1. Making your Website
social... Why & how
By Alexandre Vandermeersch, CEO,
Dialog Solutions
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2. In May 2011, more than 325 Millions Web sites exist on the
Internet. Among them, millions of E-commerce shops, news
sites, service providers, social media sites, or simple information
sharing sites for a local business, a brand, a NGO, a person.
While the number of sites have exploded over the last years, the
share of traffic 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
traffic in the US.
1. Why Social Networks
grabbed the traffic
There are multiple reasons, which I describe became really compelling - look at what
as the ‘4 laws of social media’, that explain happened to Facebook.
this dominance.
Law of gravity. Most social media have
Law of networks. This is the most obvious built-in sharing to your network/followers. If
reason. The more people join, the more you do something within the network (like a
value networks generate. Once a critical page, comment, etc...), your connections will
mass has been reached, networks will get see it on their ‘social feed’ - you don’t need to
extra leverage to gain new members and make extra clicks to share your action. This
accelerate their growth. Some networks is the famous ‘Viral loop’ of social networks.
The 4 laws of social media This means that content is progressively
moving to social networks, as brands saw
the value of the ‘built-in’ sharing of actions
Law of networks – the more people join, the by their fans and its viral potential. The more
more valuable they get content, the more often people check out the
site, and the more addictive it gets. There is
more gravity on the earth than on the moon.
Law of switch costs. If a competitor of
Law of gravity - the more content, the more
Facebook pops up with better features (or
frequent visits get, and the more content it
attracts better privacy controls), will you switch ? It
takes time & energy to register and build your
network, and who will actually follow you
Law of switch costs - it took time & energy to once you move away from Facebook to this
build your network, why move ? great new social network ? Maybe nobody.
Those are switch costs.
Zuckerberg’s law of information sharing.
Marc Zuckerberg pointed it in an interview.
Zuckerberg’s law of information sharing - every Every year, people share twice as much
year people share twice as much as previous year information as they did last year. People get
more confident as time passes.
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3. The debate was heavy during the past few to have a true ‘home’ where you have full
years whether or not everyone, and especially control.
marketers, should focus their efforts on
Then, in April 2010, Facebook released its
building a presence on social networks, and
‘Open Graph API’, allowing websites all over
completely abandon their investments into a
the planet to include Facebook features
traditional Web site. The rationale was ‘Go
right into their website, such as the famous
fishing where the fishes are’. That struck
‘Like’ button. Great win-win move, enabling
a point. We did hear some horror stories,
to bring more engagement (and data) on
where hundreds of thousands of dollars were
Facebook, and the famous viral loop of social
invested building a website, only in order to
networks into external websites. Debate was
buy expensive traffic. In some cases, this
then closed. You need to be both on social
resulted in a cost per visitor of up to EUR 50.
media and keep your site, but make it social.
But there were counter-arguments, which
are still valid. Fundamentally, for many sites, Now, according to Search Engine Land, more
there was so much traffic brought by Google than 2.5 Millions of websites have included
search (or direct visits) that it absolutely still some social plugins brought by Facebook.
made sense to keep one. Also, you have full Many include the Twitter ‘Tweet’ button and
control of your site: your own ads, look&feel, other social plugins.
sections, and no dependency on third parties
‘changing the rules’ every now & then. Yes,
some brands got their Facebook page simply
deleted, for obscure reasons. You want
If you doubt about it, here are a few samples of the value created through Facebook - based on
Facebook’s own statistical data, so to be taken with a grain of 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 referral traffic.
Users coming to the NHL.com from 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 Huffington Post are said to have more than doubled their
referral traffic from 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 referral traffic from Facebook after implementing the Like button in
April 2010 and has maintained those levels since.
Outdoor sporting goods retailer Giantnerd.com saw a 100% increase revenue from Facebook within
two weeks of adding the Like button.
American Eagle added the Like button next to every product on their site and found Facebook
referred visitors spent an average of 57% more money than non-Facebook referred visitors
Children’s clothing retailer Tea Collection added the Like button to sale merchandise and saw daily
revenues increase 10 times.
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4. 2. How can you capture the value of
social Web on your site ?
But the question still is - how do we maximize of building ‘positive word of mouth’
the value of social on our website ? Putting is a distinct added value, and is key. A
‘like’ buttons everywhere will not work. In this definition of ‘social currency’ can be:
white paper, we describe a more advanced “someone taking a positive social action
approach. for a brand, bringing its network closer
to a purchase of that brand”. You can
For instance, we fundamentally believe
get a lot of buzz through a social media
that integrating smartly conversations that
campaign, with thousands of fans ‘liking’
happen on a Facebook page are really key
a page for a contest or another action.
to take advantage of the social Web. Actually,
If that does not result in any ‘social
according to a survey done in November
currency’, it’s mostly a wasted effort.
2010 with top social media strategists at key
For instance, maybe it was the wrong
corporations by Altimeter, a Web consultancy
audience who clicked (not relevant), or
firm, ‘Web site [conversation] integration’ is
the whole action did not bring anything
the number one priority, selected by 47%
from the brand’s value proposition to its
of respondents. As pointed by Jeremiah
audience (ie a buzz video not related at
Owyang, recognized worldwide social media
all to the company). On the other hand, if
expert & partner at Altimeter, “2011 is the
you manage to make people share their
year of integration”.
happy testimonials on the brand to a
We will first define the 7 main functions relevant group, that do counts. Make sure
that the social actions you are driving do
provided by ‘social’ elements on a web build social currency.
site, to then illustrate how to choose top
3. Amplify Social currency: once social
priorities, and define what’s needed for currency has been built, it’s your job to get
each type of page on your site. the maximum value out of it - republish,
quote, retweet, cross-share testimonials
While much is about driving referral traffic from Facebook to Twitter, and so on...
from the ‘viral loop’, there is much more Social amplification is vital to drive value.
than that to it. Let’s define the 7 main core Remember that testimonials are one of
functions of getting your website ‘social’: the oldest marketing techniques ever
1. Accelerate viral loop: the most used (the household lady showcasing
obvious - a social action (sharing, like) a really white shirt in TV ads...) - but
drives interest of the network back to a simply writing out ‘quotes’ around a few
site. We call this ‘acceleration’, because statements on your web site will not be
obviously anybody can share a link on sufficient: people want to see faces, and
Facebook without a social plugin, but click on the comment to see its original
the easier you make it - putting and version.
encouraging the 1-click ‘like’ and others 4. Animate: also called ‘Content marketing’,
- the better. People that are then driven it’s a bit the reverse of traditional
to the site are typically well qualified advertising. TV advertising interrupts you
visitors, because they have an affinity with an ad when you watch interesting
(friend, follower) with the sender, who is content, right ? Social animation creates
typically already a customer or member. interesting content to create goodwill
2. Build social currency: it’s not because & possibly make you come watch an
you shared something that you created ad. Many Facebook pages are using
goodwill for the brand or site. The value it to keep in touch with their fans or
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5. followers. Social animation is easy on brands’ and web sites which are building
social media, but why won’t you bring it their reputation. In addition, replying to
to your website ? It will drive revisits to comments & suggestion is key - it shows
your site (see your products/services), that there are real people behind that site.
engagement through comments & shares Obviously, with the amount of attacks,
(and thus viral loops) and build goodwill. scams, phishing, unreliable e-commerce
shops, showing your community on your
5. Humanize: Humans are fundamentally
site is another way to show that you are
social animals. Imagine you walk in the
credible and trustworthy.
street and look for a restaurant. You see
two of them which are very similar (price, 6. Gather insights. People will ask
menu, atmosphere). But one is half-full, questions, give you feedback, make
the other completely empty. Where do suggestions. You will track how
you go ? Asking the question is already many people ‘like’ vs ‘buy’ to identify
answering it. For thousands of years, bottlenecks. Show that you care & listen
people have done so many things in (cfr my point 5), but especially use their
group, from shopping to drinking, etc... voice to adapt your product, services &
It’s part of our nature, we need to get marketing.
re-assured, see that ‘others’ have done
7. Personalize. Personalization is the
the same, bought the same, and so on.
ultimate weapon, still largely untouched,
Online, people are often alone browsing
of social integration. The idea is to
so they look for social clues. Reviews
build on the social currency built by
& social presence are not there simply
somebody’s network to personalize
because of the content they provide, but
your experience. In e-commerce, this is
simply to show that ‘others’ are around,
mostly what is called ‘Social commerce’.
have bought that book, registered to
The usual case is the Levi’s friends store,
that service. While this is important for
in which you can log in via Facebook to
all sites, this is vital for the ‘upcoming
personalize your shopping experience
based on what your friends recommend.
7 functions of making your website social Another example are the ‘sponsored
stories’ by Facebook. It will prominently
show, as an ad, a brand that somebody
Accelerate in your network likes. At some points,
Viral loop those ads will appear on websites
outside of Facebook.
Build social
Personalize
currency
Amplify
Gather
social
insights
currency
Humanize Animate
your site
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6. So, the first step is to define what your as it looks, means actually doubling or
priorities are for your site, typically: increasing the sales by 25%. And yes,
this is the evidence we have seen with
Established sites: you want to drive viral
clients. To optimize conversion, it is key
loops, social amplification & animation to
to amplify the right testimonial at every
drive revisits to your site & cross- or up-
point through the conversion funnel, re-
selling (or simply page views if this is your
assuring prospect that, others did the
metric)
same as you do now and they are happy!
Upcoming sites: basically you need Viral loop is key too. For personalisation
more viral loops but you are still building to make sense, you will need to be a
your credibility with a few followers/fans: large player.
therefore make sure to amplify their voice
Internet services: viral loop, social
to the maximum. Social animation a bit
currency & humanization is crucial.
less so since you are more focused on
Fundamentally, this is how most
first time visitors & conversion.
social media themselves built up their
In addition, this can vary by type of sites, here membership.
are a few examples:
Publishers: viral loop is key, so is social
E-commerce: social is all about viral loop animation to drive revisits. Rest is less
& amplification. While much of the effort important. Personalization might be
of social + search engine optimization/ relevant for very large coverage news
advertising has been on getting traffic, sites, who can then cherry pick best
much less was given to actually convert stories and categories on its home page
better those visitors. As an example, based on the network of the reader,
e-commerce sites convert about 1 to driving engagement and page views
3% of their visitors into actual buyers.
An extra percent of conversion, as small
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7. 3. Some concrete action steps
Now that you have chosen your priorities, to take care of this silent majority.This is
what should you do ? why crafting an overall approach which best
balances ‘calls to actions’ (like sharing) and
Define where you target audience is (and
passive elements (like showing testimonials)
where you have a social media presence):
is key.
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, all, other ? That
should be straightforward. Many readers are probably wondering: “What
about critiques ? Will my web site be polluted
Based on that, define your social approach
by the few unhappy customers?”. The answer
for each type of pages you are proposing.
is : no, it won’t. Most of the comments on
brands in the Web are positive ! Eventually,
How to do it in e-commerce ? people are happy about what they bought
or the company they are interacting with,
Home page: show your social media feed(s) in a widget, and happy to tell it. Most of the issues that
or multiple - it will animate your returning visitors & show that happened on the social web were not due to
‘humans’ are behind this. Critical. critics, but due to the fact that the company
Product pages: get the social ‘like/share’ buttons close the mishandled the issue and badly replied. If you
product, with a call to action ‘Do you like this product? Click here’. have a critique, reply to it with acceptance,
Product reviews help. Yet, for many case, reviews don’t apply: due care & respect. Nobody is perfect. This
not enough visitors end up writing one, products are not really will help build priority 5: humanize your brand.
‘review prone’ (like clothes), or change too quickly (e.g. many Visitors will love it.
consumer electronics). In this case, you should pick & choose But the benefits are clear, and huge. Making
more general testimonials on the category, and publish them right your web site social will drive new visitors,
on the page. In addition, you can use a ‘commenting’ plug-in to drive revisits, convert more prospects into
enable conversations on the product, and give the ability to ‘open buyers, drive engagement which will in turn
up’ the conversation right from the site. create more virality. It is relevant for your site?
Cart & check-out: highlight testimonials related to delivery & Well, it’s relevant for any site that wants to
service. People are wary of entering their card details, get anxious drive traffic & convince people - so...any site.
on delivery reliability - re-assure them. It’s time to bring the social revolution where it
After check-out: create a unique URL with the product matters: on your web site.
description and name of the client, which she or he can easily
share on social networks.
Last you should include a new section ‘Community’ or ‘News’
if you haven’t gotten one, with a full page version of your social
feed.
This is still basic - of course, you can move
your shop to a ‘social commerce’ experience
by customizing the shop based on what your
friends recommend, etc... Social commerce
requires a white paper on its own.
Eventually, be ware of ‘over-socializing’
- a product with zero “likes” (even though
Facebook won’t show that number) is
suspicious. Remember as well that 95% of
visitors are completely passive - you need
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8. Commercial note
At Dialog Solutions, we walk the talk. is then published through a simple widget,
Because we believe so much in the above, from which a conversation can be started
and we could not find an entire satisfaction too (to get feedback and more testimonials).
with existing social plug-ins & widgets, we In addition, widgets can be fully customized
have built a simple tool to better manage & on our online design interface. We have a
showcase social media conversations on number of other features in the pipeline, and
your web site, called Dialogfeed (http://www. more social channels to add, but we’d like to
dialogfeed.com) get more feedback of our users first”.
Nicolas Kint, Product Manager dialogfeed: According to David Hachez, Founder of
“The major challenge is to integrate the Raz*War, an e-commerce attacker selling
right conversation (questions, testimonials) razors online: “DialogFeed is critical to help
at the right point in your conversion funnel. us re-enforcing the virtuous circle around our
With our tool, we store all conversations brand. Testimonials from our ambassadors
on your Facebook page & Twitter account are our best marketing asset – we have now
in our database & enable the community a tool to use them the best possible way”.
manager to display the conversations on You can suscribe to a free trial of Dialogfeed
its web site, highlight the best testimonials, on www.dialogfeed.com
which are displayed prominently, and hide
spam or irrelevant messages. The ‘feed’
About the author
Alexandre Vandermeersch is a CEO at Dialog
Solutions, a company providing software &
services generating insights & business value
through online dialogue with customers &
stakeholders. He holds a master degree in
Computer Science from the UCL and a MBA
from the IESE Business School. Prior to work
for Dialog Solutions, Alexandre worked for
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
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9. About Dialog Solutions
Dialog Solutions is the specialist of next-generation online dialogue solutions to create business
value through research communities & social media. The company was founded by Patrick
Willemarck & Alexandre Vandermeersch, two senior business executives who combine years
of expertise at McKinsey&Company, P&G, Grey, Young&Rubicam.
Its key products are:
Brandialog - a powerful online research and finish it on Facebook - bringing
community & platform to drive insights more viral loops to your site, where you
through private brand communities: have control. DialogCube is perfect for
co-creation, product feedback, & other marketing dialogue, customer service,
research mixing both quantitative & open innovation, & other use cases
qualitative techniques in an innovative
Dialogfeed - Dialogfeed is the first & only
way
‘Social Media Amplification’ Software
DialogCube - it’s community software re- as a Service tool to drive back great
invented, with a focus on conversations, conversations into your web site, including
& full integration of social media ‘highlight/hide’ of conversations, and full
conversations. Questions & answers, widget customization
voting, following of topics, sharing of
Among its key clients are Deutsche Bank,
conversations, highlights,... Animate the
Touring, L’Oréal, Danone, Delta Lloyd, and
space through simple Retweets, start a
many others in all sectors.
conversation on Twitter, continue it on
your site (in which the cube is integrated),
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
h t t p : / / s e a rc h e n g i n e l a n d . c o m / b y - t h e -
numbers-how-facebook-says-likes-social-
plugins-help-websites-76061
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