Facebook is investing further in its outreach programme to retailers to bring clarity to the term “social commerce” and promote social integration on their websites.  

Gavin Sathianathan, Facebook’s strategic partner manager, is leading the social network’s bid to promote social commerce in the UK and said that agreed definitions are a key building block in its evolution. “It’s really important we nail what we mean by ‘social commerce’,” he said. “At Facebook, we do not equate ‘social commerce’ with opening a store within the network.”

The comments follow a story last week in which retail brands including John Lewis and Reiss told new media age that selling items via social networks, such as a Facebook Store, was not on their 2012 agenda, favouring to hone their m-commerce strategies instead (nma.co.uk 19 January 2012).

Defining social commerce, or “f-commerce”, simply as a transactional store on Facebook is a restrictive way of thinking, according to Sathianathan. “From a defininiton perspactive, it’s important we’re all clear on that,” he saidd. “When I talk to retailers about this, I try to make it clear that it’s about how we can bring social media to bear on the purchase process, be that in a Facebook store or not.”

Most of the discussions taking place between Facebook and retailers centre on integrating Facebook functionality, such as a Like or Shar’ buttons, into their own websites, according to Sathianathan.

Top of Facebook’s priority list are supermarket and FMCG brands, while those that have experienced notable success in their f-commerce strategy stem from the fashion and ticketing vertials, according to the social network. 

“We talk a lot to FMCGs and grocers [whose goods or services are not necessarily social] and talk to them about the social aspects of their products,” said Sathianathan. “For instance, a can of baked beans may not be social but the meal you have them with could.”

Earlier this week, Unilever used its Facebook storefront to help debut its Lynx Attract for Her brand – the first time it has attempted to appeal to female audiences with the brand (nma.co.uk 23 January 2012).

The FMCG giant sold all 100 cans it was offering via the platform, retailing for £3.25 each, within two hours of launch in a campaign that met most of its initial performance metrics.

More at: http://www.nma.co.uk/news/facebook-urges-clearer-understanding-of-social-commerce/3033576.article

One of the social media success stories of 2011 was easily the photo-sharing app Instagram.   Despite only running on Apple ‘iDevices’, Instagram boss Kevin Systrom reckoned he had 16+ million users at Christmas.

Post Christmas sign-ups combined with Apple naming Instagram app of the year means that total is probably not far off 20 million by now.  And the company estimates that the Android version finally in the works will result in the numbers doubling.

One of the most interesting things about Instagram, is its community, which unlike many other early stage social networks doesn’t consist exclusively of people who work in tech or marketing.

Thanks to Instagram allowing its users the kind of freedom Facebook won’t, that community has also created a fairly unique sub-culture, which it is worth any marketer understanding:

The etiquette of posting and hash-tags

Instagram has often been described as a visual Twitter.  Like Twitter, most feeds are ‘open’ and you don’t have to follow someone for them to follow you.

Like Twitter, you refer to other users by putting an @ in front of their username.  And like Twitter, hash-tags are added to posts to denote topics.

However, as Instagram users aren’t restricted to 140 characters, a lot of hash-tags can be added – up to 30.  As a result, it is worth knowing what a giant list of hash-tags under someone’s post actually means.

They will denote one of several things:

• • The 3rd party app used to edit the photo  There is now a whole eco-system of iPhone compatible camera apps, for example #lenslight, #snapseed or #dynamiclight

• • The location, e.g #london, #londonlife or #thames

• • If the image is being tagged against a competition, for example #instahub or #prestige_challenge01

• • The situation, one example is pictures of people on public transport – #sneakycommutershot

• • Whatever is being taken #airplane, or (in 6600+ cases!) #powerlineporn

• • Finally, images are often tagged against Instagramer groups – #igerslondon, #rebelseurope, #implus   More on these in a minute

More at: http://wallblog.co.uk/2012/01/19/popping-sneakycommutershots-and-ig-ers-a-look-at-instagrams-sub-culture/