Posts Tagged ‘Social Commerce Summit’

New at Bazaarvoice, User-Generated Content

Brett Hurt The “hidden” impact of 100 billion: the new textbook

February 28th, 2010 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

100 billion impressions servedThis week, you will see a series of Bazaarblog posts by our executive team about the achievement of our biggest milestone to date. As of late last week (the week that CNN profiled us!), we passed 100 billion impressions of user-generated content, including customer Reviews, Answers, and Stories! As of this writing, the real-time counter on our homepage is over 100.3 billion and climbing rapidly. Why count impressions? Well, in a world where 80% of consumers seek user-generated content while shopping, impressions of user-generated content are “the new advertising.” Actually, what is “new” is old – “the voice of the marketplace” (read the story behind our name) has always been with us, but this is the first time in human history that word of mouth is digital, and that’s more transformational than all of us can imagine today.

As we celebrate this milestone, we are also close to celebrating our 5-year anniversary (Brant and I founded Bazaarvoice on May 2, 2005). With 80% of consumers now looking for customer reviews, it is hard to appreciate now just how few U.S. retailers offered customer reviews on their websites in May of 2005. Would you believe only four? Today we serve more than 50 of the top 100 U.S. retailers, more than 25 of the top 50 U.K. retailers, and similar numbers in Australia, France, and Germany. And we serve many clients outside of retail, from health care to manufacturing to financial services. We have rapidly grown into a company of 750 clients and 515 employees globally, operating across 25 international languages. I do not take our success for granted one bit and I’m very proud of and thankful for our partnerships with our clients. I’m also proud of the culture we have created here. We spend the majority of our waking time at work, and we strive to make that time as fun and meaningful as possible. Our passionate culture impacts the way we serve our clients and also give back to the community.

Bazaarvoice School of C2C MarketingAs I look back to my first Bazaarblog post, I think back to my analytical roots, spending seven years building Coremetrics, and reflect on how much we have achieved on the analytical front at Bazaarvoice. The “hidden” impact of 100 billion impressions is how we are writing the new marketing and merchandising textbook together with our clients. In a world of increasingly fragmented media, a dramatic shift to time spent in the online channel vs. other channels, and a rise in the prominence of the voice of the customer, the “hidden” impact is felt in how marketers and merchandisers adopt new practices based on user-generated content. And, to be totally frank, I underestimated the impact in how Bazaarvoice would change the world in this way. The Bazaarvoice School of C2C Marketing Seal to the left is from our first Social Commerce Summit in 2008, which quickly sold-out and was a magical event, full of clients speaking about writing the new textbook together (our fifth Summit is coming up in Austin April 19-21 and is almost sold-out already).

So this blog is dedicated to some of the most dramatic changes I have seen on the path to 100 billion. Here is a look back on just a few of them:

It has been an amazing 4 years, 10 months, and I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our clients, employees, partners, investors, and advisors. We promise not to take our success for granted, and we are ramping up R&D and Client Services like never before. This quarter alone, we are attempting to hire at least 80 people, but our very high bar makes this difficult indeed (we have 14 full-time recruiters working in our office at Bazaarvoice today and there is nothing more important for our culture than its foundation: our people). If you know of someone that may be interested in joining us, see the many jobs available here and note our referral incentives.

The next 100 billion impression milestone will no doubt be achieved much faster than the first, but I expect our impact to be no less profound than with the first (see our many case studies, webinars, or whitepapers for more). Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for your support. And stay tuned to this blog as we continue this exciting journey. As I said in my first-ever blog post on Feb. 3rd, 2006 (and remains just as true today):

Welcome to the age of customer empowerment in our hyper-connected global village! We look forward to being your tour guide in this wild, wild ride.

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Customer Centricity, Marketing Strategy, Research, Social Commerce Summit

Brant Barton UK Takes Lead in Online Advertising

October 12th, 2009 by Brant Barton Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer

eMarketer reported last week that in the first half of 2009, the UK became the first major economy to see online advertising spending surpass TV ad spending. According to the report, the Internet accounted for 23.5% of UK advertising revenue vs. 21.9% for television. This is big news and not without controversy, as the UK TV lobby is protesting the aggregate number reported for Internet ad revenue, which includes paid search (the largest category by nearly 3X), online classifieds, display media, and other formats.

While the experts argue over the math, I think that UK (and US) advertisers and consumers should celebrate this milestone. While the US Internet-TV ad spending gap is still sizable, the steady migration of dollars over the coming years will drive Internet industry growth and evolution, yes, but also a more customer-centric experience for consumers faced with hard decisions in an increasingly complex economic and marketing environment. Advertiser spending on social marketing/commerce applications is still significantly smaller than the leading categories of Internet ad spending mentioned above. However, as we have witnessed firsthand over the last 4+ years of building Bazaarvoice (and shared on many occasions on Bazaarblog), the social category offers perhaps the greatest opportunity for advertisers to think bigger than clickthroughs and conversion rates and instead focus on wholesale cultural and operational transformation of their businesses using the voice of the customer as a muse.

This news from the UK is timely, as we just wrapped up our second annual Social Commerce Summit in London, the European complement to our US Social Commerce Summit held in Austin every year. We now serve over 120+ customers across Europe, and the London Summit was a sold out event. In the coming days, we will share highlights from the Summit here on Bazaarblog!

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Social Commerce Summit

Sam Decker 2009 Social Commerce Summit London

June 25th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Building on the explosive success of last year’s first Social Commerce Summit in London hosted at The Magic Circle Headquarters and world-famous ABSOLUT ICEBAR, Bazaarvoice is excited to announce the launch of our second-annual UK Social Commerce Summit. The 2009 Social Commerce Summit London event will be hosted on 7 October at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, followed by a champagne boat ride down the River Thames to our illustrious after-party at Buddha Bar London.

We’re bringing the best in Social Commerce! From notable keynotes and client presentations, to real-world training and roundtable discussions, Bazaarvoice’s Social Commerce Summit London is the definitive event for driving social commerce strategy and ROI.

Our keynote speakers include:jamescaan-01

You’ll also experience engaging seminars on customer-centricity, measuring ROI, breathing “Customer Oxygen,” and the Bazaarvoice product roadmap. View the full agenda online.

The Bard once asked: “Can one desire too much of a good thing?” We hope not. With a day full of informative and entertaining keynotes, real-world training and sessions, and plenty of time to network with peers, this year’s Social Commerce Summit in London is sure to be a hit. Brush up on your Shakespeare, because the social commerce event of the year doth cometh in October!

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Marketing Strategy, Ratings & Reviews, Social Commerce Summit, Word of Mouth

Sam Decker 2009 Summit Cliffnotes #4: Maximizing Impact from the Four Phases of Social Commerce

June 4th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

This series of blogs summarizes key takeaways from some of the presentations and panel discussions offered at the 2009 Social Commerce Summit.

This post recaps my session from the 2009 Social Commerce Summit, “Maximizing Impact from the Four Phases of Social Commerce.”

It was Christmas 2004, and the “it”-toy of the year for my four-year-old son Kyle was a volcano racetrack playset.

The playset was nearly impossible to assemble. My father, Bert, went online to look for feedback from fellow purchasers, and found that the toy had a 1.5-star rating on the retailer’s website with very critical reviews. Bert wrote a similarly critical product review detailing our experience with assembly.

That’s when my family decided never to buy a product again without first researching customer reviews.

“Just say the word”

Reviewers want to enhance others’ experiences by sharing their own. These days, social networking technology amplifies the voice – and impact – of anyone with an opinion.

Successful social commerce follows a maturity cycle that repeats itself over and over again. Each phase offers unique opportunities for businesses to get ahead.

Phase 1: Find influencers

In a marketplace where everyone wields influencer potential, companies must dramatically change the way they market their brands. Forward-thinking businesses actively court customer opinions, knowing that the most effective quality assurance comes from the people ultimately using the products.

The best way to attract influencers is to offer multiple channels that empower them to make their voice heard. Bazaarvoice found a 29% overlap in customers utilizing Ask & Answer and Ratings & Reviews. This demonstrates the opportunity to tap into reviewers for answers, but also illustrates the opportunity to unearth new contributors with different channels.

Phase 2: Get contribution

Once you’ve provided a forum for customers to raise their hands, the next step is to encourage customers to contribute.

There are various ways to accomplish this goal. Bazaarvoice client Canadian Tire asked their customers for product usage tips. Bath and Body Works solicited reviews and Q&A feedback via email, on in-store receipts, and upon completion of online purchases.

Action chains are an important part of maximizing influencers’ voices. If a customer submits a review for a product, he or she is already engaged with the brand and is open to further contribution. Why not direct them to contribute again?

Thank you pages for review submission are a great way to link reviews to questions and answers. Bazaarvoice clients have found that their thank you pages linking to open questions about the reviewed product drive answer volume by 139 percent, making these pages a huge opportunity increase influencers’ impact.

Phase 3: Get more from contribution

User-generated content isn’t just useful for driving Web traffic and e-commerce. Utilize your customer’s input on all types of advertising, from in-store ads and kiosks to email promotions and mobile devices. Razorgator’s “101 Reasons to Buy Your Tickets from Razorgator” is aggregated entirely from their customers’ opinions.

In addition, user-generated content can help improve an organization on every level. Customer feedback offers an outsider’s perspective on your company’s sales, customer service, and marketing techniques. Companies have returned to the drawing board based on negative user feedback, notifying dissatisfied customers how their input helped improve the original product. This step improves customer trust, and proclaims the company’s dedication to excellence.

Phase 4: Get more from influencers

The final phase of the social commerce cycle presents brands with questions that direct them back to phase 1. How can you bring your offline reviewers online? How can you engage them in new and creative ways?

The online retailer continued to carry the faulty and highly criticized volcano racetrack playset for a year after our bad experience. Neither the manufacturer nor the retailer ever responded to Bert’s toy review. As a result, my father didn’t write another online review for four years. The retailer and manufacturer’s neglect of the customer voice lost them an influencer and an opportunity.

Learn from our story. Use your customers’ input to maximize your impact.Social Commerce Summit: Opening Remarks

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Customer Centricity, Marketing Strategy, Research, Social Commerce Summit, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth

Sam Decker 2009 Summit Cliffnotes #3: How the New York Times is Using WOM Insights to Build ROI

May 28th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

This series of blogs summarizes key takeaways from some of the presentations and panel discussions offered at the jeffreygraham2009 Social Commerce Summit.

“How the New York Times is using WOM to drive ROI” was the keynote given by Jeffrey Graham, Executive Director of Customer Insight for the New York Times, on April  29, 2009.

Readers tell the New York Times that they buy the paper or visit NYTimes.com because the content fuels their conversations. They like to be “in the know.” They want to be where the dialogue begins.

All media is social media – including newspapers, which are a forum for communicating issues of interest to the public. But the scope of media presentation has changed drastically within the past decade. The New York Times has pursued different ways to bring its content to a global audience.

Women Multipliers
Marketers have come to realize that women play a large role in decision-making, especially in non-traditionally female-targeted categories such as technology and automobiles. Further, there is a set of “multipliers” who spur and rely on word of mouth to extend trends.

In 2008, the Times conducted an online study of more than 3,000 affluent women with in-depth interviews in NYC and LA. The survey covered investments, fashion, travel, consumer electronics and automobiles and filtered for word of mouth factors:

  • Means of influence – personal communication with at least five people per day
  • Past recommendation behavior – looking for a history of word of mouth influence
  • Personality traits – a love for learning new things, sharing ideas, and offering advice

The results revealed that 92 percent of women multipliers mentioned preferred products or services in conversations, in contrast to 79 percent of average affluent women.

Multiplier word of mouth is more valuable because the multipliers consume in greater quantities, and speak up more often. Auto non-multipliers speak to two people, for instance; multipliers speak to 14 ppl. If you reach 40 percent of the multipliers within your media plan, you double the number of recommendations made. Media planners don’t analyze multiplier data yet, but they will.

Global Multipliers
Does this trend exist only in the US and Europe? Or is it a global phenomenon?

A 2008 Reuters study analyzed similar trends amongst 4300 affluent consumers from major global nations. Multipliers were recognized based on product engagement, purchasing power, and social influence in the areas of advocacy, finance, luxury, technology, and travel.

While affluent multipliers constitute only one percent of the population, they influence 20 percent of all travel expenditure – 241 million flights – as well as 26 percent of global technology and 18 percent of global luxury purchases.

The study found a shared group of traits that is consistent around the world. Seventy-two percent of multipliers stressed the importance of being the first to try something new. Early adopters drive profitability because they rapidly adopt new products and spread the word about them. Eighty-nine percent of multipliers feel a responsibility to share their experience, offering 2.5 times the number of average consumer recommendations. Technology multipliers are asked for product recommendations a whopping average of 8 times per week.

Hidden Business Decision Influencers (B2B)
In 2008, the Times spoke with several dozen B2B individuals from various fields about the people they influence, and the ones who influence them. An average of five other voices influence business decisions, with influence overlapping industries. Businesses are influenced by a wide network of people, with many chief decision makers heavily dependent upon multiple sources of information and early adaptation of new technology. Alumni networks are among the top second-degree influencers.

What Multipliers Represent
The return on investing in multipliers was Bazaarvoice clients’ success. The Times’s metrics showed that word of mouth is the new measure of effective advertising. The NYTimes.com has seen the following results:

  • #1 newspaper site on the Web
  • 20 million monthly unique users
  • Most blogged site on the internet – extends the NYT’s mission to inform people across the world
  • Numerous industry awards

How to Utilize the Multiplier Effect

  1. Multipliers like to spread the word – enable them to spread YOUR message
  2. Multipliers are info mavens – be their source for news and trends
  3. Multipliers like to be experts – target your media to bring them YOUR news
  4. Multipliers want to talk back – use online media to cultivate a dialogue
  5. Multipliers are very environmentally conscious – increasing sustainability is key
  6. Multipliers tend to be trendsetters for things to come

womroi

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Community, Customer Centricity, Marketing Strategy, Social Commerce Summit, User-Generated Content

Sam Decker 2009 Summit Cliffnotes #2: Getting Shoppers to Talk – Unearthing the Voice of the Customer

May 22nd, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

This series of blogs summarizes key takeaways from some of the presentations and panel discussions offered at the 2009 Social Commerce Summit.

“Getting Shoppers to Talk: Unearthing the Voice of the Customer” was a breakout session hosted by Sean O’Driscoll, CEO of Ant’s Eye View, and Jon Nordmark, founder and CEO of eBags, on April 28, 2009.

Insights from Sean O’Driscoll, former General Manager of Community Support and the MVP program at Microsoft:

microsoftguy

During his 15 years at Microsoft, Sean learned a lot about customers, and the power of influencers – why they matter and how to make the most of them.

While he was at Microsoft, things got more complicated as the company built new products and sold to new audiences. Sean and his team had to figure out how to drive value for everyone, from the CIO to his own mom – all over the world. The scale was enormous.

Eventually, Microsoft became a utility. The public felt that instead of choosing Microsoft, consumers merely inherited the brand. Apple, in contrast, has a lot of emotion with its customers.

Meanwhile, over in Usenet, Microsoft users began creating online conversations. Creators, critics, collectors, joiners, and spectators discussed Microsoft products via online forums.

Microsoft started paying attention to all of these conversations. They realized that “answer people” offered a lot of information on their experience with various products, on their own time. Instead of reaching every single client, the company needed to connect with an elite set of influencers who, once recruited, would battle for the brand. And so Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional program was born. The group encompasses over 4,000 non-Microsoft employees who provide product insights to other users for them, simply because they want to.

Advice Sean gives for creating impactful customer interactions:

  • Segment. Connectors, critics, creators, and collectors all respond differently. Organize the information they offer, and make it discoverable.
  • Measure. How loyal are your customers? How do they rate your quality of service?
  • Monitor behavior. If your goal is feedback, critics are your most important demographic. The goal is to develop rapport with your supporters, and understand connectors. Start with one main goal and follow that through – you don’t have to do it all at once.
  • Enable. Different types of contributors want different things. Critics want feedback and change.

Remember the One Big Thing:

If you walk up to your customers talk to them, they will talk back. They’ll give you amazing insight. It’s up to you to close the loop. That’s how you reinvent brand activism around what you do.

Insights from Jon Nordmark, founder and CEO of eBags:

eBags.com has enjoyed a tremendous rate of growth, reaching profitability just two scant years after its launch in 1998. As a start-up company in a start-up industry, eBags stood out from its competitors for several innovative online retail techniques, including its thriving system for product ratings and reviews.

eBags was one of the first of a handful of retailers offering product reviews at the time, a planned component of the company’s marketing strategy from day one.

So how does eBags do it? And what can product reviews do for you?

Here are a few things we’ve learned along the way.

  • Review requests need to be one-on-one. Personalize emails at the top and the bottom. Customers must feel their input is valuable to the company,
  • The most effective responses come from reviewers who understand the product they are supposed to review. eBags adds a picture of the product in the solicitation email, and waits 21 days in order to give the customer time to test their new purchase.
  • Encourage your reviewers with an incentive. Promotions are a great way to drive reviews as well as traffic. But you don’t have to over-reward people for contributing – a “thank you” goes a long way.
  • Think through the cadence of your request. Ask twice, then let it go. Then try again six months later, and then a year later. Find out how they’re doing and how well the product is still holding up.
  • Make reviews a visual on your Web site. Spread the comments through your site as far as it will go. This encourages others to write reviews.
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Marketing Strategy, Search & SEO

Mike Svatek Clients buzzing about search at the Social Commerce Summit

May 7th, 2009 by Mike Svatek Chief Product Officer

This blog post is guest-written by Scott Koester, Product Manager for Bazaarvoice Search.

Scott Koester leads discussion at the search round table

Our Summit buzzed with input from our clients, and search was a major topic. During our round table sessions, search was a hot topic; we put two full tables together.

At the round table, we went in-depth about our SearchVoice Inline solution, which enables clients to index content directly on their product detail pages. While this capability has been available for over a year, the round table gave us a platform to discuss our latest approach which offers clients an easier way to deploy this functionality and integrate it with the rest of our SearchVoice platform, including our incredibly effective SearchVoice Microsite.

In fact, a top retailer decided on the spot to use SearchVoice Inline on its upcoming Ask & Answer implementation, and pushed up the date of their deployment – a sure sign that online retailers understand the value of UGC in its ability to increase search results. In addition, we signed a new SearchVoice deal at the Summit, and I have meetings with eight more clients and prospects who want to know more about how Bazaarvoice can impact search for them.

Jason Burby, Chief Analytics and Optimization Officer for ZAAZ, speaker at our Summit, and a contributor to ClickZ, noted in his recent Summit recap, “Nearly everyone who talked about ratings and reviews saw huge impacts on their organic search listings. The content in reviews often helps companies with searchable content, doubling or tripling the helpful content that search engines see. You’ve probably started to see this more with the searches you do online in terms of landing on product review pages.”

And it’s true. As budgets shrink, companies are focusing on natural search as one of the best ways to impact top-line growth. They’re also getting savvy, reassessing the trade-offs of syndicating or sharing that content with other sites – they want to keep that valuable content (and all the search results) for themselves! For many retailers, search is key to their online survival, and several of our clients find that the search results they get from Bazaarvoice solutions more than pay for their overall investment. Our variety of flexible search-enhancing options and the personalized attention of each client’s Community Manager helps all types of clients maximize the impact of UGC on search results.

Tons of one-on-one conversations pointed to the fact that our clients in all industries – financial services, manufacturing, and retail – are all craving the “next generation” in search, and we’re delivering them a variety of flexible ways to drive results. Look to this blog in the coming weeks for more details on Bazaarvoice programs designed to help clients leverage UGC to turbo-charge their search results.

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Social Commerce Summit

Sam Decker Summit Up: Palm

March 27th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

Bazaarvoice’s Social Commerce Summit is coming up next month, and last year’s attendees are eager to speak up about their favorite experiences. Here’s what Michael Roehricht, Palm’s Director of Corporate Web, has to share:

What was your key takeaway from the Social Commerce Summit? I really enjoyed last year’s Summit. I was able to network and learn new things from the sessions.

What was most memorable about the Social Commerce Summit? The bull ride and armadillo racing was personally the most memorable for me.

How has Bazaarvoice helped your company progress in social commerce? Our brand is no longer Palm’s brand [alone], and we all know that this holds true across the board. Companies naturally have to become more ‘open’ brands and social commerce is a natural extension of that fundamental belief.

What are you most looking forward to at the 2009 Summit? As for looking forward to this year, I think the overall agenda is going to be great. Lots of networking and learning. At Palm, we’ll be going full steam ahead with social marketing and there is a lot to learn. Bazaarvoice is a great partner that can help evangelizing the concept here at Palm across the large amount of stakeholders.

Thanks, Michael!

Visit www.socialcommercesummit.com for more information about the 2009 event.

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Social Commerce Summit

Heather Brunner 4 Reasons to Put the Social Commerce Summit into your Training Budget

March 16th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

Budgets are tight, and you’re trying to do the work of at least two people. So why should you plan to attend the Social Commerce Summit?

Because you’ll gain world-class training, learn from peers, meet leaders in the space, and get up-to-date, fast.

  1. Exposure to how the world’s largest brands do it. You’ll see real-world examples of success with Bazaarvoice solutions, from executives at some of the world’s largest companies. Speakers/instructors include CMOs, VPs, and more, from P&G, Dell, Best Buy, PETCO, and many more.
  2. Exclusive access to what works, what’s new, what’s next. This is the one place execs, experts, and product managers gather to frankly discuss what worked (and what didn’t). You’ll see the future of social commerce – and how it can impact your business – and how consumers react and interact with brands, today and tomorrow.
  3. Expand how user-generated content impacts your business. Learn to maximize the impact of programs to generate sales, improve the customer experience, and lower operational costs. Get user-generated content working for you.
  4. Engage even more deeply. Create face-to-face relationships with Bazaarvoice Community Managers, Bazaarvoice execs, and peers who face the same challenges you do. We’re all in this together; we’ll introduce you to those who can help.

Skip all those conferences that deliver fluff and flash. Make this part of your training budget, and the benefits will pay off the rest of the year – and longer. Register here. Now.

Austin in April is nothing less than delightful; see you there!

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Social Commerce Summit

Sam Decker Summit Up: Procter & Gamble

March 6th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

We’re convinced that our Social Commerce Summit is the most valuable training conference you could – and should! – attend this year. Our alumni consistently rave about the opportunity to network and exchange industry pointers, the breakthrough insights shared, and of course, the food and fun.

But don’t take our word for it; since we’re all about word of mouth, we’ve asked some of last year’s attendees to sum up some of their favorite moments with us… beginning with Gerry Tseng from Procter & Gamble.

What was your key takeaway from the Social Commerce Summit? There’s much we can learn from our peers alongside Bazaarvoice.


What was most memorable about the Social Commerce Summit? It was a safe learning environment to connect and share what’s working and not within the social media space.

What did you enjoy most? No press :)

How has Bazaarvoice helped your company progress in social commerce? They offer great examples and industry thought leadership on how to best leverage the voice of our consumers in a meaningful and receptive way.

What are the biggest obstacles to accelerating and sustaining your social commerce strategy? Consistently defining safe approaches to a growing phenomenon.

Why is social commerce important to your business? We place our consumers first, and through social commerce we are learning new ways to listen to what matters in consumers’ lives, as well as engage with consumers in meaningful and relevant ways.

What are you most looking forward to at the 2009 Summit? Learning how to best embrace our most passionate consumers!

Other 2009 Summit attendees include Best Buy, Costco, Dell, IBM, the New York Times, and Verizon Wireless.

Visit www.socialcommercesummit.com for more information about the 2009 event.

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