Figures from the recent IMRG / eDigitalResearch eCSI study show there has been an 8.8% growth in f-commerce in just four months.  And, engagement remains key – 61% of the 2,000 consumers polled have recently been influenced by a negative product or customer review online.  IMRG chief marketing & communications officer David J Smith explained: “Facebook and other social media sites play a crucial role for retailers in terms of engagement with consumers. Although these results reveal that 12% have been encouraged to make a purchase through Facebook, the channel is about far more than recording sales“.

Some companies are still hesitant on setting the pace in social, so it’s always useful to highlight how some of the latest innovators are using f-commerce in the marketing mix.

A quick look at the topic cloud for the UK conversation in the past month shows there has been a real buzz around ODEON Cinemas’ ODEON Event Organiser – a Facebook app that enables users to plan cinema trips.

Marketing and sales director, Luke Vetere, explained the cinema’s strategy: “With a Facebook community in excess of 50,000, we wanted to create a simple mechanic which celebrates the social interactivity of the site and allows users and their friends to plan a trip to their cinema in 3 easy steps“.

BMW has also recently set up a trial pop-up fan store on Facebook to sell a limited edition, personalised, ‘Key2Joy’ car key cover.  Social Commerce Today views the move as ’smart’ because it’s a cost-effective way to ‘test the potential of f-commerce in driving customer retention (by boosting brand loyalty) and customer acquisition (via the referral effect of brand advocacy)’.  For BMW a simple campaign is the springboard to test f-commerce.

These are just a couple of the latest examples.  Many brands have increasingly looked to Facebook to drive sales, brand loyalty and advocacy in the past year.

So, back to the future.  The prediction for 2012 is people will increasingly want to shop where they connect.  Do you agree that Facebook will revolutionize the shopping experience?  It would be great to hear your thoughts.

The agency will use Orangina’s French heritage to revitalise the brand and bring it up to date.  Using heritage to strengthen consumer bases has been a tried and tested path for companies looking to create a contemporary buzz.

Spam has just been there and got the t-shirt.  It has been using its heritage to build a revitalised fanbase from nostalgic roots, using social media to engage both younger consumers, and those over 55 who are increasingly using social networks.

Engagement is key to any social strategy and at the moment there’s a lively discussion in the digital community on suggested best practice.  Check out The Next Web’s 7 Social Media Marketing Essentials for Brands for some useful tips.

And, a bit of a plug, but using an enterprise grade, and market leading, listening, analysis and engagement platform to filter the most important signals to your brand should be a given in helping you to develop and implement communication strategies.  You need to be able to fully measure, analyse and understand the social discussion.

Also, be proactive in the conversation.  Here’s a couple of Facebook posts from Orangina we’ve picked up in the past month.

‘If Orangina was a person, they would be ________________.’

‘Happy Easter, Orangina lovers.  How are you spending your day?

‘Join us in raising a glass of Orangina to toast the royal couple on their wedding day!  Congratulations!’

‘Sophisticated, social and unique.  Now it’s your turn. How would you describe Orangina?’

The soft drinks brand is putting the fizz into social – are you?

First up, where’s the discussion been?

Figure 1: Channel breakdown for the AV discussion- 18/2 to 25/2

Looking at the channel breakdown, it’s no surprise that Twitter has captured the conversation.  The forums have also been buzzing and the most influential social source has been Amazon’s politics forum.

And, what’s everyone been talking about?

Figure 2: Topic cloud for the AV discussion- 18/2 to 25/2

The political stakes for David Cameron and Nick Clegg are high as the Prime Minister leads the no campaign and the Deputy PM leads the yes camp.  We’ve drilled down from the topic cloud to gauge the sentiment around the two party leaders in the context of AV question.  In terms of negative mentions, the cost of the referendum has been one of the key comment threads.

‘… If we hadn’t had to have Nick Clegg’s referendum on AV we would not have to spend at least £250m’. (Tweet by Charlotte Vere 24/2)

‘… David Cameron says AV is the wrong system. Well why did you introduce a referendum on it then? Wasting money and time’. (Tweet by HouseofTwits 18/2)

Almost 10% of mentions of Nick Clegg were negative compared with 4% for David Cameron.

Facebook and Twitter have also been two of the stand-out topics.  Campaigners have been using the hashtags #no2av (3422 tweets) and #yes2av (3315 tweets) to mobilise supporters.   The immediacy of Twitter has also been used to counter opposing arguments – in 140-characters.

In the long run, how influential do you think social media will be on the outcome of a referendum which, according to the latest polls, is too close to call?

We also picked up an interesting secondary discussion on the way Qantas managed the crisis in the first few hours of the disaster.  Passengers on the Qantas flight immediately tweeted news of the emergency landing.  So, for the airline, what was the role of social media in communicationg what had actually happened?

Figure 1: Sentiment expressed towards Rolls Royce in the discussion around engine failure – 25/10 to 23/11

Looking at the Rolls Royce discussion, there were three, unsurprising stand-out peaks in negative sentiment.   The first spike on 5 November was driven by speculation on Twitter that an engine design flaw by Rolls Royce caused the Qantas plane to make an emergency landing.

The second peak on 8 November was driven by confirmation from the Australian airline that it had found anomalies on three additional engines across its fleet – heaping more woes on Rolls Royce.

The biggest spike was on 12 November when the company confirmed that it had identified the component that caused the engine blowout and also said that the issue could hit profit growth.

The engine makers’ reputation was damaged.  But, throughout the period, Rolls Royce was assertive in communicating the action it was taking on engine safety as momentum around the crisis grew on all channels.

What about Qantas?  On 4 November, Crisisblogger posted:  ‘Oh boy, this is what we in crisis communication in the age of citizen journalists and instant social media have been talking about’.

The blogger acknowledged the airline got many things right when news broke but was critical of the fact it did not make a response on Twitter where it could have responded to early rumours and reports – ‘for the news media tuning in to Twitter for the latest updates, Qantas should have been there’.  Nor did it use other channels such as Facebook or communicate through their website ‘at least they would have been part of the stream’.  But, none of this would not damage its reputation.

A reply to the post by J.D. pointed out Quantas may not have had ‘verifiable information to share at the same pace that the passengers were tweeting/posting’ and the number one priority was the safety of its passengers.

This was supported by another comment: ‘JD – I agree. While Twitter is critical; there are so many moving parts in a crisis that need to be considered that pulling a trigger too soon can have dangerous or unintended consequences’.

What are your thoughts on how companies should use social media to communicate or respond to a major news story?

Looking at the bigger social picture, networking sites last month accounted for 11.6% of all UK web visits and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounted for 75% of activity.  Facebook took 55% in market share.  Only Google drove more traffic to websites than the networking giant.  The most prolific social media users were in the North East, and also Wales.

Experian Hitwise research director Robin Goad also explained that retail brands were starting to utilise the power of social media to generate online traffic and sales as social uptake grew.  The study concluded that: “Social media is not a fad, it is not a passing online trend and, whether we like it or not, social media is not going to go away.”

Is your brand ready?

But, there are no certainties just yet.  It will take time for Microsoft to build a database of social signals (it has already asserted that the Facebook tie-in was a starting point) and Google has time to innovate on its own social search functionality.  However, Forrester Research analyst Augie Ray pointed out ‘if Bing builds that up before Google, we may in some ways reset the search engine race at zero and start fresh’.

Google, which has already added Twitter updates to its search results, stated its search algorithm would use more real-time and social data in the future.  Without a direct link to the big social networks, especially Facebook, it hinted that it would better pick up social signals if people volunteered social data on Google.  But, it also maintained that there were other options.

So, the clock is ticking to claim the social search crown.

In the meantime, what are the early implications of social search for brands?   There has been some analysis around brand advertising and SEO and here are a couple of useful links on the issues.

How Social Search Will Transform the SEO Industry
The Search Engine Guys CEO Joe Devine

Agencies Expect Ad Spending Will Increase on Facebook and Bing
Post by Christopher Heine

In the UK, brands running TV campaigns have been using their Facebook details instead of traditional web addresses.  Deloitte Digital CEO Peter Williams has predicted companies will increasingly shift websites to the networking giant: “We are even seeing organisations like ASB Bank in New Zealand, Best Buy and 1800 Flowers put their whole website into Facebook … Facebook is the most important website in the world these days. It is just cutting a swathe through everything.”

Edelman Australia’s Matthew Gain has predicted the end of microsites to support specific campaigns and explained: “With Facebook, you have an opportunity for an ongoing engagement, because to enter a competition they have to ‘like’ the page.”

Research from advertising agency Omnicom has found that social media users that like a brand’s Facebook Page were more likely to buy the product.

Talking of advertising, Yeo Valley has just created an overnight sensation with a cool TV ad featuring rappers shown during the X-Factor on Saturday.  It set up a cross-channel campaign to invite people to feel good about the brand and included Facebook, a ‘Yeo Tube’ page and Twitter in its strategy.

The sentiment expressed towards Yeo Valley in social media since Saturday has been 37.5% positive and it has created a real buzz, especially on Facebook:

‘….. move over ikea and yeo valley there’s a new ad in town!!!’

‘Yeo valley adverts – best part of the x factor!’

‘How many breaks does x factor have?! At least put the yeo valley one on again!!!’

And from Yeo Valley on the networking site:

‘For those of you who have enjoyed watching the advert, we thought you might like to see the ‘Making of’ video. Check it out on our blog page ’

A solid example of how to use Facebook as part of an integrated multi-channel strategy.

Figure 1: Topic cloud for Ping – 1/9 to 7/9

There was an initial buzz around the launch of Ping and one million users signed up in the first two days.  Facebook users also drove chatter with invites to join them on the Apple network.

But, many in the online tech community were critical of Apple’s move and while commentators acknowledged the potential of the music network, they highlighted many problems.  Ping Problems even made it into the discussion topic cloud in the past week.

Erick Schonfeld on Tech Crunch (3/9) commented: ‘Ping is very promising if only because of Apple’s reach through iTunes to 160 million music consumers.  And it will no doubt get better over time’.  However, Schonfeld felt that Apple was out of its comfort zone by developing social software and the biggest issue was it was only available on iTunes ‘which is not social’.

There was also comment that Ping pretty much ignored independent artists and Mashable’s Pete Cashmore on CNN.com (3/9) outlined why it was only geared up to promote non-mainstream acts.

Milo Yiannopoulos on Telegraph Blogs (7/9) wondered what all the fuss was about and was also critical of the Apple focus on major labels.  Yiannopolus preferred Spotify and ShareMyPlaylist.com.  The writer explained that to go back to ‘clunky’ iTunes: ‘It’s going to take a lot more than a perfunctory nod toward networking – one that doesn’t even allow me to use Facebook connect to find my friends’.

And the problems haven’t stopped there.  John Leyden on The Register (3/9) explained how spammers have been quick off the mark to target Ping users with bogus surveys and false promises of an iPhone.

Apple has promised an enriched social networking experience as more artists and people join Ping.  So it’s early days, but it has arrived in social networking for the long-haul and there will no doubt be improvements.  Facebook integration will probably be very high on the to-do list.

Social media accounted for a quarter of online use and Facebook drove most traffic.  Twitter took second spot, pipping LinkedIn and MySpace. The majority of social media users were 16-36 year-olds but older people were increasingly signing up for services.  There’s also been an exponential growth in the number of people using mobile phones to surf the web and Facebook accounted for almost 50 per cent of mobile traffic.  (BBC News 19/8).

In related news microblogging, social media, netbook, dictionary attack, paywall, & tweet-up have all been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.