Whitepaper 2011 - Making your Website social...Why & how

8/6/2019 Whitepaper 2011 - Making your Website social...Why & how

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/whitepaper-2011-making-your-website-socialwhy-how 1/9

1

Making your Websitesocial... Why & how

By Alexandre Vandermeersch, CEO,

Dialog Solutions



2

In May 2011, more than 325 Millions Web sites exist on theInternet. Among them, millions o E-commerce shops, news

sites, service providers, social media sites, or simple inormation

sharing sites or a local business, a brand, a NGO, a person.

While the number o sites have exploded over the last years, the

share o traic captured by the top sites has increased. Among

them, top social networks are prominent as destination sites.

Actually, Facebook has started to catch up Google in overall

traic in the US.

There are multiple reasons, which I describe

as the ‘4 laws o social media’, that explain

this dominance.

Law o networks. This is the most obvious

reason. The more people join, the more

value networks generate. Once a critical

mass has been reached, networks will getextra leverage to gain new members and

accelerate their growth. Some networks

became really compelling - look at what

happened to Facebook.

Law o gravity. Most social media have

built-in sharing to your network/ollowers. I

you do something within the network (like a

page, comment, etc...), your connections will

see it on their ‘social eed’ - you don’t need tomake extra clicks to share your action. This

is the amous ‘Viral loop’ o social networks.

This means that content is progressively

moving to social networks, as brands saw

the value o the ‘built-in’ sharing o actions

by their ans and its viral potential. The more

content, the more oten people check out the

site, and the more addictive it gets. There is

more gravity on the earth than on the moon.

Law o switch costs. I a competitor o

Facebook pops up with better eatures (or

better privacy controls), will you switch ? It

takes time & energy to register and build yournetwork, and who will actually ollow you

once you move away rom Facebook to this

great new social network ? Maybe nobody.

Those are switch costs.

Zuckerberg’s law o inormation sharing.

Marc Zuckerberg pointed it in an interview.

Every year, people share twice as much

inormation as they did last year. People get

more confdent as time passes.

1. Why Social Networks

grabbed the trafc

Law of gravity - the more content, the morefrequent visits get, and the more content it

attracts

Law of networks – the more people join, the

more valuable they get

Law of switch costs - it took time & energy to

build your network, why move ?

Zuckerberg’s law of information sharing - everyyear people share twice as much as previous year



3

The debate was heavy during the past ewyears whether or not everyone, and especially

marketers, should ocus their eorts on

building a presence on social networks, and

completely abandon their investments into a

traditional Web site. The rationale was ‘Go

fshing where the fshes are’. That struck

a point. We did hear some horror stories,

where hundreds o thousands o dollars were

invested building a website, only in order to

buy expensive trafc. In some cases, this

resulted in a cost per visitor o up to EUR 50.

But there were counter-arguments, which

are still valid. Fundamentally, or many sites,there was so much trafc brought by Google

search (or direct visits) that it absolutely still

made sense to keep one. Also, you have ull

control o your site: your own ads, look&eel,

sections, and no dependency on third parties

‘changing the rules’ every now & then. Yes,

some brands got their Facebook page simply

deleted, or obscure reasons. You want

to have a true ‘home’ where you have ullcontrol.

Then, in April 2010, Facebook released its

‘Open Graph API’, allowing websites all over

the planet to include Facebook eatures

right into their website, such as the amous

‘Like’ button. Great win-win move, enabling

to bring more engagement (and data) on

Facebook, and the amous viral loop o social

networks into external websites. Debate was

then closed. You need to be both on social

media and keep your site, but make it social.

Now, according to Search Engine Land, morethan 2.5 Millions o websites have included

some social plugins brought by Facebook.

Many include the Twitter ‘Tweet’ button and

other social plugins.

I you doubt about it, here are a ew samples o the value created through Facebook - based on

Facebook’s own statistical data, so to be taken with a grain o salt (Source: Search Engine Land - extract):

Media StatS

Here’s what Facebook says about media sites using Like buttons and other social plugins:

The average media site integrated with Facebook has seen a 300% increase in reerral trafc.

Users coming to the NHL.com rom Facebook spend 85% more time, read 90% more articles and

watch 85% more videos than a non-connected user.

ABCNews.com, Washington Post and The Hufngton Post are said to have more than doubled their

reerral trafc rom Facebook since adding social plugins.

CoMMerCe StatS

About commerce sites and Facebook social plugins, the Facebook reports:

Levi’s saw a 40 times increase in reerral trafc rom Facebook ater implementing the Like button in

April 2010 and has maintained those levels since.

Outdoor sporting goods retailer Giantnerd.com saw a 100% increase revenue rom Facebook within

two weeks o adding the Like button.

American Eagle added the Like button next to every product on their site and ound Facebook

reerred visitors spent an average o 57% more money than non-Facebook reerred visitors

Children’s clothing retailer Tea Collection added the Like button to sale merchandise and saw daily

revenues increase 10 times.



4

But the question still is - how do we maximize

the value o social on our website ? Putting

‘like’ buttons everywhere will not work. In this

white paper, we describe a more advanced

approach.

For instance, we undamentally believe

that integrating smartly conversations that

happen on a Facebook page are really key

to take advantage o the social Web. Actually,

according to a survey done in November

2010 with top social media strategists at key

corporations by Altimeter, a Web consultancy

frm, ‘Web site [conversation] integration’ is

the number one priority, selected by 47%

o respondents. As pointed by Jeremiah

Owyang, recognized worldwide social media

expert & partner at Altimeter, “ 2011 is the

year of integration”.

While much is about driving reerral trafc

rom the ‘viral loop’, there is much more

than that to it. Let’s defne the 7 main core

unctions o getting your website ‘social’:

1. Accelerate viral loop: the most

obvious - a social action (sharing, like)

drives interest o the network back to a

site. We call this ‘acceleration’, because

obviously anybody can share a link onFacebook without a social plugin, but

the easier you make it - putting and

encouraging the 1-click ‘like’ and others

- the better. People that are then driven

to the site are typically well qualifed

visitors, because they have an afnity

(riend, ollower) with the sender, who is

typically already a customer or member.

2. Build social currency: it’s not because

you shared something that you created

goodwill or the brand or site. The value

o building ‘positive word o mouth’

is a distinct added value, and is key. A

defnition o ‘social currency’ can be:

“ someone taking a positive social action

for a brand, bringing its network closer

to a purchase of that brand ”. You can

get a lot o buzz through a social media

campaign, with thousands o ans ‘liking’

a page or a contest or another action.I that does not result in any ‘social

currency’, it’s mostly a wasted eort.

For instance, maybe it was the wrong

audience who clicked (not relevant), or

the whole action did not bring anything

rom the brand’s value proposition to its

audience (ie a buzz video not related at

all to the company). On the other hand, i

you manage to make people share their

happy testimonials on the brand to a

relevant group, that do counts. Make sure

that the social actions you are driving do

build social currency.

3. Ampliy Social currency: once social

currency has been built, it’s your job to get

the maximum value out o it - republish,

quote, retweet, cross-share testimonials

rom Facebook to Twitter, and so on...

Social amplifcation is vital to drive value.

Remember that testimonials are one o

the oldest marketing techniques ever

used (the household lady showcasing

a really white shirt in TV ads...) - but

simply writing out ‘quotes’ around a ew

statements on your web site will not be

sufcient: people want to see aces, andclick on the comment to see its original

version.

4. Animate: also called ‘Content marketing’,

it’s a bit the reverse o traditional

advertising. TV advertising interrupts you

with an ad when you watch interesting

content, right ? Social animation creates

interesting content to create goodwill

& possibly make you come watch an

ad. Many Facebook pages are using

it to keep in touch with their ans or

2. How can you capture the value osocial Web on your site ?

We will irst deine the 7 main unctions

provided by ‘social’ elements on a web

site, to then illustrate how to choose toppriorities, and deine what’s needed or

each type o page on your site.



5

ollowers. Social animation is easy onsocial media, but why won’t you bring it

to your website ? It will drive revisits to

your site (see your products/services),

engagement through comments & shares

(and thus viral loops) and build goodwill.

5. Humanize: Humans are undamentally

social animals. Imagine you walk in the

street and look or a restaurant. You see

two o them which are very similar (price,

menu, atmosphere). But one is hal-ull,

the other completely empty. Where do

you go ? Asking the question is alreadyanswering it. For thousands o years,

people have done so many things in

group, rom shopping to drinking, etc...

It’s part o our nature, we need to get

re-assured, see that ‘others’ have done

the same, bought the same, and so on.

Online, people are oten alone browsing

so they look or social clues. Reviews

& social presence are not there simply

because o the content they provide, but

simply to show that ‘others’ are around,

have bought that book, registered to

that service. While this is important or

all sites, this is vital or the ‘upcoming

brands’ and web sites which are buildingtheir reputation. In addition, replying to

comments & suggestion is key - it shows

that there are real people behind that site.

Obviously, with the amount o attacks,

scams, phishing, unreliable e-commerce

shops, showing your community on your

site is another way to show that you are

credible and trustworthy.

6. Gather insights. People will ask

questions, give you eedback, make

suggestions. You will track how

many people ‘like’ vs ‘buy’ to identiybottlenecks. Show that you care & listen

(cr my point 5), but especially use their

voice to adapt your product, services &

marketing.

7. Personalize. Personalization is the

ultimate weapon, still largely untouched,

o social integration. The idea is to

build on the social currency built by

somebody’s network to personalize

your experience. In e-commerce, this is

mostly what is called ‘Social commerce’.

The usual case is the Levi’s riends store,

in which you can log in via Facebook topersonalize your shopping experience

based on what your riends recommend.

Another example are the ‘sponsored

stories’ by Facebook. It will prominently

show, as an ad, a brand that somebody

in your network likes. At some points,

those ads will appear on websites

outside o Facebook.

7 functions of making your website social

Accelerate

Viral loop

Build social

currency

Amplify

social

currency

AnimateHumanize

your site

Gather

insights

Personalize



6

So, the frst step is to defne what yourpriorities are or your site, typically:

Established sites: you want to drive viral

loops, social amplifcation & animation to

drive revisits to your site & cross- or up-

selling (or simply page views i this is your

metric)

Upcoming sites: basically you need

more viral loops but you are still building

your credibility with a ew ollowers/ans:

thereore make sure to ampliy their voice

to the maximum. Social animation a bit

less so since you are more ocused onfrst time visitors & conversion.

In addition, this can vary by type o sites, here

are a ew examples:

E-commerce: social is all about viral loop

& amplifcation. While much o the eort

o social + search engine optimization/

advertising has been on getting trafc,

much less was given to actually convert

better those visitors. As an example,

e-commerce sites convert about 1 to

3% o their visitors into actual buyers.

An extra percent o conversion, as small

as it looks, means actually doubling orincreasing the sales by 25%. And yes,

this is the evidence we have seen with

clients. To optimize conversion, it is key

to ampliy the right testimonial at every

point through the conversion unnel, re-

assuring prospect that, others did the

same as you do now and they are happy!

Viral loop is key too. For personalisation

to make sense, you will need to be a

large player.

Internet services: viral loop, social

currency & humanization is crucial.Fundamentally, this is how most

social media themselves built up their

membership.

Publishers: viral loop is key, so is social

animation to drive revisits. Rest is less

important. Personalization might be

relevant or very large coverage news

sites, who can then cherry pick best

stories and categories on its home page

based on the network o the reader,

driving engagement and page views



7

Now that you have chosen your priorities,

what should you do ?

Defne where you target audience is (and

where you have a social media presence):

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, all, other ? That

should be straightorward.

Based on that, defne your social approach

or each type o pages you are proposing.

This is still basic - o course, you can move

your shop to a ‘social commerce’ experience

by customizing the shop based on what your

riends recommend, etc... Social commerce

requires a white paper on its own.

Eventually, be ware o ‘over-socializing’

- a product with zero “ likes” (even though

Facebook won’t show that number) is

suspicious. Remember as well that 95% o

visitors are completely passive - you need

to take care o this silent majority.This is

why crating an overall approach which best

balances ‘calls to actions’ (like sharing) and

passive elements (like showing testimonials)

is key.

Many readers are probably wondering: “What

about critiques ? Will my web site be polluted

by the few unhappy customers? ”. The answer

is : no, it won’t. Most o the comments on

brands in the Web are positive ! Eventually,people are happy about what they bought

or the company they are interacting with,

and happy to tell it. Most o the issues that

happened on the social web were not due to

critics, but due to the act that the company

mishandled the issue and badly replied. I you

have a critique, reply to it with acceptance,

due care & respect. Nobody is perect. This

will help build priority 5: humanize your brand.

Visitors will love it.

But the benefts are clear, and huge. Making

your web site social will drive new visitors,

drive revisits, convert more prospects intobuyers, drive engagement which will in turn

create more virality. It is relevant or your site?

Well, it’s relevant or any site that wants to

drive trafc & convince people - so...any site.

It’s time to bring the social revolution where it

matters: on your web site.

3. Some concrete action steps

How to do it in e-commerce ?

Home page: show your social media eed(s) in a widget,

or multiple - it will animate your returning visitors & show that

‘humans’ are behind this. Critical.

Product pages: get the social ‘like/share’ buttons close the

product, with a call to action ‘Do you like this product? Click here’.

Product reviews help. Yet, or many case, reviews don’t apply:

not enough visitors end up writing one, products are not really

‘review prone’ (like clothes), or change too quickly (e.g. many

consumer electronics). In this case, you should pick & choose

more general testimonials on the category, and publish them right

on the page. In addition, you can use a ‘commenting’ plug-in toenable conversations on the product, and give the ability to ‘open

up’ the conversation right rom the site.

Cart & check-out: highlight testimonials related to delivery &

service. People are wary o entering their card details, get anxious

on delivery reliability - re-assure them.

Ater check-out: create a unique URL with the product

description and name o the client, which she or he can easily

share on social networks.

Last you should include a new section ‘Community’ or ‘News’

i you haven’t gotten one, with a ull page version o your social

eed.



8

At Dialog Solutions, we walk the talk.

Because we believe so much in the above,

and we could not fnd an entire satisaction

with existing social plug-ins & widgets, we

have built a simple tool to better manage &

showcase social media conversations on

your web site, called Dialogeed (http://www.

dialogeed.com)

Nicolas Kint, Product Manager dialogeed:

“The major challenge is to integrate the

right conversation (questions, testimonials)

at the right point in your conversion funnel.

With our tool, we store all conversations

on your Facebook page & Twitter account

in our database & enable the community

manager to display the conversations on

its web site, highlight the best testimonials,

which are displayed prominently, and hide

spam or irrelevant messages. The ‘feed’

is then published through a simple widget,

from which a conversation can be started

too (to get feedback and more testimonials).

In addition, widgets can be fully customized

on our online design interface. We have a

number of other features in the pipeline, and

more social channels to add, but we’d like to

get more feedback of our users first”.

According to David Hachez, Founder o

Raz*War, an e-commerce attacker selling

razors online: “DialogFeed is critical to help

us re-enforcing the virtuous circle around our

brand. Testimonials from our ambassadors

are our best marketing asset – we have now

a tool to use them the best possible way ”.

You can suscribe to a ree trial o Dialogeed

on www.dialogeed.com

Alexandre Vandermeersch is a CEO at Dialog

Solutions, a company providing sotware &

services generating insights & business value

through online dialogue with customers &

stakeholders. He holds a master degree in

Computer Science rom the UCL and a MBA

rom the IESE Business School. Prior to work

or Dialog Solutions, Alexandre worked or

McKinsey & Company as Associate and as

Project manager at Procter & Gamble.

You can contact Alexandre at alexandre (a)

dialogsolutions.com

On Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/alexvdm

His blog: http://www.alexvdm.com

Commercial note

About the author

http://dialogfeed.com/


http://www.dialogsolutions.com/site/

http://twitter.com/#!/alexvdm

http://alexvdm.com/


http://twitter.com/#!/alexvdm

http://alexvdm.com/

http://alexvdm.com/





9

Dialog Solutions is the specialist o next-generation online dialogue solutions to create business

value through research communities & social media. The company was ounded by Patrick

Willemarck & Alexandre Vandermeersch, two senior business executives who combine years

o expertise at McKinsey&Company, P&G, Grey, Young&Rubicam.

Its key products are:

Brandialog - a powerul online researchcommunity & platorm to drive insights

through private brand communities:

co-creation, product eedback, & other

research mixing both quantitative &

qualitative techniques in an innovative

way

DialogCube - it’s community sotware re-

invented, with a ocus on conversations,

& ull integration o social media

conversations. Questions & answers,

voting, ollowing o topics, sharing o

conversations, highlights,... Animate the

space through simple Retweets, start aconversation on Twitter, continue it on

your site (in which the cube is integrated),

and fnish it on Facebook - bringingmore viral loops to your site, where you

have control. DialogCube is perect or

marketing dialogue, customer service,

open innovation, & other use cases

Dialogeed - Dialogeed is the frst & only

‘Social Media Amplifcation’ Sotware

as a Service tool to drive back great

conversations into your web site, including

‘highlight/hide’ o conversations, and ull

widget customization

Among its key clients are Deutsche Bank,

Touring, L’Oréal, Danone, Delta Lloyd, andmany others in all sectors.

http://searchengineland.com/has-acebook-

become-the-master-key-to-unlocking-the-

web-75139

h t t p : / / n e w s . n e t c r a t . c o m /

archives/2011/05/02/may-2011-web-server-survey.html

h t tp : / /searcheng ine land.com/by- the-

numbers-how-acebook-says-likes-social-

plugins-help-websites-76061

About Dialog Solutions

References

http://searchengineland.com/has-facebook-become-the-master-key-to-unlocking-the-web-75139



http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2011/05/02/may-2011-web-server-survey.html



http://searchengineland.com/by-the-numbers-how-facebook-says-likes-social-plugins-help-websites-76061







Documents

Whitepaper 2011 - Making your Website social...Why & how