Understanding social commerce: check out this infographic made by a company I work with often, called Oxyme, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. “Understand what consumers expect & avoid common mistakes!”.

In addition to this infographic, there are other sources of information which help us to understand the effect that social commerce is having. According to a Q1 2012 survey of US internet users conducted by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey on behalf of Constant Contact, half of those surveyed named the recommendation of a friend or family member as a reason they would purchase a deal (as reported by eMarketer).

Click here for a larger version

(Understanding social commerce - Infographic by Oxyme - Click here for a larger version)

Lastly, if you are planning on seeing how you can take advantage of “Social Commerce” for your company, it is worthwhile understanding the positioning of your brand, and the emotion and storytelling quality that your brand messages have.

Forrester Research also issued some research by Tracy Stokes which gives some insight on this topic as it describes how “Remarkable And Unmistakable Brands Differentiate Through An Emotional Connection”

 - Bring the emotional benefit to life.
 - Engage around a shared cause.
 - Bond your brand to your consumer’s real life.

(Source: Forrester Research, Inc., How Social Media Is Changing Brand Building, May 07, 2012)

If you create social messages that bring emotion around a shared cause that resonates with your consumers, it is likely that they will use those messages in whole or in part in their online discussions (or word of mouth offline) to friends and family members about making a particular purchase.

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About The Author:
Clive Roach is the social media strategist for Philips Healthcare. He is active with strategy development, activation, governance, projects and educational training activities for all aspects of social media within Philips Healthcare. Clive has been working in the eMarketing area since 1997, and previously held roles in engineering, design and sales. Clive is also practical in addition to his current strategic role. In addition to this blog, he tweets daily on three Twitter accounts, has two Facebook fan pages, Google+, Pinterest, So.cl, Instagram, and participates in many other social networks.
Connect with the author via: Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn | Facebook fan page

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