This article by Vandana U, Editor, STQ, was published in issue 06 of the STQ. Summary: Brands are going social with the right mix of communications technology and consumer values. Social is a catalyst that is driving unprecedented loyalty, built not at one stage but across various stages and elements of the shopping process. Read more such articles at http://stq.kuliza.com

1. Brands are going social with the right
mix of communications technology and
consumer values. Social is a catalyst that
is driving unprecedented loyalty, built
not at one stage but across various stages
and elements of the shopping process.
by Vandana U.
Photo Credit: zion fiction
Social as a
Driver of
Loyalty

2. In the age of social commerce, where traditional e-commerce is no
more even a nomenclature, loyalty seems to spell a new pattern with
new trends. With several factors determining shopping- ranging from
best prices, proximity, recommendations, to mood-swings even; it is
necessary to understand not only how loyalty and social commerce
go hand in hand but understand how social is a driver of loyalty. It
goes without saying that shopping has always been a social activity. A
lot of definitions place social commerce under the huge umbrella term
of e-commerce. Currently, as defined by Renata Gonçalves Curty and
Ping Zhang, “Social commerce is broadly considered to encompass
commerce activities mediated by social media where people do
commerce or intentionally explore commerce opportunities by
participating and/or engaging in a collaborative online environment.”
To the process of buying and selling online, social adds layers of
conversations and interactions between consumers, communities,
and businesses. These conversations are the new points-of-sales.
Businesses are leveraging social, making it highly integrated and
highly relevant to see new growth. The assumption is obvious: if
social elements are necessary to drive in engagement, they are vital
to driving loyalty too.
Being Social
The ontology of online commerce now is social as the smart-
technology-driven buyer is no longer merely a buyer nor is passive.
The buyer today is socially nourished through elements such as
sharing, likes, conversations, reviews, and interests. The use of social
Campaigns

3. Kuliza
network serves social interaction and encourages user contribution
throughout the purchase process - right from research to activities
for post the purchase. There is a sure transfer of power because
advertising alone would not generate that much needed buzz.
Whether one terms it ‘social’, ‘viral’ or calls it ‘word of mouth,’ sharing
is an unstoppable activity.
A brand that goes ‘social’ brings in the elements that revolve around a
customer not only in a terms of being a part of the ‘target’ market but
include the entire social world of the shopper. Interests, behaviours,
shopping patterns, activities of the shopper and that of the shopper’s
friend circle are all roped in. Customers have varied and new ways
to research, compare, evaluate, purchase, and provide feedback on
products and services. The agenda of engaging a shopper personally
does not mean providing attention alone, but making sure anything
the person needs, would like, and would want help, guidance from
are all available. The superlative bit of it is that it is effortless for
the shopper. After such a shopping experience the brand becomes
the sought-after destination. It is these brands that, irrespective of
whether they have the product the customer is looking for, will be
relied on and people will be loyal to.
Elements of Social
A typical purchasing process begins with awareness- about a brand,
its utility, etc, moving on to being interested in the product and finally
purchasing it. Radically working out commerce includes layers of
social in each of the stages in the process. There are different aspects
on which businesses are creating conversations. Consumers may
end up finding themselves in situations, unable to make purchase
decisions. In such a situation when the next step to take is not known,
advices, recommendations, support all kick in. The people in the
person’s social world around the customer act as guides towards
decision making.
The following are some of the identified elements of being social:
• Content: A great social experience includes presenting the right
content to the right customer at the right time. Curation is a
serious affair in social commerce. From purchase history to what
devices people are on, content has to be new, useful, and that
adds value to consumers.
• Referrals and recommendations: A report made by Nielsen
indicated that 92 percent of people go by recommendations for a
purchase online rather than believing in advertisements.
• Reviews and ratings: Showcasing reviews from satisfied
customers, friends from their social networks adds to the
credibility of the brand and is extremely influential in conversions.
• News feed: Friends see stories as they appear in the news feed.
Any and every activity is again a point of sale. This stream flows
and connects brands to people super fast.
Credits
Top: Stuart Connor
Middle: Aural Asia
Bottom: iBaNe

4. Social Technology Quarterly 06
• Reward: Rewards increase repeat purchases and build loyalty.
Ranking people, awarding points, and offering rewards tempt
people to stick around longer and even work towards it.
• Encourage advocacy: Authentic advocacy influences the
purchase decisions of everyone around.
There are applications, tools, and technologies that make all of the
above happen. Tools have been made that measure social ROI rather
accurately: from tracking number of likes, tweets, followers, pins,
re-pins, to influences. Sophisticated analyses, metrics, campaigns
designed based on insights for right targeting, conversions, word-
of-mouth to generate great loyalty have come up. The surplus data
about behaviours, psyche, etc., offer companies opportunities to even
predict shopping patterns.
Comprehend and work on the entire shopping behaviour cycle with
the right suites of applications. Social commerce is about customer-
satisfaction, providing great experiences, and being customer centred
over the traditional sense of being profit and transactional driven.
There is a great deal of focus on relationships; the motive is no
longer sale but repeat sales along with achieving a dollop of loyalty.
To sell better and build loyalty from social audiences stimulate them,
add value, and transfer the power of transaction to them. Create
environments and platforms that actively engage with users, maintain
relationships in a personal manner- that replicates building one to
one rapport. The feminists fought for their rights with the motto “The
personal is political” and social commerce is making its stand with
“The personal is social.”
References
Cavazza,Fred.“The Six Pillars of Social Commerce.” Forbes.02 Jan
2012.
Chaney, Paul. “Word of Mouth Still Most Trusted Resource Says
Nielsen; Implications for Social Commerce.” Social Commerce Today.
16 Apr 2012.
Curty, Renata Gonçalves, and Ping Zhang. “American Society
for Information Science and Technology.” American Society for
Information Science and Technology.48.1 (2012): 1-10.
“Social Commerce.”Wikipedia Inc.10 Sep 2012.
“Starbucks Card.” Starbucks. Starbucks Corporation. Web. 10 Oct
2012.
• Group buying: Just as how news spreads quickly, group buying,
group gifting spread word about a brand, offering convenience
in terms of gaining discounts and making gifting easy. It is no
wonder that group buying can make brands go viral.
• Exclusives: Exclusive fan deals, discounts for sharing,
personalized shopping experiences, pop-up shops, help make
brands stand out. Offering a privilege or a benefit, and a bonus
that no one else offers ensure people stay and the cycle of
recommendations and referrals continues.
• Rewards: Incentives drive people to respond. Through social,
make users perform targeted, marketing actions. Offer rewards
for expressing views, writing a review, clicking a link, sharing a
promotion, referring a friend, etc. Adding game techniques to the
incentives is another brilliant move.
• Socially driven loyalty programs: Starbucks is famous for its
loyalty cards and programs. Making a move to going social with
gifting cards, rewards, and points, the program gets better with
the convenience it offers in terms of technology. The card can be
added to the Starbucks mobile app, there is an app that allows
users to check the level they havee reached in the program
using the “star” - My Starbuck Rewards’ currency, and there are
elements of fun. When one makes a purchase and goes to that
tab on the mobile app, one sees a star actually fall into a cup
and that tracks progress over time. This is evidence enough
to show that loyalty programs are now no longer for ensuring
repeat purchases built around points and rewards and repeat
purchases but built around people: enabling social mechanics
and designing a simple user engagement model.
Going Social
Going social is about redefining engagement. Engagement is not
about interacting with random games and making offers after one
accumulates fans. There are various touch points in all the phases
of the shopping experience where engagement and personalization
need to be driven.
• Acquaint: To drive awareness around a brand that claims being
‘social’ it’s is necessary to reflect that in the awareness drive,
which has to be social in nature to elicit interest. With the plethora
of data available, set up campaigns that involve people together
be it a contest or a basic game.
• Drive: Create a social world where people can participate in
activities together. Be it in the form of extending referrals or group
buying, make the world a personalized one with the help of that
deluge of data available about online behaviours and activities.
• Support: In order to be a core part of people’s lives, engage, talk,
and extend support in forms of content, stories, expressions, etc.
Conversations that will help the community will also build brand
advocates. They curate information, influence other buyers, and
communicate about brands across different social networks.