E-Commerce - Interacting with Social Media to win Business.

ECommerce-Expo Olympia
19 Oct 2010
11:30-12:00
Digital Marketing and Social Media
Daniel Harari, Marketing Director, emarsys

Seminar UPSELL- I am sat here hoping this will not be an email fire and forget session... mass campaign mails..with links.
The Sales Pitch:The seminar will draw upon email campaigns across Europe to highlight the best examples of email and social media integration, advise on best practice and offer a preview into future trends.

Well Daniel is jet lagged but charming and pleased to report not a sales pitch a rapid introduction to social media to a cynical audience.

NEW phrases I learned:

SWYN Share with your network.
In your email sign off engage in the right social network for your audience, most likely to be linkedin or facebook.

FTAF -Forward to a friend- literally this is how you push vouchers and codes out, twitter can do this if you have a good flock of followers.

GAIN--I made this one up as Daniel liked these- think mine is better than the above two

'Get Active In Networks' I agree whole heartedley with his commonsense approach stick with
the networks your prospects and customers use, don't get too clever as if they don't recognise the icon, they are uncomfortable.

So the safe ones are Facebook Fan Page, Twitter Feed, Linkedin- Company Profile and Group.

Measuring, is easy with tools like:
http://vitrue.com/smi/

http://evaluator.vitrue.com/

To see how socially connected your website is put it to the test:
http://websitegrader.com


Please vote for www.liveensure.com as most promising new company http://mashable.com/awards/votes/add/awards/votes/add













http://www.emarsys.com/en/start/index.php

Next Generation Retail- E-Commerce Expo- Olympia

A recent report announced that ecommerce technology is a retail investment priority , and yet another announced that the UK’s online retail industry will double in size over the next ten years , suggesting that more than ever, retailers are now taking online seriously.

The majority of retailers have had an online presence, if not a fully transactional site for some time, but as technology and consumer need evolves quickly many of these sites are not performing at an optimum level.

I am looking forward to hearing from Jonathan Bowers, Communications Director, UKFast to see how they suggest we use social media to engage and retain with customers.

I will be interested discuss how retailers can take their site to the next level and how they create a balance between branding, user experience and technology.

Good Line up in the Social Media Stream.

10.00 Ways to Optimise Your Web Site and Increase Customer Conversion
Andrew Piggott, Managing Director, Incutio
Kyle York, VP of Sales and Marketing, Dyn Inc

11:30 - 12:00 Social media and Email Marketing:

Best practice and future trends across the European market
Daniel Harari, Marketing Director, emarsys

12:15 - 12:45 User Generated Content and the impact of Bing on online shopping in the UK
Tom Hyde, Teamleader E-Commerce, Ciao, Microsoft LTD

13:00 - 13:30 SEO in the real world - Avoid the myths and mystery to deliver real returns
Magnus Linklater, Business Development Director, Smart Traffic

13:45 - 14:15 Social Commerce: Add a new dimension to your business and reap the rewards
Herve Bourdon, VP International Marketing, Oxatis
Tania Chamma, UK Country Manager, Oxatis

http://www.ecommerceexpo.co.uk/

Open Innovation and Social Media- Innovate10

After a very long walk, following little orange clouds, to listen to Brian McCaul, Leeds University talks about using social media to speed up and improve knowledge transfer.

March 2008- banks started folding and seed funding took a rapid downward trend. Aim market virtually closed for two years. Leeds facing a huge squeeze, pain also from public purse funding.
Faced with tight budgets, the Leeds team had to look at engaging with Social Media.

Leeds began to build virtual organisation to build IP, paid for by consultancy and semi-voluntary resource.. this is open innovation in action. Now social media makes it possible to co-ordinate group activities and surpress the costs.

Brian suggests the new model says you don't have to emply all the smart people all the time, so using social media you can find and engage with them, almost on a pay-as-you go agreements.

The new culture is open, always connected and communicating. This openess accelerates innovation.

A good presentation showing how Leeds University is truly innovating and bringing new innovation to business.
Social media can give a new product market pull...using a comminity of early adopters to use, test and deploy. ( LiveEnsure-www.liveensure.com) Feed out ideas, poll and listen. Techology is great but design and delivery of IP is essential for success.

Academics being encouraged to blog and share through the innovation and development process of a new product/service.
@brianamac
We are about to design a happy app! Involving lots of coloured paper and pens!

(Warm room, poor sound but good content)

Facebook, The Good the Bag and the Ugly

Wednesday, the world's largest social network, Facebook, announced several new features. One of the biggest: a new "Download Your Information" feature that, as the name hints, gives Facebook users the ability to export and download much of their profile information in a single ZIP file.

It's something that just a year or two ago probably would have been inconceivable. After all, if Facebook controls your content, chances are you won't leave Facebook. But at 500m users and growing, Facebook doesn't seem concerned that freeing user data will lead to a mass exodus.

Will the company's "Download Your Information" feature usher in an age of data portability? Perhaps, but it would be premature to make such a prediction. But even if Facebook’s move doesn’t really create a data portability utopia, it is interesting nonetheless and has numerous implications. Here are the most notable good, bad, and ugly.

The Good
Facebook users will be able to walk away from the social network with something to show for it. Previously, leaving Facebook -- for whatever reason -- meant leaving behind photos and other content. Thanks to Facebook's new feature, however, users can quit the social network without saying goodbye to much of the most desirable content they've added to their profile.

It creates opportunity. Now that Facebook users can export some of their Facebook data, companies, entrepreneurs and developers will have the opportunity to do something with it. You can be sure, for example, that other social networking services will look to enable their members and prospective members to quickly and easily populate their profiles using content in the format Facebook provides it in for download. (So this will make diaspora and the new entrants to the world of networks life a lot easier!)

The Bad
Not everything is included. Facebook may be permitting the export of important content (photos, messages, etc.), but you apparently can't, for instance, export all of your friends' contact information. In other words, there's a lot to be desired and Facebook certainly isn't giving away the farm.

You can't export Facebook. Content may be king, but the Facebook experience is her queen. On paper, being able to download your Facebook content seems really useful, but it remains to be seen whether the vast majority of Facebook users will find a use for the content without the accompanying experience.

The Ugly
It's a scammer's dream. Even the most innocuous information can be used for malicious purposes. Information downloaded from a Facebook account, for instance, could be used to crack a password or steal someone's identity. Now that information can be downloaded from Facebook with a few clicks on a button, scammers and hackers may find compromising Facebook accounts to be even more worthwhile than before.

Facebook need to implement authentication, possibly it is opt in but it needs to be done. Louise Robertson LiveEnsure.

Source -Patricio Robles- econsultancy.

Are you a Digital Snail?

Are You a Digital Snail?

All the time I get captures by people who have just mastered texting, who barely have a website running, who haven't a clue how to start a blog (or a Facebook page, or a Twitter feed, and so on), and who question of whether they should do any of it.

What advice would you give is a "digital slowcoach?"

Here are five simple things you can do now to catch up.

1. Create a solid Web presence using one of several free website development tools (for non-geeks) like Weebly, Wix, Webs, Yola.com, or Flavors.me. For a stupid proof-easy solution, use blog software from WordPress or Eblogger to set up your main Web page. (Chuck out brochure wear, matching t-shirts, cheesy executives are gone forever.) Socially plumb your site, look at the tool bar on the bottom of http://www.liveensure.com/ a totally connected site.

2. Open the door to interaction by including an obvious way for people to get in touch with you. Some companies rely on contact forms, but I much prefer an actual email address that belongs to an actual person because it signals that you are approachable and willing to engage.

3. Start a database. A customer and prospect list is key to any kind of successful engagement. Even a simple spreadsheet will do.

4. Start publishing. Start a newsletter for your customers or your vendors. Launch a blog and commit to refreshing it two or three times per week.
Use a simple Flip camera to create customer testimonial videos onsite, at tradeshows and events. Upload them to YouTube. http://youtu.be/_5Gpzt6vgIQ this one of mine not great as you will see, but has over 1000 viewing and traffics hits to our partner Mo-Call- low cost international calls site.(I love their catch phrase!)

Use Flickr to catalog fun and interesting photos of your business, staff and customers at work, and feature them on your site. Showcase photos and videos on your main site and facebook, it is very easy http://bit.ly/cQIp27

5. DIY. While getting outside help to kick-start your efforts may be helpful, don't cede your publishing or social media management completely to consultants or (please!) interns. The best way to learn how to master social channels is to first wade in yourself.

Now if you are digital snail, you are probably a bit of a Cloud tortoise too, so to be cucumber cool watch this clip.
Benjamin Cohen, consumerises an explanation of the cloud on Channel 4 News.

http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/051010/clipid/051010_CLOUD_C4N

Elysee Launch.. Fantastically Social.

Thursday Night Invitation…Louise – Wonderful!

The Restaurant is called Elysee Restaurant (Greek Food).
The address is:
13 Percy St,Camden Town, UK W1T 2
020 7636 4804

Closest Tube is Goodge Street or Tottenham Court Road.

My glamourous companion Amanda Y who knew the old place well joins me for our post work adventure, she is greek, speaks greek and oozes chanel laced charm.
The ambience and class hits us from the cab, the place is classy immaculate from reception to restaurant. The refurbished upstairs has a feel of the Ivy or Wentworth, tasteful in every way duck egg blue, discreet paint effects, wall adorned with quirky modern art including a chandelier of smashed plates. The outside roof garden space upstairs is a haven for smokers, heaters and candles, so husband if you are reading we will be revisiting.

Downstairs an amazing Jazz band plays I am told they have live jazz every night until 10pm. They are going to attract the new jazz factor youngsters like, Kiki Bagger, Katie Dalton and Felicity Robertson who like the refurb bring a new era of Jazz to Percy Street. http://youtu.be/IaJm_05tKP8

Well known photographer Petros Pentayiotis is snapping a model who is draping herself over the cream leather chaise, I apply my super gloss in preparation for a photo and Archbishop Grigorious arrives to bless the venture everyone is kissing his hand. Oh my god I almost inhaled my dior lipgloss not wanting to leave a pout print on his sacred paw.

The charming Kyriacos Pattihis tells us of royal liaisons, celebrity stag nights, the tycoons and princes who have frequented Elysee over the years. You can still smash plates , this was fabulous after work therapy, smash, crash, bang better than any yoga class.
I highly recommend a visit, the charm is effusive. They have an amazing offer that involves the a rather generous amount of free prosceco with every main course.

http://www.elyseerestaurant.com/