Comments on: Referrals are the future of Social Commerce, not conversations http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2010/07/28/referrals-are-the-future-of-social-commerce-not-conversations/ By entrepreneurs. For entrepreneurs. Sun, 27 May 2012 03:05:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Steven Boorstein http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2010/07/28/referrals-are-the-future-of-social-commerce-not-conversations/#comment-155710 Steven Boorstein Mon, 04 Apr 2011 02:54:21 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4770#comment-155710 Excellent article and I completely agree. People will buy on the recommendation of a friend or other trusted individual at a much higher rate than almost any other form of marketing. I had been involved in business to business networking groups for a few years and saw the power of how personal referrals can have a dramatic effect on business growth. Unfortunately, most of these groups are sub-optimal experiences and have high dropout rates over time due to a variety of factors. This led to my company's creation of ReferralSmart.com - A truly unique, new generation Business to Business networking platform for LOCAL small businesses. As the last poster, David, commented-- "the world has changed and putting up a sign and an advertisement in the yellow pages is not enough." It is local networking, referrals and personal recommendations that help businesses cut through the ever growing competition and reach qualified prospects that are receptive to the product or service being offered. Excellent article and I completely agree. People will buy on the recommendation of a friend or other trusted individual at a much higher rate than almost any other form of marketing. I had been involved in business to business networking groups for a few years and saw the power of how personal referrals can have a dramatic effect on business growth.

Unfortunately, most of these groups are sub-optimal experiences and have high dropout rates over time due to a variety of factors. This led to my company’s creation of ReferralSmart.com - A truly unique, new generation Business to Business networking platform for LOCAL small businesses.

As the last poster, David, commented– “the world has changed and putting up a sign and an advertisement in the yellow pages is not enough.” It is local networking, referrals and personal recommendations that help businesses cut through the ever growing competition and reach qualified prospects that are receptive to the product or service being offered.

]]> By: essay sale http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2010/07/28/referrals-are-the-future-of-social-commerce-not-conversations/#comment-83100 essay sale Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:59:42 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4770#comment-83100 i see eye to eye with, people should make more efforts to advertise their goods i see eye to eye with, people should make more efforts to advertise their goods

]]> By: David http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2010/07/28/referrals-are-the-future-of-social-commerce-not-conversations/#comment-76875 David Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:43:37 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4770#comment-76875 I completely agree with you Corey. The world has changed and putting up a sign and an advertisement in the yellow pages is not enough. You have to make your presence known on the internet today via socail media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. It's the wave of the future and if you keep up with the advances in registering content with 'Google' it's just about to get a lot more interesting. If you want to beat your competitors you better be working harder than them on the web! I completely agree with you Corey. The world has changed and putting up a sign and an advertisement in the yellow pages is not enough. You have to make your presence known on the internet today via socail media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. It’s the wave of the future and if you keep up with the advances in registering content with ‘Google’ it’s just about to get a lot more interesting. If you want to beat your competitors you better be working harder than them on the web!

]]> By: Alvin Tan http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2010/07/28/referrals-are-the-future-of-social-commerce-not-conversations/#comment-76858 Alvin Tan Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:16:12 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4770#comment-76858 Hi Corey, I largely agree with you that referrals will be the main driving force that will transform ecommerce in the coming years. The key is to recognize that referrals come in various forms: social purchase sharing, passive sharing (i.e. solicited shopping advice), and social media mentions of products. They are all variations of referrals, which are traditionally equated to the one-way, social media spam-like broadcasting of certain products to our social graphs at large. I would also like to remark that I have little faith in the "selling on Facebook and gaining access to 500 million consumers" trend, or more commonly known as f-commerce. Merely setting up a store on Facebook is not social commerce, which is about providing the means to consumers to help them help each other make better buying decisions. Social commerce is a consumer-centric movement. The mere fact that stores are set up on a social network does not immediately confers it the key social commerce benefits that drive sales. I believe that the key to unlocking the value in this social commerce trend is not to sell on Facebook, definitely not, but to use Facebook in a way that drives ecommerce. We should use Facebook for what it's good for -- a communication protocol and multi-way sharing platform -- and not what it's not good for -- a retail store location, where people just want to socialize and have low purchase intent. We should socialize commerce, not commercialize social (bad things happen when you over-commercialize places where people just want to have fun). The value of Facebook lies in the people within our social graphs, who are the core creators of content and have tremendous value in giving us trusted, reliable information. To tap on the potential of this social graph, it is essential that this social graph is portable and can be integrated seamlessly into other online web experiences (e.g. online shopping, content consumption, gaming, etc.) so as to prevent disjointed web experiences. In other words, put Facebook on your website (it's highly possible, check out how we do it here at Zuupy @ http://zuupy.com), not put your website on Facebook. Hi Corey, I largely agree with you that referrals will be the main driving force that will transform ecommerce in the coming years. The key is to recognize that referrals come in various forms: social purchase sharing, passive sharing (i.e. solicited shopping advice), and social media mentions of products. They are all variations of referrals, which are traditionally equated to the one-way, social media spam-like broadcasting of certain products to our social graphs at large.

I would also like to remark that I have little faith in the “selling on Facebook and gaining access to 500 million consumers” trend, or more commonly known as f-commerce. Merely setting up a store on Facebook is not social commerce, which is about providing the means to consumers to help them help each other make better buying decisions. Social commerce is a consumer-centric movement. The mere fact that stores are set up on a social network does not immediately confers it the key social commerce benefits that drive sales.

I believe that the key to unlocking the value in this social commerce trend is not to sell on Facebook, definitely not, but to use Facebook in a way that drives ecommerce. We should use Facebook for what it’s good for — a communication protocol and multi-way sharing platform — and not what it’s not good for — a retail store location, where people just want to socialize and have low purchase intent. We should socialize commerce, not commercialize social (bad things happen when you over-commercialize places where people just want to have fun).

The value of Facebook lies in the people within our social graphs, who are the core creators of content and have tremendous value in giving us trusted, reliable information. To tap on the potential of this social graph, it is essential that this social graph is portable and can be integrated seamlessly into other online web experiences (e.g. online shopping, content consumption, gaming, etc.) so as to prevent disjointed web experiences. In other words, put Facebook on your website (it’s highly possible, check out how we do it here at Zuupy @ http://zuupy.com), not put your website on Facebook.

]]> By: Matthew O'Brien http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2010/07/28/referrals-are-the-future-of-social-commerce-not-conversations/#comment-75059 Matthew O'Brien Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:38:58 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4770#comment-75059 Good stuff Corey and great to see you contributing to this excellent online resource for start ups. Good stuff Corey and great to see you contributing to this excellent online resource for start ups.

]]> By: BizSugar.com http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2010/07/28/referrals-are-the-future-of-social-commerce-not-conversations/#comment-73794 BizSugar.com Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:56:08 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4770#comment-73794 <strong>Referrals are the future of Social Commerce, not conversations...</strong> “Social Commerce” is a big buzz word these days. As many continue to talk about merging social media and e-commerce, there is no clear consensus as to what the main driver of social commerce will end up being. Many think its about finding ways to p... Referrals are the future of Social Commerce, not conversations…

“Social Commerce” is a big buzz word these days. As many continue to talk about merging social media and e-commerce, there is no clear consensus as to what the main driver of social commerce will end up being. Many think its about finding ways to p…

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