At its core, social commerce is about connecting people where they buy and letting people buy where they connect. Dell, a brand in a segment not typically associated with “social shopping,” was really among the earliest adopters of technologies and tactics that enabled people to share opinions and ask questions about products. In fact, it was a critical part of their business model, since their only customer touchpoint was the Web. Their use of “social” as an engagement strategy has evolved over the years from their participation in bulletin boards of the 1990s to Twitter and now Facebook. They are even experimenting with new ways of bringing people together around the purchase of computers and other electronics. I asked Manish Mehta of Dell to share their “social” journey and to give us his take on devising a true social strategy. What follows is his approach to tackling social commerce whether your business is computers, coffee or coats.
– Karen Webster, Social Commerce Editor
Social commerce is finally on the brink of eliminating the last difference between brick-and-mortar stores and websites: shopping with a friend. Social shopping is the last differentiator standing, and online customers will be only too happy to see it fall. They want and need each others’ guidance in spending their money thoughtfully via the Web, particularly in industries such as Dell’s, in which consumers purchase big-ticket items that they rely on to make their daily lives easier.
It’s easy to see why customers welcome the progression. It’s simply more fun to shop with a friend and to spend time on commercial sites infused with “social” components that bring more value to the customer. User-generated content is powerful since it comes to customers from their peers, making it highly trustworthy. When other people like you have chosen to make the same purchase you’re considering, it helps validate your choice.
User-generated content and social connections are turning online shopping into social shopping, and we consider it to be the future of e-tailing. But as with all things social media, the rate at which companies have moved through the stages that have landed Dell in this position varies greatly. Some companies are launching social shopping tools at the same moment others are still deciding whether to dip even a toe into the social media waters, let alone into the social shopping waters.
Getting to social shopping means moving through stages, building a foundation that first connects customers to your company and eventually to each other. In other words, it begins with listening. That’s how Dell arrived at a position of leadership in social media. It’s also why it has made sense for us to pursue a path that leads to social shopping even though it might seem a bit counterintuitive: do people really bring their friends computer-shopping?
We found that during the technology selection process, yes, customers will look for the affirmation and assurance that they can get from other shoppers—people with the same needs who have gone through the same research process before arriving at a decision. They value it even more than they do the recommendations of the “experts” who have reviewed products but not necessarily made a recent purchasing decision themselves.
But our journey to social shopping goes deeper than that. Social in general – that is, speaking directly to our customers online – is a natural extension of how we have always done business. We’ve long connected with our customers and asked for feedback, and we’ve shaped our organization to ensure we can take action in response. More than 15 years ago, we took this model digital with the rise of eCommerce and enabled our customers to engage with us at points before, during, and after purchase.
Here’s our view of the stages it takes to get to true social shopping, along with our own experiences navigating them, followed by our view of what’s next for companies on social shopping’s leading edge.
Our social commerce initiatives started way back in the early days of Dell.com in the late 1990s with the addition of community forums for customers to interact and share with each other. We didn’t think of those forums as so-called “social shopping” at the time; the term didn’t even exist. But we recognize now that forums were social even then, because customers were sharing with each other about devices they cared about. It’s the earliest and most elementary form of social commerce, whether on an eCommerce site like Dell’s back in the day or today within social networks like Facebook.
It’s funny to look back now and recognize that bookmarking was an early harbinger of social commerce. As the social Web began to emerge, we added the ability to save pages and products from Dell.com to our customers’ social bookmarks and eventually on Twitter and Facebook. Enabling social sharing is a simple and easy step to begin evolving the traditional e-tail site to a social commerce site. It’s also a great way to set e-tail content in motion across the Web, so the people follow the links back to your business.
Obviously sharing webpages is just the beginning. The evolution of social commerce requires recognizing the value and importance of unedited user-generated content. Thus our next step was to add Ratings & Reviews to Dell.com sites around the world. Customers seized upon the feature quickly, as they did reviews on other business’ websites.
But as with many aspects of social media, companies tend to balk at the lack of control involved. Still, to the degree that they can be brave enough to let bad reviews stay live along with the good, the boost they see in customer trust is significant. And to the extent that they develop a system to incorporate that feedback into the product design and development process, both sides gain.
A social commerce strategy requires more than just setting content free or embracing user-generated content. It also requires listening from every corner of your organization so that you can constantly learn and deliver more of what your customers wish for. What companies find when they listen is that customers are just as interested in listening to each other as to you when it comes to the products you sell.
What we saw at Dell after we began posting reviews was that customers wanted more transparency and more contact with each other – and with us – just as fast as we could deliver it. The Ratings & Reviews feature has prompted nearly 200,000 individuals to submit product reviews, and we have used their feedback to improve our products. At the same time, we have made the reviews available for customers to read while they are making purchasing decisions. We also aggregate the reviews according to “how people like you” use their technology products. If you’re a photography buff, which configuration do people like you use? How about if you’re into gaming or video editing? You can see what people like you think about what works best for them.
People often choose their devices according to their needs and lifestyles, not just technical speeds and feeds. That’s why aggregating the information about “how people like you” use our products into our recent Tag Team function on Facebook makes it a natural part of the progression toward bringing social commerce to life.
Tag Team allows Facebook users to pull product reviews generated by other customers from a cloud of keywords describing ways the product can be used, such as Web design or photography. Up pop reviews and products associated with the keywords. No company intervention — all social. To make product selection even more so, we have structured the application so that once you narrow down your choices you can always ask a Facebook friend.
In some countries, we enable social commerce by encouraging customers to connect with each other via Facebook and Twitter and band together to get the best group-buying price for devices via an application called Dell Swarm.
Companies whose leaders ignore Facebook when they consider how to address what’s coming in social media do so at their peril; it’s how people are connecting with each other as many as dozens of times a day. One of the things they want to do when they connect is to ask for shopping advice or even shop and share with a friend – just as they do in a mall.
LinkedIn may not be as dynamic a forum as Facebook or Twitter, but it’s vital to businesspeople and seems likely to increase its influence. Dell recently launched a “Products and Services” tab on our LinkedIn page. It too links users to product recommendations from other customers. Although the feature is only in beta, our monthly page views have grown at four times the rate of similar companies.
Companies whose leaders have held back from experiments like the ones described above often do so because they can’t justify them. But we would all probably agree that we’ve reached the point where declining to hang out where your customers do is counterintuitive, whatever your beliefs about whether and how social media can pay.
The truth is, it can and does, and in the next year, it will as never before. It’s now easy to track where customers are coming from when they reach the point of purchase. And it’s fair to expect that your efforts on social networks like Facebook and Twitter will begin to multiply exponentially, however small the numbers when you first venture out. Sure, there’s a degree to which closer relationships with your customers can’t be measured. But should we complain if relationships are priceless? Didn’t we know that already?
Nearly every social media expert has named 2011 as the year of engagement. Investment in social media programs, both in terms of dollars and training, is expected to skyrocket. Ours takes the form of our Social Media & Community University, which has taught over 9,000 Dell employees how to listen and engage with customers as part of their jobs.
Much of the discussion of social media and social commerce predictions has centered on which organizing principle companies will embrace for their programs and how much money they will invest as they move from the earliest stages of engagement to the most advanced. In our view, the more sophisticated the training and the greater the freedom it gives to the most engaged employees, the more authentic their interactions with customers. These rich connections result in the kind of relevant feedback that ripples through the organization to the point where it shapes products and results in real change.
But again, as with unvarnished reviews, the loss of control that comes with training your employees in social media and setting them free has been a sticking point for companies who are still standing on the sidelines. The point to consider is that your employees are already out there, each a de facto ambassador for your company, and each speaking on your behalf merely by listing their employer and maintaining a social media presence.
These employees are an asset, not a threat. Educate them about how to speak on your behalf in constructive and effective ways, allowing their job function and level of social media training to dictate where and how they represent you. You won’t lose track of what they are saying; thankfully analytics software exists that will monitor their conversations for you. Our Social Media Listening Command Center, powered by Radian 6 and launched in December, tracks some 25,000 topic posts related to Dell per day.
What will social shopping look like as it moves beyond user-generated content to actual user-to-user contact? We think the next step is something called co-browsing, which would most closely imitate the mall experience of shopping with a friend. We’re testing a feature on Dell.com called Screen Share, which allows customers to share their computer screens and shop with a friend or colleague situated elsewhere.
Social shopping will be about the means of connection that companies pilot through the coming year. These will be increasingly mobile and increasingly effective, eventually becoming second nature. Customers will expect to connect as they shop, and companies who can move on from excessive focus on ROI and nervousness about training their employees and setting them free to interact with customers should make huge leaps in this environment.
Sure, listening is in Dell’s DNA, but it’s also the key to unlocking trends in social media whatever your industry or your company’s philosophy. Customers have an appetite for being even closer to you – and to each other – than they already are. Social shopping tools achieve both ends. In an atmosphere like this, you don’t define your sales channels – your customers do.
Go where your customers spend their time online and help them to connect with you and with each other. But don’t stop there – make connections between their feedback and all the people in your organization who have the power to change and design your products to better serve your customers’ needs. They’ll come back for more, and next time, they just might come back with their friends.
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