous comment, you find the limitations or barriers people have set up in reaction to the punishment they’ve experienced for prior failures. If your people see others try, fail, then get punished, you can guarantee that people will remain in the safe spot. No one is going to try to innovate, much less try anything remotely outside the box ever again.
3. “We have to go through proper channels.” A mark of truly innovative companies is that the employees are well-networked, and they are constantly crossing silo walls to engage other departments, gather knowledge, or just get an outside opinion. Though one person may come up with the idea, nobody creates a great innovation solely on their own.
4. “That’s good enough.” In many companies, once significant progress is made, momentum slows and eventually the project fails. This is one of the key reasons 70% of change efforts fail. Yes, it’s important to celebrate incremental wins, but in innovative companies, people don’t let up – they continue to focus on the final prize. This only comes from a relentless focus on winning.
5. “That’s not my job.” This final phrase is the clearest indicator that people aren’t focused on the future of the company. If employees have a clear understanding of the vision set by leadership, no one will be talking in terms of their box on the org-chart. If you hear “us” and “them” language referring to internal teams, beware. Employees at innovative companies know it is always “our” job – we win together.

Stay on the alert to these dangerous phrases that might sneak into conversations in your organization. A great brand name no longer protects you from losing your edge. Remember Kodak?

Kathy Gersch is an Executive Vice President at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. John Kotter is the chief innovation officer at Kotter International, and is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School.

7 Simple Social Media Moves That Work

 
Before he started to dole out social media advice for entrepreneurs like you at Inc.'s recent GrowCo conference in New Orleans, Dave Kerpen, chairman of Likeable Media and now founder of offshoot Likeable Local, had a few things he wanted to get out of the way.

First, he said, social media is not free. Second, it won't bring you immediate results. And, third, it can't make up for a bad product or service.

If you can cope with all that, you're ready to learn how--and why--Kerpen still recommends you get involved:

1. Listen, Then Talk 
A couple of years ago, when Kerpen went to Vegas, the check-in line at the Aria hotel where he was staying "took forever," he said.

So Kerpen did what he does best--took to Twitter, and quickly posted: Waiting on line for 45 minutes at the Aria. Not worth it. #fail

Did he hear anything from the Aria? No. But he did hear from the Rio, a hotel down the street. Within two minutes, the Rio Tweeted back to Kerpen: Sorry you're having a bad experience, Dave. Hope the rest of your time in Vegas goes well.

Kerpen didn't switch hotels on that trip, but where do you think he stayed the next time he went to Vegas? The Rio. And he "liked" the Rio on Facebook. And sometime later, a friend going to Vegas saw that Kerpen had "liked" the Rio, so asked if Kerpen would recommend the hotel. His response? "I don't think it's the fanciest, but I know that they listen," Kerpen recalls telling that Facebook friend.

Kerpen pointed out that all the Rio did was pay attention to Twitter, and respond with empathy.
Kerpen recommends you do the same thing, regardless of the business you're in. "If you're an accountant, go to Twitter and search 'need an accountant'," he said. "Your customers are asking for you." 

 

2. Respond (to Everyone!)
Kerpen said 60 percent of brands--mostly big ones--currently do not answer customers or prospects on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media. As a result "you have a huge competitive advantage if you respond to your customers--and theirs," he said. (Case in point: the Rio hotel in Vegas.) 

If a customer complains, don't delete. Instead, you have an opportunity to respond publicly that you're working to solve the problem, and will send a private message to the individual so it can be fixed.

"We all know that companies are going to make mistakes," said Kerpen. "The problem isn't when companies make mistakes, it's when companies don't say, 'I'm sorry.'"

Instead, if you delete a complaint, you're sending a message that the person who wrote it doesn't matter, and you're, in essence, "inviting him to go tell someone else, to start a petition," warned Kerpen.

The only types of posts you should consider deleting? Those that are obscene, or bigoted.
When you respond, do it in your brand voice, whatever that is: serious, funny, full of puns, scientific, whatever. As long as it's true to the brand.

3. Tell, Don't Sell
Social media is most powerful when you use it to tell personal stories, not to sell your products, Kerpen said. 

Kerpen likes to tell the story of how, when he and his then fiancé couldn't afford a lavish wedding, they raised $100,000 from sponsors and got married at Brooklyn Cyclones park. That personal story, he says, helped propel Likeable into a $7 million business.

Didn't get married at Shea? Consider your humble beginnings, your personal leadership characteristics, customers who have overcome obstacles, employee challenges, community or charity partnerships. Look at your employees, products, or customers, and identify a story people will want to talk about, and disseminate it across social media.

If yours is a business-to-business company, tell a story on social media using webinars, e-books, and white papers. 

"The only thing better than telling your story on social media is to inspire your customers to tell your story," said Kerpen.

 

4. Just Be You

On this, Kerpen quoted Oprah Winfrey, who said: "I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had I'd have done it a lot earlier."

As Kerpen puts it: "When I am authentic, when I am vulnerable, when I am me, customers want to do business with me." 

Who does a lot of this on Twitter, according to Kerpen? Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, who has even posted about where he lives.

 
5. Advertise (Better)
Social media is not just touchy-feely, said Kerpen. It can drive leads, and sales. 

On Facebook, rather than just get your ad in front of huge a swath of people, you can target the right people--based on job title, interest, age, location. "Every single piece of data that Facebook's got on people you can target based on that," Kerpen said. "What's cooler than reaching a billion people on Facebook? Reaching the right 1,000, the right 100, the right 10, or the right one."

Another perk of advertising on Facebook? Word-of-mouth endorsements. You can target ads against just the friends of people who have "liked" your brand on Facebook, and when those people see your ad, they will see listed the names of their friends who like your brand, too. 

6. Give Stuff Away
If you take 10 percent off, you're marketing, 50 percent off, you're giving away value, 100 percent off, you have loyal customers for life, Kerpen quipped.

Give away good content, webinars, articles, and white papers. "I've had two people come up to me and say, 'Thank you for all that valuable information you gave away, I'm starting my own social media agency,' but I also got dozens and dozens of inbound leads because of all the value we put out there," said Kerpen.

Recently, a new client told Kerpen she had $250,000 to spend on social media marketing she'd move to Likeable because of all the free, yet useful information the company has made available.

 
7. Be Grateful
In your social media posts, regularly thank your customers, and partners.

According to the non-profit organization DonorsChoose.org, Kerpen said, of those people who received a thank you note, 38 percent were more likely to donate again.

He writes three thank you notes every day. 
"It puts me in a great mood every single time," he said.

Allison Fass is deputy editor of Inc.com. A longtime business journalist at Forbes and The New York Times, Fass has also held roles in venture capital and innovation at Hearst Interactive Media and digital strategy at a start-up consultancy. @alliefass