Do you wonder why your productivity has dropped over the past 2 - 3 years?

There is a time sink and it’s not television!

Those of us who are connected to the internet and that is 2 billion of us, have been distracted by social multi-media publishing machines that are pumping out staggering amounts of content with enticing high definition images and videos!

You cannot escape their allure as they tempt you to log in when you are out and about with either with your laptop, iPad or smart phone.

These enticing, tempting distractions are robbing us of time that should be spent doing productive work like washing your car, cleaning the house or doing your tax… and I know how much you all enjoy those activities!

20 Social Media Statistics

These figures reveal the huge black hole that our time disappears into when we visit Facebook, Twitter or YouTube or other social media sites.

1. One in every nine people on Earth is on Facebook ( This number is calculated by dividing the planets 6.94 billion people by Facebook’s 750 million users)
2. People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
3. Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site
4. More than 250 million people access Facebook through their mobile devices
5. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook
6. 30 billion pieces of content is shared on Facebook each month
7. 300,000 users helped translate Facebook into 70 languages
8. People on Facebook install 20 million “Apps” every day
9. YouTube has 490 million unique users who visit every month (as of February 2011)
10. YouTube generates 92 billion page views per month (These YouTube stats don’t include videos viewed on phones and embedded in websites)
11. Users on YouTube spend a total of 2.9 billion hours per month (326,294 years)
12. Wikipedia hosts 17 million articles
13. Wikipedia authors total over 91,000 contributors
14. People upload 3,000 images to Flickr (the photo sharing social media site) every minute
15. Flickr hosts over 5 billion images
16. 190 million average Tweets per day occur on Twitter (May 2011)
17. Twitter is handling 1.6 billion queries per day
18. Twitter is adding nearly 500,000 users a day
19. Google+ has more than 25 million user
20. Google+ was the fastest social network to reach 10 million users at 16 days (Twitter took 780 days and Facebook 852 days)

the-growth-of-social-media

Source: Search Engine Journal

What statistic amazed you the most?

Image by inju

Search engines like Google are like racing car mechanics, constantly under the hood tweaking their complex code engines to maintain their relevancy on a web that has moved from stiff, static and slow to dynamic, social and real time.

It is said that Google makes up to 500 changes every year to its search algorithms to ensure that it delivers fast smart search results that keep people typing “Google.com” into their web browsers and continue to pay for its paid search advertising.

Companies with websites that didn’t change in years are slowly realizing that they need to have an active presence on the web by creating and publishing content that attracts customers, begs to be shared and Google will find.  These changes to an increasingly dynamic web is leading to the rise of digital agencies that can partner and guide customers through this maze of choices, change and confusion.

In this video interview I chat to Andy Jamieson about his company “Switched On Media” which has won several awards recently including ranking 9th in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and 3rd in Smart Company Fast 50 for 2010.

He talks about the “Three P’s” behind their company’s success that he and his partner Scott Ennis started only 5 years ago.

The 3 Pillars of Digital Marketing

We  look at how the rise of  social media over the last few years is transforming how companies should market themselves and we discuss the 3 core pillars of digital marketing.

1. Search
2. Social Media
3. Content

We investigate how that can be applied to marketing a business successfully where increasingly buying decisions start with an online search or from information that was shared by a friend or colleague .

Watch the video to find out the keys to a successful “Search  and Social Digital Agency” as well as some insights into what you should be doing to get found online on a social web.

The Key Topics

• The importance of optimizing your website and blog for search engines (SEO) so that your business can be found online. What is the percentage of “Organic” (earned) search results versus “Paid” search results (Google Adwords) with getting those important clicks to your website or blog
• The synergy between search and social and why it is important to be investing in both
• The fastest growing market segment in digital
• The importance of Google’s ‘New’ social +1 button for search results and why it is integral for Google’s future
• The value proposition of PPC (Pay per Click) for marketing campaigns on Google and Yahoo
• The importance of ROI (Return of Investment) for social and PPC campaigns
• The tension between traditional and digital marketing
• The role of the digital agency in educating their customer in the value proposition of the marketing strategy
• The emerging importance and role of “content marketing’ in the marketing mix
• Why sharing and engaging with content should be valued
• Why content is important for search and social
• What are the 3 P’s behind the “secret sauce” of Switched On Media’s success

Is your company stiff, static and slow or is it dynamic, social and real?

More reading

50 Social Media Marketing Tips and Tactics

21 Power Tips to Get Your Blog Content Shared on Facebook and Twitter

12 Principles of Social Media Marketing

What is a Facebook “Like” Worth for Your Business

Google gets more Social and Copies Facebook’s “Like” Button

Google Becomes More Social and It’s Hurting Your Business

Image by Danard Vincente

Social media marketing for B2C companies are typically dominated by Facebook marketing and attempts at viral YouTube campaigns.

Airlines are your typical B2C (business to consumer) company and often have to deal with consumers at their worst when they are emotional, stressed and on a deadline. Their customers are typically either on the way to a corporate gig or heading off for for sun, sand and a frolic and you never want to get in the way of anyone wanting to have a good time.  Many reality TV shows have been produced that  are centered at an airport because drama makes great television.

So is a blog the right social media platform to base your social media marketing on if you are are a company that has to deal with consumers day in day out? Is a blog a touch too serious for engaging with public Joe?

Well, it appears that Southwest Airlines believe that a blog is the perfect platform to communicate and engage with their customers and have been blogging since 2006. The Southwest Airlines blog was originally launched as a means of giving their customers a look inside the culture and operations of Southwest Airlines and allowing them to interact and build personal relationships with their employees.

What does their Award Winning Blog Provide?

Southwest use their blog as their home hub that aggregates and integrates its content from all their other social media assets such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. This allows them the freedom to provide features and functions that are not easily available or to be readily customized on any other platform.

So what does the blog platform provide for for the airline?

• A virtual focus group (they can get feedback in real time from their customers)
• A place to make and break news (When a PR crisis hits they can be first with the truth rather than be solely at the mercy of the spin or bad press emanating from other media)
• A place to tell the rest of the story (they can continue to quickly update customers and even the press on the blog with the real story)
• An incubator for new ideas (both staff and customers can use it to post new ideas or suggestions that are transparent and immediate that Southwest can take on board)
• A platform for employees to share industry knowledge and connect with customers
• A resource for SEO (Google Juice!). Google loves blogs as they are easily indexed by their crawler and provide up to date news and information and assists the airline in being readily found on search engines results pages.

The Blog’s Features

It operates as the foundation for all their social media marketing efforts and includes

• Personalization options available with a user login
• Video Blog
• Flickr Feed
• News Feed
• Podcasts
• Rating opportunities
• Sharing features
• Official photo and video galleries

This social media multi-media hub entertains and informs and aggregates all their social media channels which include Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn

The Hub for Customer Feedback

The blog operates as a hub for discussions that can be posted on Facebook, Twitter or the blog. An example of how it operates as a forum was when they received feedback on their seating policy that was driven by a post from the CEO and received over 700 comments (this is what you call a live and open virtual focus group)

The ‘Go To’ Channel for Managing a Crisis

Companies in the  ’Business to Consumer’ sector  (B2C) are more prone to PR Crises especially if they interacting with a large number of consumers such as an airline. Just about everyone knows about the United Airlines baggage handlers breaking guitars incident that was posted to YouTube video that created a PR disaster storm for United (Dave Carroll’s video has currently received 10 million hits on YouTube) .

Southwest Airlines have used the blog to manage PR crises before they arose by having platforms that they can publish immediately and  share widely before it blows up in their face.  Southwest learned managing a PR crisis required not letting the conversation go on for too long without participating and that the publishing of the negative comments on the blog earned trust.

Social Media Success By The Numbers

The blog is maintained by 30 plus employee bloggers from a large variety of departments both front line and behind the scenes to keep the content fresh and entertaining. The blog was revamped in 2008 and this saw visits increase by 25%, page views up by 40% and visitors staying 26% longer.

• Over 1.4 million Fans on Facebook
• 1.12 million followers on Twitter
• Over 6 million Views on YouTube
• More than 12,000 images and photos on Flickr

Late last year the blog and their social marketing efforts were recognized after winning blog of the year for several years in a row (2007, 2008 and 2009) and being inducted into “PR Week’s Hall of Fame”

Are they the best B2C blog in the world?

More Reading

• Are You Making These 20 Mistakes on Your Blog?
• 21 Power Tips To Get Your Blog Content Shared On Facebook and Twitter
• 10 Reasons Why Your Blog Gets No Traffic
• Have You Been Making This Huge Mistake On Your Blog?

Image by Daniel Henríquez

If there is one company that understands the key elements on how to ‘Blog’ in a B2B market then you can’t go past the Hubspot blog.

Hubspot was founded by Brian Halligan and Darmesh Shah  who met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2004 and incorporated HubSpot in June 2006. It was backed by venture capitalists including Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures and Salesforce.com. The company provides a range of monthly subscription (from entry level to premium) services to small and medium business that helps customers use, measure and monitor internet marketing techniques and tactics such as social media, blogging and search engine optimization (SEO).

What Makes the Hubspot Blog a Success?

The premise of the company was built on the idea that permission or inbound marketing was more powerful than interruption or outbound marketing such as cold calling and telemarketing. I was fortunate to have discovered Hubspot’s blog in 2008 and was impressed with the amount of content that they made available for free.  I have been a fan ever since and continue to visit often.

So what makes the Hubspot blog a shining example of what a corporate blog should do and be?

One of the features that the blog demonstrates is ’social media synergy’… which is the practice of using optimized and integrated social media channels and multimedia that make a brand ubiquitous. This produces results that are far greater than the sum of the individual parts. It is about using every major social channel such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and rich media to provide content where the audience is hanging out and making yourself attractive for Google.

Hubspot knows how to educate, inform and produce content that amazes and  inspires companies to be the best they can. They understand the essence of a blog which is to give till it hurts.

11 Elements of a Successful Corporate B2B Blog

1. Multiple Rich Media

Hubspot doesn’t just use text in its blogs but produces and publishes videos, cartoons, Infographics, Slideshare and other rich media that keep the audience educated, engaged and sometimes even entertained.

2. Posting Often and Regularly

They used to blog once a day but now it is not unusual to see several blog posts every 24 hours.

3. Multiple Social Media Channels

Facebook, Twitter, Blog are all in their social media arsenal. Just because they are a B2B company, they do not just take the blog and LinkedIn approach. Facebook is an important channel for B2B and publishing and participating on the appropriate social media platforms makes it easy for their content to spread as their fans share, embed and comment on the social web.

4. Solves Problems

Hubspot know that business needs help to solve it’s problems and the tips and ‘How To’s go a long way to displaying that Hubspot knows how to assist small business in making them successful.

5. Don’t Sell

There is nothing worse than a hard sell as it turns potential customers away never to return. The content is about educating and providing answers to everyday business problems. It is no wonder that they now have thousands of customer and have raised tens of millions of dollars in venture funding.

6. Focused

They know their target markets and their messages and their content is all about addressing in words, videos and images the needs of their audience. As a corporate blogger you need to keep in mind it is not about you, it is about your audience.

7. Have a Call to Action

The blog includes calls to action that include ‘Download Now!’  and ‘Subscribe by Email’. The content is free and the service is great but it is still about business. This captures email and information that is used for marketing.

8. Entertaining

Cartoons and fun staff videos emerge from time to time to make sure that their audience realises that they are not a faceless corporate and heartless entity but a living and breathing human infused company that has not forgotten what it is like to be real and authentic.

9.The Power of Email is Not Forgotten

Corporate email is still the lifeblood of corporate communication so subscribing by email is still essential and included in their tactics.

10. Continues to Evolve

Facebook wasn’t in their toolkit 2 years ago but today with over 25,000 fans they don’t underestimate the power of being involved and publishing to the 650 million user social network.

11. Topical

As news breaks in their industry they are often publishing content that lets their customers know within hours that they have their finger on the pulse.

Check the Hubspot blog out because they understand what a corporate B2B blog is about.

More reading

• 10 Compelling Reasons Why Your Business Should Blog
• The 17 Most Important Questions I have been Asked about Social Media
• 3 Big Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Essential for Your Business
• Are You Failing At Blogging? 3 Successful Blogs You Can Learn From

Google has been dominated by geeks since its inception and social has never been part of the heritage. The mathematical algorithms that drive Google search have been created by the men in white lab coats with minds as sharp as razors and with more PhD’s than you can jump over.

Google has struggled with social media as social networking experiments and projects such as Google Wave and Google Buzz have launched and then crashed and burned. In the past Google has over complicated its social media ventures and has watched with social envy at the rise of Facebook as it grew and gathered personal data on 650 million users that Google has been itching to get its hands on.

Today Google has launched the +1button that isn’t complicated and will have a major impact on its search results over time  as the +1 button spreads across websites and blogs around the world. It has launched the +1 button in conjunction with major websites the Washington Post and Best Buy and blogs such as Huffington Post and Mashable.

Google +1 Now Appearing On Websites and Blogs

On reviewing the use of the top 3 social buttons (Twitter, Facebook and Google’s+1) on the Mashable site only hours after the Google announcement, it is interesting to note that Twitter is still the most popular sharing button with 852 Tweets but Google’s new social sharing button count is already higher at 319 compared to Facebook’s like button at 260. What you need to keep in mind is that this button is shiny and new and users are trying it out for its novelty factor, so the real test will be whether that momentum is maintained over the long term.

Google +1 Results Appearing in Google Search

On these websites you can provide your stamp of approval for the website or the article by clicking on the +1 button which will then appear in search results when you do a Google search and display who had clicked the button (if they agreed to have it publicly displayed in their Google account settings). Here I have displayed one of my articles in a Google search results page showing the +1 button in col0r after it has been +1′d (and also displaying who had done that ..me!)

What Will Google’s New Button Mean for You and Your Business?

So as people +1 your articles or posts it will increase the number of +1’s that are displayed in the Google search adding social proof to the search results. Google has said on it’s +1 Button FAQ

“Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1′s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query.”

Google also stated on it’s blog “+1s will be one of many signals we use to calculate organic search ranking“.

Do Not Ignore This Announcement

It will be something that you as a business and brand cannot ignore as

• The social proof of your links is viewed by others in search engine results pages displaying other people’s validation of your content and its popularity
• It will impact your key words search results in Google’s search engine over time

If you want to know where you can get the code to embed the button on your blog or website you can find it here at Google’s website. If you aren’t able to do it yourself get your web master or developer to embed it for you.

For more from Google you can read and view a video at Google’s +1 page.

So will you use Google’s +1 button on your site?

Note: It is only appearing in English search results currently and also only on the Google.com site. It will be rolled out globally over time.

It was last year that  I met a Facebook marketing specialist, Mike Watkins at a marketing event. I was impressed by his story about how he had  taken the SUPRE’s fashion brand’s Facebook page from zero to 40,000 fans shortly after Facebook released the “Page” option to add to its “Profiles” and “Groups” membership options. I met him again recently for a video interview that I will be publishing in the next few days, in the meantime I would like to share his story.

Facebook “pages” have only been around for 2 years and in that time we have seen major global brands embrace Facebook for engaging and interacting with their customers with some major brands Facebook pages fan subscribers now approaching 40 million and providing another way to communicate that goes beyond traditional media and email.

So what were the key elements to acquiring the 40,000 fans and what strategies did he use to continue to engage and nurture the Facebook fans for SUPRE’s fashion brand?

The biggest challenge to business is to display the “Value” that using Facebook will bring and Supre needed to be convinced of the benefits rather than just playing with the latest social media shiny toy.

Initially the major challenge was to convince management at Supre of its value and why they should be implementing a Facebook marketing strategy, so the question of “Why” use Facebook needed to be answered.

Stage 1. Why Use Facebook?

1. Facebook pages are a more effective and intimate direct marketing channel

2. It is instant and up to date whereas printed and traditional media is usually out of date quite often before it hits the street

3.  It is a real time research tool (SUPRE receive hundreds of individual answers within 2-3 hours of the questions being asked)

4. You create a long-term relationship between the consumers and the brand that creates a digital asset with longevity

5. You create a highly leveraged channel that distributes your brand and message by “World of Mouth” as updates to the Facebook “Page” ripple and spread through friends updates and news feeds. This is an incredibly fast and effective organic brand distribution vehicle.

Stage 2. How Do You Start?

a. Define and Understand Your Target  market

Understand who you are talking to.  So first you need to have an in depth understanding of  who your target customer is, so you will need to research the following: Consumer psychology papers, Magazines, Movies, Music, Books and even the celebrities they idolize.

In essence you need to understand and “Grok” (to share the same reality or way of thinking) how your market thinks and acts.

b. Get the “Tone” right

Your brand needs to be perceived as a member of the target market to be trusted. Talk like them and act like them in communication and content

c. Identify the engagement fundamentals

Canvas the entire spectrum for a 2 week trial of content that your research revealed that would receive engagement from your target users and remove content that doesn’t engage. (try everything once)

d. Treat it as a long term investment

Ensure the client know it is going to take time and persistence and give them some concept of what to expect in 18 months

e. Keep it Real, Relevant and Relaxed (3 R’s)

The latest competition on SUPRE’s Facebook page

Stage 3. Making It Happen

Step 1. Seeded the Facebook page with Facebook display advertisements to build fans

Step 2: Defined the regular updates for the Facebook page

Then keep activity running to a pre-determined schedule.

There are 4 major types of updates:

1. Conversation  -  is designed to stimulate conversation with the fan base by asking thought provoking questions that encourages short succinct answers from fans

2. Pictures - upload images that the client wanted to expose consumers to for SUPRE professionally taken images of models wearong clients clothing

3. Link - Deep linked updates that that drives traffic away from Facebook to the clients other online properties such as website, online store, blog or YouTube channel

4. Product - spotlight a new product that the client is releasing or will release. You can test new designs and get feedback on possible new items

Step 3: Determine Update Frequency

Do this so that you are not spamming fans

Step 4: Update System for the week

Map out what products are going out that week then implement those updates into the system that were designed to drive and a lot of engagement. Get approval from the client (Rinse and repeat every week) “The update system acts as the backbone to the entire page strategy”

Stage 4: Monitor, Measure & Report

Report weekly or daily depending on activity and client requirements including

• Monitoring demographic analysis provided by Facebook Insights
• Measure growth rate (this can be done through two sources insidefacebook.com and allfacebook.com and you can view both daily and weekly rates)

Example of a report

Key Findings From The Supre Facebook Campaign

1. Facebook pages has “saved” SUPRÉ real $’s through realtime market research
2. Facebook pages has “made” SUPRÉ real $’s through reatime market research
3. Facebook pages has made SUPRÉ real $’s through “product and brand exposure”
4. Old school market research is dead
5. Engagement = Organic Brand Distribution
6. A brand can influence social change

Nearly 2 years on and now with a Fan count of over 300,000 SUPRÉ’s Facebook strategy can be called an overwhelming success because Mike was initially able to show value to senior management at SUPRÉ.

For more in depth information read the 9 page whitepaper.

Image by Andrea Omizzolo

I have loved reading since I learned the skill at a place called school. I remember hiding under the blankets with my bedside lamp reading books about tropical island adventures and pirates as soon as the coast was clear after my parents had inflicted the “lights out” regime every night at the prescribed hour.

To enhance my reading choices but now without the curfew, I have just purchased a Kindle (which is the dedicated e-reader from Amazon) to provide easy instant access to books without waiting for the package to arrive several days later from my favorite online book store.

One thing I have noticed with the dedicated ebook reader is the low friction functionality that it provides that enables you to buy a book that arrives in 30 seconds, with a few clicks of the Kindle’s button with my embedded payment details already in its settings. This highlights the challenges that are being experienced by traditional book stores such as Borders and others who are closing their doors or fighting for survival in a world where many business models are being disrupted and torn apart.

The Challenge

This challenge applies to the other traditional bricks and mortar stores who if they thought that life was going to get any easier after the GFC (Great Financial Crisis) of 2008 then they need to think again. Not only are they having to compete with local competitors just around the corner but with online stores on the other side of the world.

As well as the online ecommerce stores providing another competing channel to high street stores and malls for its customers to purchase, Facebook is starting to provide what is potentially another alternative buying experience with brands such as fashion stores using Facebook to initially

• Engage with their fans
• Run surveys
• Announce and run competitions
• Offer specials
• Provide coupons you can print off for a “like” action
• Display their goods on Facebook with high definition PDF’s, images and online videos

Facebook Shopping Reaches New Heights 

Progressive companies are now taking the Facebook shopping experience to a new level with F-Commerce (which you no  doubt have already worked out what that means) where you can actually start your shopping in Facebook right up until the actual checkout page where you are directed to the ecommerce site of the online store.

An example of this are companies such as “Vintage Marketplace” and “Grand Social” where you can browse and select but you are redirected to their online store once you want to make a purchase

So the game is changing!…and it has major implications for retailers and how they continue to market and sell their products and there are now applications that are getting closer to the  ”social business nirvana”  of being able to to have stores within Facebook that keep you totally within Facebook’s ecosystem and that technology is closer than you think.

Stores that are heading towards this social business Facebook nirvana are stores such as Baby and Me Gifts which has its Facebook page powered by BigCommerce which is the same software that runs their e-commerce store.

• It displays her inventory on her Facebook page at no extra cost
• Users are then directed to the main site to complete their purchase

This integration with Facebook provides approximately 50% of their online sales and is proving to be as effective as e-mail marketing!

It is early days with F-commerce but there are others such as Live Scribe that use another type of software to achieve a similar Facebook integration with the app system, Storefront Social

More online stores such as Ettitude, which sells products which have a low impact on mother earth, are realizing the power of integrating more deeply into the Facebook ecosystem with its power to leverage your brand and sales through customers sharing their shopping experiences with their friends.

Procter & Gamble dropped an e-commerce application in a “Shop Now” tab on its 200,000-fan-strong fan page. Within an hour, it sold out of the 1,000 Cruiser diaper packs it was offering at $9.99 a pop. The Pampers’ Facebook sales app used Ohio-based digital agency Resource Interactive’s Off the Wall e-commerce technology.

How You Can Start To Integrate Your Online Store With Facebook

• Facebook contests that request “Likes” can automatically send users to the Facebook store to encourage product browsing.
• Businesses can post ads, promotions, flash sales, or product-focused press to their Wall and link to the Facebook store’s PDP pages, enabling quick purchasing ability within the social network.
• By leveraging the Facebook Fans API, brands are empowered to combine “deals of the day” or product announcements with deep links to product detail and purchase pages within the Facebook store. This approach gives the user fast transaction capabilities, while also helping the brand collect the user’s data and demographic details.
• Facebook is currently testing a “Buy With Friends” program, which allows brands to offer discount incentives to users who encourage their friends to buy the same item by publishing purchases on friends’ news feeds.

The goal of these stores is to not only leverage their social business but reduce the friction for people to buy their products and services in places where they like to hang out. It’s about going to where your customers are (600 million of them) rather than making them come to you.

The F-commerce revolution has arrived and it will produce new business models that will challenge the traditional way of doing business and there will be collateral damage and mass extinctions. Your challenge is not to be a statistic.

More Reading:

• 20 Brainstorming  Ideas For Creating A Social Business
• How To Increase Your Facebook Page Fans By 1,000%
• 4 Strategic Steps To A Social Business
• 4 Facebook E-Commerce Tips For Brands
• F-Commerce Is Here
• Will E-Commerce Help Facebooks Ad Sales?

Image by saikofish

Quite often companies nickel and dime the hosting of the website. 10 years ago when the web was still young and websites were an option rather than a necessity you may have got away with this approach. In 2011 with online stores being a major source of income having a website go down and be offline can costs tens of thousands in lost sales per hour. Mark Randall of RackSpace the world’s largest specialized hosting company with revenues approaching $1 billion discusses the importance of hosting for your business website and the emerging trends.
We also discuss cloud computing, the rise of social media as a core element of your companies web presence and the importance of Robert Scoble’s blog in driving brand recognition for RackSpace.

A lot of people don’t realize that eBay now sells primarily new products on its site with over 75% of all sales being new goods. Despite it’s humble origins over 15 years ago in 1995 as an online auction store eBay offers another distribution channel for online retailers to sell their goods in a trusted eCommerce channel to over 90 million active users globally.

Ebay online sales are now over $60 billion per annum which works out at over $2,000 in sales per second!

In this video interview with the charming Jenny Thomas, the spokesperson for eBay Australia, she provides some insights into eBay that may surprise you and remove some misconceptions about the online giants value to the smaller online retailer.
In this video learn more about

• How you can increase your online stores sales
• The importance of mobile for your online business
• The growth potential for online stores vs bricks and mortar stores
• Why a multi channel retail approach as a retailer can reduce business risk by operating a real physical store as well as an online store
• Why you should consider eBay as an additional sales channel
• Why there is an enormous potential for online stores in Australia

 

The continued boom of online stores and eCommerce has been driven in part by the continuing increase in security and the improved levels of trust generated by companies like PayPal who help protect your credit card payment from fraud and reduce risk for the consumer and the online store owner.

PayPal which is a company 100% owned by Ebay is a significant global player in online payments and continues to grow strongly and currently has 230 million users worldwide.

Fast moving trends on the Web including the ability to use your mobile phone to make purchases is increasing the convenience for the consumer who can easily, intuitively and efficiently buy on the go, anywhere and anytime from their iPhone, smart phones and iPads. 
Customers are taking their buying online at a faster rate than the growth of traditional bricks and mortar stores because they are feeling more comfortable with using their credit cards and payment services such as PayPal.

The Web is also making it easy for customers to research products, compare prices and purchase while in the comfort of their own home.

In this interview I had the pleasure to chat with the passionate and professional Head of PR and Communications for PayPal Australia, Adrian Christie about the need for security and trust for online retail stores. We look at major trends for ecommerce and the rise of mobile shopping and social media networks and their importance and implications for ecommerce. We also look at the rise of iPhone apps for shopping that are producing increased sales for online stores such as Games Paradise and Toys Paradise through clever integration with their ecommerce platform Magento.

In the interview we ran out of time to look at the growth of  an intriguing global phenomenon which is the boom in “Digital Virtual Goods” that are a large part of online games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars, World Of Warcraft and Texas Holdem Poker. What are digital Goods? .. digital goods include e-books, music files, software, digital images, Web site templates, manuals in electronic format, and any item which can be electronically stored in a file or multiple files.

The revenues from these Digital goods are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

These ”Digital Goods” and  one of the companies behind them, Zygna are now PayPal’s largest customer globally which has only happened in the past 18 months.

So are you buying more online and why?

For more information on PayPal check out “What Is PayPal” which outlines the benefits for both the buyer and the seller.