Business books are already being updated, with the Coca-Cola ‘New Coke’ catastrophe being replaced with the newer story of Microsoft Windows 8.  The lesson is the same – too much innovation can backfire.

Back in 1985, with Pepsi winning the hearts and mouth’s of the youth generation and a market share slipping from a post-War US high of 60% to 26%, Coke reformulated Coca-Cola with a new taste that won hands-down over the old flavour in blind taste tests.  Following the April 23 launch, a marketing disaster and consumer and media backlash ensued, including a much publicised complaint letter to CEO Roberto Goizueta, addressed Chief Dodo, The Coca-Cola Company.  Less than three months after launch, Coke pulled New Coke and reverted to the old flavour.

Fast forward to 2012, with iOS and Android devices winning the hearts and fingers of the new digital generation and a market share slipping from  97% in 2000 to 20%, Microsoft reformulated its Windows OS with a new interface  that won hands-down over the old version as the “People’s Choice Design” .  Following an October 26 launch, a marketing disaster and consumer and media backlash ensued, although there was no much publicised complaint letter to CEO Steve Ballmer, addressed Chief Dodo, Microsoft Corporation.  But less than six months after launch, in May 2013, Microsoft announced it would pull key elements of Windows 8 and “reverse course” with a back to old-style Windows – codenamed Blue.

So what can social commerce learn from Chief Dodo Ballmer’s experience?

• Compatibility: Windows 8 is struggling because it is not compatible with people’s existing habits; it forces people to unlearn what they already know and do: LESSON – Don’t try and change entrenched shopping habits, focus instead areas where there is no set way of doing things (mobile/tablet shopping)
• Complexity: Windows 8 fails by being too complex, with no simple architecture of design that makes for intuitive adoption: LESSON – Keep it simple – the social commerce of the future will have simplicity at its heart
• Relative Advantage: It’s not immediate how Windows 8 is an improvement over what’s already available (Android, OS, iOS – Windows Vista ?!): LESSON – Be better, not just different. Sure social commerce is a new way of selling, and for consumers a new way of shopping.  But unless it is blatantly clear why it is better, it won’t be adopted
• Observability: With slow take-up by PC manufacturers and little in the way of product placement, you don’t see much social proof of Windows 8 out there, especially of the opinion leading kind: LESSON – Product seeding and product placement are key – you may not get your product into the latest Psy hit like Candy Crush, but do whatever it takes to get your product or service into TV, movies or clips – as a character not an ad
• Trialability: Windows 8 creates prisoners not passionistas by forcing a big risky jump into a new start-button-less world of charms, sliding panels and hiding functionality: LESSON – Offer bite-sized trials for people to try risk free, and then allow them to move frictionlessly away if they want.

Article courtesy of Social Commerce Today

Article courtesy of Social Commerce Today

Dropify is a slick new social file sharing service from Cologne-based social app builder Hike that allows Facebook Page managers to share premium digital content exclusively with Page Fans. It’s a Facebook-oriented spin on dropbox, yousendit or wetransfer, and we like it.

Simply login on dropify.com with Facebook and drag a file (your ‘drop’) from your computer to upload it to the Dropify server, and a custom download page will be created on dropify.com and a link shared with your Fans on Facebook. From the download page, Fans can download the file, and non-fans can become Fans and then download.

In itself, Dropify doesn’t do anything new; popular file transfer services such as dropbox, yousendit or wetransfer already exist, Facebook already offers de-facto file sharing (video/image at least), and social apps such as virallyapp and paywithatweet offer similar free-for-fans / free-for-a-share services.

But what sets Dropify apart is the user experience; it’s a slick, simple and smart way to share files, particularly large files, with fans. It has – and we assume deliberately – an easy to use dropboxy feel.  As such, Dropify is a simple solution for rewarding your fans, promoting digital content, and driving Page Likes.  The files-for-fans proposition turns Dropify into a social commerce app that accepts payments in Likes rather than Lolly.

Dropify includes a number of bells and whistles that, depending on your view, either make the service more useful or detract from its elegant simplicity.  But that’s essentially it; a slick social file sharing service that has a polished interface and that is a delight to use.

Dropify costs from $9/month and offers a 30-day free trial. It remains to be seen a paid SaaS model will be appealing enough for artists, authors and organisations, or the social media agencies that manage their pages to sign up. We wouldn’t be surprised if Dropfiy evolved into an ad-supported service, whilst powering Hike’s custom services to bigger consumer brands and businesses.

Here’s an original fresh infographic of top Twitter #fails from consumer brands that we put together yesterday for a course on reputation management in social media.

Our point was simple; there’s reputational risk in using social media for so-called ‘brand engagement’ (aka social spam); it’s far safer – and smarter – to use social technology to offer useful services to people, including making it easier to buy.

Social-as-Service beats Social-as-SPAM every time.

Enjoy and share.

(Click to enlarge, and let us know what we’ve missed and we’ll add them to the infographic).

Yesterday, Dominos in Japan sold out of pizza, or rather pizza boxes.

Why?  Because a new ‘social’ promotion.  The new Dominos pizza box in Japan doubles up as a concert stage.  Point a smartphone at it, and one of Japan’s biggest stars Hatsune Miku plays a concert for you.  And here’s the social part – Miku’s songs were put together collaboratively by Dominos Pizza employees themselves – using vocaloid technology.  A great way to get a business behind a promotion.

Of course it helps that Miku, tipped to become the next Lady Gaga and with sell-out gigs across the globe, isn’t human but virtual anime idol that lives in holograph form. But the idea is great – use technology to add a digital layer to your value proposition and build that layer collaboratively – with customers, employees or investors.  Smart digital innovation. Kudos Dominos

Article courtesy of Social Commerce Today | Social Commerce Today

• Your Facebook Likes can predict your sexual orientation with 88% accuracy .
• If you’ve Liked Desperate Housewives or Britney Spears, you’re more likely to be gay. On the other hand, Liking Shaq is predictive of heterosexuality.
• Liking Harley Davidson or the retailer Sephora is predictive of low intelligence, whereas Liking Curly Fries is predictive of high intelligence.
• If you’ve Liked Hello Kitty, you’re more likely to be creative, but not very conscientious.
• Oh, and if you Like Camping, you’re more likely to be neurotic.

Just some of the headline findings of ground-breaking research from the University of Cambridge published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, Private Traits and Attributes are Predictable from Digital Records of Human Behavior (full download), authored by researchers Michal Kosinskia, David Stillwell and Thore Graepel is based on sample of 58,466 volunteers from the United States, obtained through the myPersonality Facebook application (www.mypersonality. org/wiki), which included their Facebook profile information, a list of their Likes (n = 170 Likes per person on average), psychometric test scores, and survey information.  Patterns between Likes and psychometric data were then correlated, patterns found, and predictive power was measured.

The University of Cambridge study, funded by Microsoft and Boeing, has spawned a free new online personality test, youarewhatyoulike.com, based on your Likes (see example profile below).

Welcome to the Brave New World of “Big Data” - massive, fast changing and diverse datasets characterized by the 3 V’s of Volume, Velocity and Variety.  If the privacy minefield can be negotiated, the opportunity for brands and retailers is clear – harness these datasets to deliver better customer experiences by delivering the right information, service or products to the right people at the right time.

For example, this study – whilst not focused on consumer behaviour – might tell the management of Sephora to target the intellectually-challenged, and avoid marketing, signage and store design that is too mentally taxing.  On the other hand  there are advertising opportunities for Curly Fries – buy up science spots and science site ad placements. Own a camping store or site? Then plan the layout and offers for neurotics.  Of course, this is reductio ad absurdum, but it is the future.

The immediate opportunity for tech companies, brands and retailers is clear – replicate this study with a shopping and media focus and find patterns in Like data predictive of shopper behaviour, values, lifestyles and personality.

Facebook, you just got useful.

So Soldsie, the crowdfunded (FundersClub) f-commerce startup just announced that is has raised $1m in funding.  Participating in the round were 500 Startups, e.ventures and FundersClub, along with former Facebook employees Yun-Fang Juan and Jonathan Ehrlich and others.

Given all the negative publicity around f-commerce on Facebook (contrasting starkly with all the positive publicity around f-commerce on websites),one might be tempted to think that Soldie is on the ‘Payvment’ to, well, dead-pooled Payvment.  But we think not.  Why?  Because Soldsie’s ‘comment commerce’ is simple, builds on popular native Facebook functionality and uses smart psychology.

Soldie’s comment commerce works like this; if you have something to sell you post a pic to Facebook, and users simply post a comment ‘Sold’ to receive a purchase link.

Psychologically, this is smart – using the powerful social influence ‘consistency’ technique (foot-in-the-door) to move people onto the purchase journey.  It costs nothing to say ‘SOLD’, but psychologically, to avoid cognitive dissonance, people will be more likely to go-ahead with the purchase once they’ve made a seemingly trivial but public commitment. Soldsie is psychologically smart social commerce.

In reality, the Soldsie experience is not quite as frictionless as it ideally could be; both parties have to install the Soldsie Facebook app for it to work, which includes a ‘Soldsie can post on your behalf request…’  And to sell, it appears you have to have a Facebook Page, which rules out a lot of P2P commerce from individuals looking to sell stuff on their Facebook Page rather than eBay.

But Soldsie way simpler than the Amex Twitter Commerce solution, and in our view, the idea of ‘Comment Commerce’ has legs beyond FB (Soldsie, Chirpify talk to each other).  So we’re ‘SOLD’ on Soldsie.

Article courtesy of Social Commerce Today

The idea was good.  Take a proven social shopping model successful Asia, Tuangou, and adapt it for Western consumer.

And for a while, the Groupon online spin on team-buying was the darling of not just the social commerce world, but the world of commerce, period.

However, Groupon’s social shine covered up what was essentially just another couponing site, the beating social heart of Tuangou had been stripped out, and with low barriers to competitor entry sales faltered, customers tired, and the stock crashed (from $28 to $4.53).

And yesterday, founder and CEO Andrew Mason was thrown out of his green Groupon corporate balloon/board.

Here’s the resignation letter offered as the charismatic CEO shuffled off this corporate coil, worthy of archiving because the advice offered therein is instructive for all entrepreneurs in social commerce and beyond.

Have the courage to start with the customer… and deliver sustainable customer happiness

The problem of course, is that too often we fail to deliver customer happiness to either our business customers or consumer customers. And Groupon has been a case in point, and it has paid the price.

This morning the resignation letter, with all its trademark quirkiness about Battletoads, Terra Tubes and fat camps) has been receiving Twitter love.

But to succeed moving forward Groupon will have to not only  start with the customer, but start with the customer smile.

Storenvy, one of our favourite “new-generation” custom storefront builders that is also a social shopping marketplace, and that sports a distinct Etsy like feel, has just secured $5 million in funding led by Intel Capital with Spark Capital.

Last month, Storenvy launched a crowd-curated social marketplace, that has helped drive a 1000% increase in sales. This, combined with the success, interest and money swirling around lookalike Etsy right now, the Storenvy round of funding make sense.

Article courtesy of Social Commerce Today

Here’s a great infographic from TurnTo, one of the leading social apps for e-commerce sites (Kiehls, Vitamin Shoppe, shoes.com…), on ‘Social Q&A’.

Social Q&A is an increasingly popular e-commerce site feature that allows shoppers to ask pre-purchase product-related questions, and get them answered by customers who have already purchased the product. Astonishingly 9 out of 10 questions posed get answered answered the same day.

Like other social commerce technology, social Q&A helps socialises an otherwise solitary e-commerce experience, and dies so by creating connections between customers. It’s simple and smart, and refreshingly free from any techno-babble voodoo.  Rather than read what other people have wanted to say or like – social Q&A allows customers to get answers to their own specific questions.

And, according to TurnTo, it pays – for the retailer and the shopper. Social Q&A is like product reviews on steroids – personalised customer to customer communication.

• Inviting shoppers to ask questions and get them answered by existing shoppers can boost store loyalty (propensity to repurchase) by 15-14%
• Social Q&A generates 2-4 times more user content for SEO than customer reviews
• Shoppers who use Social Q&A to ask pre-purchase questions are 10