Posts Tagged ‘website’
Fashion in a Flash: Amazon ventures into Event Sale E-commerce
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Riding the wave of successful flash deal sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial, Fashion e-commerce websites dedicated to daily deals that flaunt their invite-only “exclusivity” are becoming increasingly popular. RueLaLa, GiltGroupe, and Hautelook are among the most popular of these sites. Yesterday, online retailer Amazon launched a “private fashion sale site” of its own: MYHABIT. Similar to other fashion flash-sale sites, potential members must request an invitation to partake in the get-it-before-it’s-gone shopping experience. However, unlike many of the fashion sale sites that begin in the morning on East Coast time, leaving West Coasters frantically scrambling for the fashion scraps, one of the most appealing aspects of MYHABIT is that deals don’t start until 9 a.m. PT/ 12 p.m. ET, giving East and West Coasters an equal opportunity to scavenge for their designer merchandise. Another big sell: MYHABIT also offers free shipping and free returns in the United States.
Amazon’s foray into the fashion world seems to be a natural expansion for the brand, yet it’s still a venture out of its comfortable world of practical consumer products such as DVDs and books. While Amazon.com does offer clothing, the e-commerce giant is tapping into a whole new niche market with the launch of MYHABIT and Amazon will need to prove its fashion savvy in order to compete with other sites that have already established their fashion authority. While Amazon is likely hoping to ride its reputation as a reliable online retailer, it will probably take a bit more than reputation alone to get the luxury consumers on board. The success of the site will depend on whether Amazon can reign in the coveted deals that will intrigue and entice the fashion community and also on how Amazon positions and markets MYHABIT, especially in respect to differentiating it from the competitors. Already set up on Facebook and Twitter, MYHABIT will likely be using these social networks to grow its community and drive people to the site. Through leveraging its e-commerce power, tapping into the niche needs of the fashion community, and using innovative campaigns to make a splash in a somewhat already saturated market, MYHABIT has the potential to send consumers scrambling for designer deals on the daily.
SCG ‘ombudsman’s note: we have worked with leading ecommerce companies on their social media strategies and programs, as have others in our city and sector. So while we have a front row seat to these new developments, as with all of our agency’s point of view publishing on our blog neither this post nor others are ever sponsored or promotional in nature.’ We take special care to make sure our content is fair and balanced and strive at all times to uphold the standards set forth in the WOMMA Code of Ethics.The Tosh.0 Effect
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Surely by now most of you have heard of the relatively new show on Comedy Central show, hosted by Daniel Tosh, called Tosh.0. It airs every Wednesday at 10:30pm and has the main premise of commenting/mocking anything and everything viral. Most of the show is dedicated to making fun of videos that circulate through the web every day. Whether it’s a guy in awe of a couple rainbows or a kid freaking out after his mom cancelled his World of WarCraft subscription, you can count on Tosh.0 to analyze it, often in ways you didn’t think could be aired on TV.
One reason for the success of Tosh.0 has been its ability to receive its content and connect with its viewers by harnessing the immense power of social media. Tosh uses many different methods to connect with his viewers: he promotes user-submitted videos (most of which are men getting hit in the groin), answers Twitter questions sent to twitter.com/danieltosh during his show, and updates his blog on Comedy Central’s website on a daily basis. He says much of his outreach is met with hostility, especially in response to his raunchy tweets. He also jokingly states that he receives death threats on a daily basis.
Through use of social media, the show has been able to grow in popularity at a staggering rate. During the show’s first season each episode averaged 1.3 million viewers. Now in its second season, it has a weekly viewership topping 2.5 million.
Some have called Tosh.0 the new, and somewhat twisted, America’s Funniest Home Videos. Tosh.0 recently signed a deal for a 3rd season and with its large viewership, grasp of use of social media, and a seemingly never-ending vault of viral content, it is hard to think of Tosh.0 going anywhere but up anytime soon. Which is good because watching people fall in funny ways never gets old!
Social Media Goes to Washington
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Wouldn’t it be cool to live in the times when government was simple? When you knew all the issues that were out there and you could put in your two cents. That was like 200 years ago but those were the days. Now, in these fast-paced modern times, I have no idea what my representatives are voting for in my name. But I can guarantee that politicians that I’ve helped put in office have voted for bills that would make me cringe. This isn’t something I’ll be able to control anytime soon (until I’m 35 and eligible to be the next Barack).
But there’s hope! The YouCut program was introduced a couple of weeks ago on Eric Cantor’s website. Each week the site gives you a choice of five porky government programs to cut and opens it up for voting by text or web. At the end of the week the votes are tallied and the winner is proposed to be cut before the House of Representatives. In its first week 280,000 Americans voted to cut an initiative that scales back welfare requirements that would have saved 2.5 billion dollars. The cut failed to pass with a vote of 177-240.
Regardless of your political persuasion you have to admit that this is pretty cool. I’d love it if more representatives gave their constituencies a say in the issues. Eric Cantor and his fiscally conservative posse are blazing trails and hopefully we’ll see more politicians jumping on social politics bandwagon soon.
http://www.republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/
Bake (AKA Embed) Your Tweets and Eat Them Too
Thursday, May 13th, 2010Last week, Twitter released a new “hack” feature (http://media.twitter.com/blackbird-pie/) that allows tweets to be embedded in websites, blog posts, and so forth using html. No more screen grabs, no more cropping, no more image uploads.
Here’s what a few people are saying on Twitter, using the new feature of course:
http://twitter.com/adamwc/statuses/13383678914
Hey – check it out – I can embed Tweets now using Twitter’s Blackbird Pie. Awesome. http://media.twitter.com/blackbird-pie/ #fbless than a minute ago via Tweetie
Adam WC
adamwc
http://twitter.com/luigimontanez/statuses/13386076622
Cool idea, but incredibly long embed code: http://media.twitter.com/blackbird-pie/less than a minute ago via web
Luigi Montanez
LuigiMontanez
More important than your embed method of choice is how businesses can refer to and use tweets to complement their relationship building and branding efforts. What people say about brands is more important than what brands say about themselves, and thus embedding positive and even critical tweets can add value and create opportunities for genuine engagement.
If Twitter saw value in promoting its new feature, which it doesn’t need to, the company could do a Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com/), find tweets that capture positive feedback like the former tweet above, and embed in a blog post to highlight what people have to say. Again, how people perceive Twitter and its features is more important than how Twitter perceives itself.
Embedding tweets voicing concern like the latter one above can (be selective and think it through) add value as well. For example, Twitter could capture tweets that critique the new feature (e.g. how it can be improved etc.), embed them in a blog post, and let their readers know that they’ll be addressing these and making updates accordingly. This would show that Twitter is listening, wants your feedback, and isn’t going to ignore it even if somewhat critical.
By embedding both positive and critical tweets when and where appropriate, companies can highlight positive perceptions of their product / service and likewise show that they’re addressing concerns head on.
Facebook’s Legitimacy Problems: Are You Who We Thought You Were?
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
A recent post outlined steps Facebook is taking in requiring page owners to prove their connections with the brands they represent on the ever-growing social networking site. What does this mean for agencies? What are the short-term and long-term impacts? How will this affect your brand? Let’s take a look.
Prove It
Facebook essentially is providing page owners three ways to verify that they in fact have rights to develop and maintain a brand page and they can be found here:
- Add a badge or Fan Box widget to your Website – This is simple, really and can be done by sending a bit of code to whoever is code monkeying your site. It also provides a great focal point for driving traffic to your Fan Page.
- Add an official e-mail address to your personal Facebook account that can be used to verify your affiliation with the brand (this can also be that of an authorized outside entity like PR, marketing, advertising agency, etc.) – This is easy if you’re a recognized agency, but a little harder if your roles are mostly behind the scenes.
- Add another admin who has a legit e-mail address – This is probably the easiest thing to do. Simply add your client contact to the admins of the page, giving you instant legitimacy.
The Agency
For agencies that are building and maintaining Fan Pages for brands in the Facebook environment, this could be a bit of a sticking point as they have to work out, with their client, the level of visibility they want to have as to who is actually doing the legwork. However, in most cases, a client contact is already (or should be) and admin of the page so they can not only lend their legitimate e-mail address, but also their watchful eye to the account.
The Short Term
In the short term, proving the authenticity of these pages is going to create a bit of extra work, but the short-term rewards greatly outweigh the time needed to get your stamp of approval (is there actually a stamp of approval?). Like with Twitter, brands have always been able to make a case for deleting unauthorized accounts based on copyright law, but now Facebook is taking that a step further and actually making it easier to drive out those pages which might be representing brands in a less-than-authentic fashion.
By simply claiming your brand pages and legitimizing them, you’re essentially eliminating those other pages and, in some cases, Facebook may fold those pages’ fans into your fan base, giving them a legitimate source of interaction on Facebook— and you a broader fan base— in one fell swoop.
The Long Term
Long term, this seems like a strategy by Facebook to not only cut down on clutter and misinformation within the Facebook environment, but also a move toward offering brands added benefits for operating within Facebook. Don’t be surprised if these Facebook Fan Pages start developing multiple levels of functionality and complexity based on dollars spent on Facebook Advertising and direct buys. The team at Facebook is smart enough to make a move when they see an opportunity like this.
Unanswered Questions
While this is still a new(ish) issue, Facebook needs to provide a bit more information around the topic of what this actually means for brands. Will verified pages show up higher in search results, regardless of fan base and searchability? What’s the lag time between reporting a brand page and action being taken to remove that page? What are the criteria for moving fans from a page that might not be verified to the verified Fan Page?
Hopefully we’ll have answers to those, as well as the mounting pile of questions that will undoubtedly come out of this shift.
Non-Profits We Like: Technology Access Foundation
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009Yesterday morning, the SCG team attended the 8th annual fundraising breakfast for one of our favorite non-profits, the Technology Access Foundation. TAF is an organization that was founded with a mission “to give children of color the tools to be inventors and creators of technology.” TAF exists side by side with educational resources that are already in place, and work to connect technological resources and education to those that need it most.
Aside from this breakfast serving as a way for donors to get to better understand the services that TAF provides, it also gave us a chance to listen to and meet some former TAF students and hear their success stories firsthand. There were several great speeches, including one memorable enough to serve as the introduction to a TAF-focused editorial in The Seattle Times.
The Technology Access Foundation is a wonderful organization, one that we couldn’t be prouder to be associated with. With educational budgets being slashed left and right, it’s good to know that there are groups like this dedicated to provide those resources to students, resources that otherwise might not be available. That’s also why it’s so important for the community to help them out.
Make sure you check out the Technology Access Foundation’s website to learn more about how you can help.
Partners
Monday, March 16th, 2009About Us
Our Team | Press | Philosophy | Ethics | Partners | Associations | Jobs
At Spring Creek Group, we are proud to partner with a variety of technology and marketing services companies which provide complementary tools, creative and development capabilities, and channel expertise necessary to drive maximum impact in the social media channel for our clients. We invite you to learn more about our partners by clicking through to their websites below.
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Hot Off the Digital Press:
www.springcreekgroup.com goes live
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
If you’re reading this post, you probably have noticed there’s something different about the Spring Creek Group site. Perhaps the fact that you can see all recent Spring Creek Twitter feeds– not to mention this blog– on the SCG homepage, gave it away. Or maybe it was the large hand and marker circles in the middle of the screen, or our revamped logo that did it.
No matter what your clue was, Spring Creek Group would like to officially announce that our new site is up and running. We felt it was time for a www.springcreekgroup.com makeover, and with that came a new look and feel, as well as improved features and content.
Now you can instantly see all recent activity including feeds and blogs right on the homepage, as well as view current SCG news and upcoming events and browse through archived blog posts dating back to more than a year ago.
By implementing some of these features into your own site, a small business can significantly benefit from social media. If you’re already using social media channels, be sure they are included on your website and easily accessible for new users to join and current followers to keep updated with all the happenings of your business. And of course you can always contact us for more social media marketing guidance.
SCG’s goal was to create a site that functions as an example of social media, as well as provides an in-depth explanation of what we do and the unique services we provide including Brand Analysis & Measurement, Social Media Marketing Strategy & Planning, and Social Media Channel Outreach & Engagement Services.
So feel free to comment and let us know what you think about our new digs.
Skittles Tastes the Social Media Rainbow
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
Ok, Skittles. So you’ve successfully gotten online users to spend an inordinate amount of time in the past few days talking about Skittles. The interest of fruit-flavored candy lovers, as well as that of various social media mavens has officially been piqued, and all eyes are now focused intently on the conversation surrounding your brand. Some have even started calling your new campaign the “end of the homepage (as we know it).”
The best laid plans of candy makers and social media marketers couldn’t possibly go awry, right?
Hey, We Can Quit Anytime We Want To.
Thursday, February 12th, 2009Let’s get this straight. We would never, ever advocate that you use this. Spring Creek Group is in no way suggesting that you even think about doing anything that would keep you from religiously accessing social media sites throughout your work day.
However, we do just like the fact that sites like keepmeout.com exist. “Hey, if you’re addicted to visiting a certain site, then just visit this site and it will prevent you from going to those other sites.” Get yourself off the website sauce by using other websites to do it.
We have a sneaking suspicion that if that above premise was somehow any more meta, the entire Internet would implode.
