By adaptive - February 15th, 2012

Hi all, Hope everyone is well? Plenty of activity across the social web this week… 15% increase in revenue with Facebook app [A]s the number of Facebook commerce apps grows, choosing the ...

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well?

Plenty of activity across the social web this week…

15% increase in revenue with Facebook app

As the number of Facebook commerce apps grows, choosing the right one to partner with is now an important decision to get right. One of the leading app developers is Ecwid. To illustrate how their platform can deliver real-world revenue gains, the company analysed 2,000 of its user accounts and found that an increase of 15% was enjoyed when using the app. Ecwid itself now has over 10 million ‘likes’ and has reported that total revenue via its Facebook stores jumped by 40% last year.

“Ecwid 10.2 makes it as easy as possible for website owners, of varying level levels of technical expertise, to start monetising their sites,” said Ruslan Fazlyev, founder and CEO of Ecwid. “Traditionally, users would be required to build and maintain a separate e-commerce site; pay for a hosted e-commerce solution; or add additional code to add individual 'Buy Now' buttons to their site, all of which can be a time consuming and costly exercise. Ecwid 10.2 not only makes it easy to set up an online store, but it also now offers store owners greater levels of customisation than ever before.”

Ecwid is the first and only store builder created entirely in AJAX. This means website owners can be confident that buyers are able to use the shopping cart regardless of device or browser type and without the need to install a Flash plug-in. Ecwid 10.2 is available in 40 languages and integrates seamlessly with major CMS and site builder platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Parallels Web Presence Builder and now also any site created using Microsoft Office 365, providing them with e-commerce functionality.

Twitter offers brand pages but at a price

Late last year Twitter announced that it would create what is calls brand pages that allow more control – and marketing opportunities – for brands to showcase their goods and services. Brands like Nike and Disney took up the offer that requires a commitment to spend at least $25,000 on Twitter ads. Adam Bain, Twitter’s Chief Revenue Officer said: "When consumers want to learn more, spend more time, or get deeper in terms of engagement, we think they'll end up on the brand page."

Rumours abound that this is only the start of a planned roll out of other related commercial services including on-page purchases – already dubbed ‘T-commerce’ and tracking with specific analytics. If analytics are rolled out and offer a Facebook-like ability to target consumer with promotional tweets, this would open the platform to every brand owner.

Pete Goold, MD of online PR agency Punch, said: "The data that seems set to become available in the coming months will add immense value to the Twitter platform, which already facilitates one to one interactions between brands and their audiences on an awareness and customer services level. Being able to track the exact reach and impact of each individual tweet will enable brands to fine-tune their Twitter strategies moving forward.

"Whilst there are numerous analytics tools available which can look into Twitter in depth, having an analytics platform embedded within the network itself is likely to improve the quality of future campaigns as a whole, meaning that brands must make the most of analytics data and employ the expertise of individuals and agencies who understand what it all means.

"This development may also be part of Twitter's strategy to try and persuade more brands to invest in the platform from a marketing perspective, since the pool of information and insights which could be available through Twitter is astronomical. With this added revenue, we'd certainly hope that Twitter will continue to invest in providing deeper analytical data in the future."

Pizza buying is enhanced by gamification

Following on from our previous investigations into and reports on gamification, this week we take a look at Domino’s and their new game platform.

Gamification is fast moving from a perceived flash in the pan into marketing mainstream thinking, with Gartner predicting that by 2014, a gamified service for consumer goods marketing will become as important as Facebook, eBay and Amazon.

In the US, Domino's have been taking the prediction seriously - and have been leveraging the power of game play with their latest app. It enables customers to design their own pizza, and win points and rewards. The app also of course allows the player to directly order a pizza from their local Domino’s franchise. See more in the video below:

Reckitt Benckiser launch new product exclusively on Facebook

As the makers of the highly successful Cillit Bang cleaning product range, the company will be selling its new All in 1 Dish & Surface Cleaner exclusively via its Facebook page. Competitions and games as well as exposure on its other social networks will showcase the new product. The new campaign will feature the company’s Barry Scott character that was used effectively in its TV ad campaigns. You can find out more here.

A celebration of corporate social media best practice

Just a quick heads up for you. If you're reading this blog post, I'm assuming that you have an interest in corporate social media best practice. And if that's the case, you'll probably want to either enter - or at least vote in - our upcoming Useful Social Media Awards. There's more info on why we're launching the Awards here, and you can find out more about the Awards themselves here. We currently have nominations for Verizon, Dr Hautschka, Starbucks, Dell and many other leading brands. Who do you think should win?

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.