Social Media Commerce For Dummies E-Book

Marsha Collier

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Capture customers and sales with social media commerce

Social media commerce is a booming industry. By using social networks in the context of e-commerce transactions, brands large and small are making their products more available and more convenient for customers. This one-of-a-kind guide introduces you to social media commerce and explains how you can use social media to provide better customer service, collect payments online, and build your customer base. Online marketing expert Marsha Collier helps you determine where you have the best opportunity to reach your market, which sites you should integrate with, and much more.

• Your customers are communicating with each other via social media; making purchasing opportunities available on social media sites adds convenience for your customer and opens up new sales opportunities
• This step-by-step guide explains social media commerce and shows what you can accomplish
• Helps you determine the sites where your business should have a presence
• Demonstrates how customers can help promote your brand as they recommend products and services to others on their social networks
• Author Marsha Collier is the undisputed expert on eBay and a recognized authority on social media marketing

Social Media Commerce For Dummies helps you offer your customers better service while giving them the opportunity to share information about your product with their social media contacts.

Leseprobe

Social Media Commerce For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/socialmediacommerce to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

How to Read This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Prepping for Social Media Commerce

Part II: Adapting Your Web Presence

Part III: Casting for and Catching Customers

Part IV: Supporting Your Social Media Commerce Efforts

Part V: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Prepping for Social Media Commerce

Chapter 1: Social Media Commerce and Your Bottom Line

Social Commerce Beginnings

Defining Social Media, Social Business, and Social Commerce

Making Money by Connecting with People

Changing Communication through Technology

From word of mouth to 1s and 0s

The end of the cold call

Adding social media to the mix

Creating Relationships with Your Customers

Creating a Social Media Action Plan

Chapter 2: Competing in the Social Media Realm

Big Advantages of a Small Business

Examining Big-Business Mistakes

A Motor City kerfuffle

Red Cross disaster recovery

Studying Success Stories

Finding out who has Klout

Social media reach for professionals

Growing a base for an online retailer

The “Bagel that won the West” goes worldwide

Stellar Twitter accounts

Finding the Time to Initiate Social Media Commerce

Hiring help

Doing your own social media

Chapter 3: Creating a Social Media Policy

Twelve Guiding Words

Determining Employee Guidelines

Establishing Clear Company Guidelines

Part II: Adapting Your Web Presence

Chapter 4: Passive Engagement: Creating a Social Persona through Your Website

Getting Started with the Basics

Planning your site

Hosting your site

Putting together the pieces

Getting, Engaging, and Keeping Customers

Adding industry information

Selling and linking to products

Blogging for Your Business

Deciding whether to blog

Blogging successfully

Making blogging easy with free tools

Chapter 5: Active Engagement: Connecting Directly with Your Customers

Romancing the Customer

Understanding How Service Affects Sales

Educating Your Customers through FAQs

Connecting with Your Customers through Web Chat

Grabbing visitors quickly with SnapEngage

Setting up a customer service number through Google Voice

Making free calls with Skype

Chapter 6: Claiming Your Space on Review Sites

Amazon and eBay Lead the Way

Understanding the Effects of Peer-to-Peer Reviews

Three Review Sites to Watch

Yelp

Angie’s List

New in town: Google+ Local meets Zagat

Handling Positive and Negative Reviews

Chapter 7: Knowing Where to Share Your Content

Posting on Facebook and Twitter

Posting Videos on YouTube

Developing Your Own Podcasts

Spreaker.com

Liberated Syndication

Sharing Your Photos

Using others photos from Flickr

Storing and editing in Google+ and Picasa

Part III: Casting for and Catching Customers

Chapter 8: Finding Your Customer on the Social Web

Simplifying the Data Machine

Understanding Your Customer Demographics

Wolfram|Alpha

Zillow

Using Free Tools to Find Customers Online

Searching the competition through Alexa

Checking out your website data through Google Analytics

Getting insights from your Facebook business page

Big Online Numbers Don’t Mean Dollars

Ranking your followers on Twitter

Unfollowing the excess

Chapter 9: Seizing the Social Media Conversation

Building a Community on Twitter

Tweeting for business

Choosing who to follow

Answering the “who should I follow back” question

Making Friends and Fans on Facebook

Facebook business page benefits

Finding friends (or fans) for your business page

Engaging and building your audience

Finding Other Social Media Sites

Google+: The online networking directory

Building a professional profile on LinkedIn

Chapter 10: Cashing In: Doing Real Business Online

Making It Easy for Your Customer to Do Business Online

Using Cost-Effective SaaS Cloud Services

Implementing real-time restaurant reservations

Booking personal services with a click

Boosting Your Web Presence with Apps and the Facebook Store

Website store integration without the cost or hassle

Building a store and adding apps on Facebook

Chapter 11: Building Revenue through Links and Deals

Helping Amazon Help You

Linking products from Amazon

Joining Amazon Associates

Touring the Associates site stripe

Making links and widgets

Pinning on Pinterest

Making it personal

Linking back to content

Joining a Local Social Platform: MerchantCircle

Chapter 12: Making a Direct Hit with Mobile

Making Your Site Mobile-Friendly

Developing Your Own App

Checking In by Mobile

Part IV: Supporting Your Social Media Commerce Efforts

Chapter 13: Handling Customer Service without Picking Up the Phone (Well, Almost)

Handling Customer Service Issues Online

Participating in Customer Service, Social Media-Style

Defusing issues before they escalate

Posting publicly in social media

Building Your Own Community

Handling support issues with help desk tools

Helping customers is everyone’s job

Chapter 14: Monitoring Your Online Reputation

Free Speech and the Law

Monitoring Comments with Google

Improving search results

Setting up Google Alerts

Listening in on Blogs and Twitter

TweetReports

Twilert

Social Mention

Samepoint

IceRocket

Chapter 15: Marketing in a Social Way: New Media Advertising

Building Sales through E-Mail

Commercial e-mail and the law

Less marketing and more connecting

Best practices for e-mail marketing

Targeting Your Audience on Facebook

Sponsoring posts and stories

Promoting through Facebook ads

Chapter 16: Improving Productivity with Apps and Widgets

Using Client Apps to Manage Twitter

Tracking Your Links with bitly

Scheduling Posts with BufferApp

Managing with HootSuite

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Build an Online Presence Now

Go to a Search Engine

Find Listings on Review Sites

Get Your Website Up to Snuff

Sign Up for a Facebook Business Page

Study Your Competition

Identify Your Community through Keyword Searches

Update Your LinkedIn Page

Promote with Friends and Associates

Schedule Social Media Time

Enjoy Social Media

Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Get Social Media Feedback

Crowdsourcing Your Following

Collecting Product Feedback on Twitter

Study Sentiment on Social Mention

Twitter Lists: Seeking Industry Experts

Creating Your Own Feedback Community

Adding a Survey to Your Website or Blog

Running a Poll on Facebook

Crowdsourcing a Video Focus Group

Crowdsourcing via YouTube Video

Asking and Answering Questions on LinkedIn

Glossary

Cheat Sheet

Social Media Commerce For Dummies®

by Marsha Collier

Social Media Commerce For Dummies®

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012950498

ISBN 978-1-118-29793-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-29943-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-46150-1 (ebk); 978-1-118-53195-2 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Marsha Collier spends a good deal of time online. As a blogger, the author of the best-selling Dummies books on eBay, and a radio host, she shares her love of the online world with millions.

Before her eBay career took off, Marsha owned and operated her own marketing and advertising firm, a company that won numerous awards and earned her “Small Business of the Year” accolades from several organizations. She got started online during the Internet’s early years and quickly mastered the art making friends online.

Marsha is one of the foremost eBay experts and educators in the world and the top-selling eBay author. In 1999 Marsha created the first edition of eBay For Dummies, the bestselling book for eBay beginners. She followed up the success of her first book with Starting an eBay Business For Dummies, a book targeting individuals interested in making e-commerce their full-time profession, These books are updated regularly to keep up with site and market changes.

Marsha’s books have sold over one million copies (including the special editions in foreign countries — two in Australia, two in Canada, and two in the United Kingdom — as well as translations in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese and German).

Along with her writing, Marsha is an experienced e-commerce and customer service educator speaking at conferences all over the world. Embracing social media has earned Marsha awards as an influencer and author:

2011 Forbes: Top 10 Women Social Media Influencers

2012 Small Business Book Award Winner: Starting an eBay Business For Dummies

2012 Forbes: Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers

2012 The 100 Most Powerful Women on Twitter

2011 One of the Top 10 LA Tech & Twitter Voices in the Los Angeles Tech Scene by Ranker.com

2011 PeerIndex #1 Customer Experience Online Influencers

2011 #1 Most Influential in Customer Service MindTouch

She hosts Computer & Technology Radio on iTunes and on the web at www.computerandtechnologyradio.com. Marsha currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. She can be reached via her website, at www.marshacollier.com.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the small businesses and entrepreneurs who have a zest for knowledge and the gumption to follow through. It’s dedicated also to those who have figured out that get-rich-quick schemes don’t work and that, in the long run, hard work and passion for what you do leads to financial achievement and contentment. Those who run small businesses are a special breed, and I salute you. This book was written to lighten your load, and maybe make social media a pleasant respite from your day.

Finally, I dedicate this book to my many friends in social media. Our morning chats and Tweets help me to start my day with a smile.

Author’s Acknowledgments

This book couldn’t have been written without the input from thousands of my Twitter and Facebook friends (who are also on Google+) from all over the world. Thank you for answering my silly polls, for helping me with words when I can’t think of just the right one, and for just being there to brighten my day. You inspire me to work harder and do my best to help everyone succeed.

I particularly want to thank the crew at Wiley: my project editor, Susan Pink, who endured my feistiness while helping me produce a better book (and who really needs a Facebook page); my bad-ass tech editor (and friend) TJ McCue, whose smart ideas and encouraging words helped me through this project; my acquisitions editor, Amy Fandrei, who had no idea what she was getting in to *Tweet* but was a real help centering my bazillion ideas; to executive editor Steve Hayes, with whom I’ve worked long before he hit the big time (and I might note has never copped a highfalutin’ tone); and to Andy Cummings, publisher and vice president, who I’ve worked with for over a decade but yet we still don’t have time for a second cigar.

On the home front: Thanks to my very successful, smart, and charming daughter, Susan Dickman. Susan was there when I was stuck in limbo, helping with suggestions and sitting with me while I worked late on edits (even after her own full day at work). I believe she thinks it was payback for the many childhood dioramas, but I know she was just being kind. For sure, without Curt Buthman’s support (and hot meals), writing this book would have been a whole lot less fun than it was. Thank you, Curt, for putting up with my long hours (I know you got to watch a lot more UFC) . . . it’s time we go dining and dancing (until the next book).

Whoa! Can’t forget my agent, Matt Wagner who helped me climb (finally) out of my eBay box and expand my horizons. Thanks, pal!

Thank you all!

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor: Susan Pink

Acquisitions Editor: Amy Fandrei

Copy Editor: Susan Pink

Technical Editor: TJ McCue

Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen

Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cover Photo: © VOLODYMER GRINKO/iStockphoto and © sureyya akin/iStockphoto

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Sr. Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees

Layout and Graphics: Jennifer Creasey, Joyce Haughey, Corrie Niehaus

Proofreaders: John Greenough, Linda D. Morris

Indexer: Sharon Shock

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Trying to target the new media customer these days is getting increasingly hard. Customers and clients are online, sharing and exchanging ideas on products and services. They seek information from reviews and comments on multiple websites. This shift has changed shopping from a solo exercise to a social experience and is the key element to the growth of social commerce.

In addition, the new media customer has a growing distrust of traditional advertising and marketing methods. In 2010, the Altimeter Group (www.altimetergroup.com) heralded an enterprise conference on the groundswell of social commerce:

It is not about you! It is not about the brand. It is about the collective wisdom of the community, who share insight from people that the buyer trusts. This is a marked change for a product-centric company that has built a living on push-based advertising about their brands. For now, it is not about your website, your fan page, or your sponsored communities. The shopper is a skeptic. They are the most likely to buy based on posts on third-party websites.