Social commerce[1] is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions, to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. More succinctly, social commerce is the use of social network(s) in the context of e-commerce transactions. The term social commerce was introduced by Yahoo! in November 2005[2] to describe a set of online collaborative shopping tools such as shared pick lists, user ratings and other user-generated content-sharing of online product information and advice. (via Wikipedia)
It’s a sociological concept that’s mostly attributed to Pierre Bourdieu. He breaks down the idea of Social Currency into 3 main areas (also via wikipedia):
Field: a structured social space with its own rules, schemes of domination, legitimate opinions
Habitus: a system of dispositions (lasting, acquired schemes of perception, thought and action), which are both implicit and explicit, objective and subjective.
Capital: the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.
Combined, these 3 main components (plus a whole lot of social theory in between) create social currency. Based on this foundation, today the commonly labeled pieces of social currency are affiliation, conversation, utility, information, advocacy, information and identity.
According to Nielsen, 70% percent of people trust recommendations from unknown users online, while Forrester has shown that nearly half of US online adults read ratings and reviews at least once per month.
So it’s no surprise that in a digitally activated social world, social currency is the element of engagement that drives action, especially commerce.
“In the year that AKQA’s Rei Inamoto presented a keynote talk on why ad agencies should act more like tech startups, a 162-year-old financial services company acted like a tech startup, and stole the attention away from the thousands of startups represented there.”
>Over 11,393 subscribersOver 16,661,808 video views Branded Twitter Hashtag
>#JAYZSyncShow
Vevo Channel
>Over 183,00 views
Green wristbands that everyone who wanted to attend the concert had to wear
Amex booth at SXSWi
A whole lot more…you get the point…it was omnipresent, it was offline and digital. it was event-based, location-based, pr, social, paid, owned, earned…and centered around a major celebrity.
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Amex Sync Show Presenting JAY Z Live from SXSW Trailer
Amex Sync encourages people to check in via FourSquare to select places that give users immediate discounts. No coupons. No weirdness showing the store/restaurant person your mobile coupon (most of whom don’t really know what to do with it). It’s simply a benefit of being an Amex cardholder. And as a result, it drives loyalty through tangible value.
And it drives commerce through social currency
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#BOS Cardmembers, Restaurant Week Boston starts today! Register your Card & make your reservations. aexp.co/8P7
(what we learned about social currency that drives commerce, today)
Affiliation:
w/ Twitter - a micro-blogging w/ 500+million users
w/ 4Square - largest location-based check-in network with coupons/commerce
w/ SXSWi - the ultimate place to reach over 20K highly networked/connected/social ‘prosumers”
w/ Jay-Z - need I say more?
Conversation:
TWO free tickets to see an exclusive Jay-Z concert
Ongoing savings offers
All the social conversation generated by points 1 and 2
Utility:
Savings/coupons delivered in a easy (AUTOMATED) way
Advocacy:
Who doesn’t want to brag about seeing Jay-Z (up close) for FREE (i do)
Information:
Ways to use your Amex card for greater value, brought to you (dear card member) in real-time, all the time. It’s like a digital concierge (and you don’t even have to have a platinum)
Identity:
Shockingly, Amex got at least over 2K people to submit their credit card number - a requirement for joining the Sync program - which connects to the Twitter API. That requires card members to have lots of trust in the system/program/Amex (I’m sure this deterred some people as well). Who wants their credit card associated with Twitter and FourSquare? But people did it. And perhaps because Amex created a social identity that felt safe, secure, relatable and exciting. They created an identity for themselves via the Syn programs that went beyond being a plain old Green/Gold/Platinum CORPORATE card. They created trust. And as we all know, trust = purchase.
What is Social Commerce?
Social commerce[1] is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions, to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. More succinctly, social commerce is the use of social network(s) in the context of e-commerce transactions. The term social commerce was introduced by Yahoo! in November 2005[2] to describe a set of online collaborative shopping tools such as shared pick lists, user ratings and other user-generated content-sharing of online product information and advice. (via Wikipedia)
What is Social Currency?
Field: a structured social space with its own rules, schemes of domination, legitimate opinions
Habitus: a system of dispositions (lasting, acquired schemes of perception, thought and action), which are both implicit and explicit, objective and subjective.
Capital: the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.
Fact:
According to Nielsen, 70% percent of people trust recommendations from unknown users online, while Forrester has shown that nearly half of US online adults read ratings and reviews at least once per month.Introducing the Amex Sync Program:
AdAge proclaims Amex as the real winner of the SXSW 2012 buzz bowl.
SXSWi 2012 Amex Sync Program feat. Jay-Z (Overview)
Branded YouTube ChannelBranded Twitter Hashtag
And the Commerce Bit?
Let’s quickly break it down
Obviously, you’re all asking: Is it working???
Key Takeaways: