Big Brother is watching... and, its not the Government...
It's Corporate Marketing!

We are in the era of Social Commerce -- where Social Networking and the Internet play an integral role in how businesses communicate with their customers. From children to adults, the Internet manages the way we interface/interact with other people, and it is this interconnectivity that many businesses are starting to tap into -- in order to better understand their customers.

Social Commerce ties into the ease and convinence that the Internet and mobile technologies offer us, and it allows for the personalization of marketing based upon our previous recorded behavior. With the popularization of social networking, our behavior can be tracked and analyzed to determine our personal likes and dislikes; in turn, this data can be correlated to product and/or service offerings -- personalized to each individual.

The most common marketing methodology for data collection is done through Consumer Analytic Services, such as an eCommerce websites that contains tracking cookies. This consumer data can be collected in many ways, from shopping cart sessions to product searches; however, almost all data collection systems will track the customer while they are viewing a product.

These kinds of marketing systems will typically use proprietary algorithms to search for patterns that determine the type of relatable products the customer should be "also" interested in. The patterns that are analyzed are deeper than mere add-on or up-sell relationships, they are mostly based upon data attributes, like function, color, size, and shape, that are weighed out to determine the customer's personal preference profile -- in order to "best guess" what the customer will want to buy.

However with Social Commerce, the data that is collected is primarily from forums, portals, blogs, instant messengers, and various other social networking venues, provided by businesses wanting to drive traffic to their eCommerce sites. The data generally collected from these sources provide a more application specific view of what, how, when, why and where customers purchased, used, recommended, and/or returned a product; not to mention, their overall satisfication of the process/product. Trends, forecasting, and business processes can all use this data to better analyze system weaknesses, as well as, using it to refine a customer's personal preference profile to improve conversation rates.

Several software tools, such as WebSphere Commerce, have begun implemention on various kinds of Social Commerce techniques. For companies interested in this marketing trend, don't forget that there is a thin line between improving your conversation rates, and invading your customer's privacy -- the last thing you want to do is damage your relationship with your customers.

For more information about Social Commerce or for any comments you have regarding this topic, please feel free to drop us a line through our contact form.