Social Media Marketing

Despite all the buzz around social media over the past several years, the concept of "real" social commerce — when consumers can actually buy merchandise directly from whichever social network they're visiting and wherever they happen to be — has eluded the industry.

Bazaarvoice, a company that works on branding and marketing information for clients by tapping social media sites for direct responses, is spending $151.9 million in cash and stock to purchase competitor PowerReviews Inc.

Pinterest recently picked up a cool $100 million in funding led by Japanese online shopping giant Rakuten, placing its value in the region of $1.5 billion. That's huge — bigger than Instagram — but perhaps justified if the Pinteresting effect is reverberating through e-commerce sites. Here's some proof that it is: Shopify, which supplies back-end e-commerce services to 25,000 online stores, asked its partners whether Pinterest users are buying anything. The results are impressive.

Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company, is leading a $100 million investment in Pinterest, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors. Many people may still be unfamiliar with the Rakuten brand, but it's an international e-commerce powerhouse that sees itself competing with Amazon.com. Rakuten owns Buy.com, Rakuten Ichiba in Japan, PriceMinister in France, Play.com in the U.K., Tradoria in Germany, Rakuten Brazil, Rakuten Taiwan, TARAD in Thailand and Rakuten Belanja Online in Indonesia, as well as e-book publisher Kobo.

While floral and gift brands generally target husbands and adult children with Mother's Day offers, Zales has been zeroing in on moms and daughters on Facebook. The jewelry brand says its "Celebrate Your SuperMom" ads on the social site have targeted women 25-plus years of age. It's also been running promoted tweets on Twitter in an integrated campaign, involving Pinterest, display ads, in-store hashtags, TV spots and catalogs.

The Monthly Social Index Spotlight is a new ROI Report column that features a monthly update from Media Logic’s Retail Social Juice Index, a daily ranking of social engagement scores for hundreds of national retailers. Media Logic distills data from Facebook and Twitter daily and turns it into a score which represents the effectiveness of a brand’s interactions with its fans and followers. This monthly column will highlight specific Retail Social Juice index scores for a given month, along with commentary about the findings.

Social media is continuously being mentioned as the most dominant force in the future of the internet. It started with blogs, followed by MySpace, then Facebook and Twitter, and now the latest craze, Pinterest. Social media is an ever-evolving means of online communication and, as an e-commerce retailer, it's imperative to keep up with the trends. Although recent trends have brought social media closer to e-commerce retailers, for the most part they've been unable to capitalize on the social realm quite yet.

From iPads and mobile apps to social networking and location-based marketing, retailers are betting on technology and trying to be "liked" to sell more stuff. Sears emphasized technology at its annual shareholder meeting in Hoffman Estates, Ill.  last week. It trotted out a sales associate from a nearby store to demonstrate how tablets are used to connect with customers and extend the relationship digitally after they leave the store.

Savvy retailers today understand the personal connection people have with their mobile devices, smartphones and tablets. Having a mobile presence is one of the best ways to reach prospects and customers immediately with the information they need to make buying decisions. The following three tips will help guide you through the mobile development process, pointing out strategies for success and common pitfalls to avoid.

The retail marketer's toolbox is filling up with new platforms, gadgets and slick technology faster than you can say "pin it." Over the last year, we've seen social and mobile grow in importance for retailers, leading to lots of questions, but also lots of room for creativity. And since May is Marketing Month, we wanted to get a chief marketing officer's perspective on where this social and mobile wave is taking us. We turned to Jay Dunn, chief marketing officer for Bare Necessities, to find out.