The latest trend in social media? Humanity.

Stephen Fry, popular actor, writer, comedian, and television presenter, is “deeply dippy about all things digital.” Right out of university, he became fascinated with computers, feeling if he didn’t have one immediately, he would be computer illiterate. And that’s just one of the things he loves about today’s online experience — you don’t have to know how a computer works; you just have to understand how to navigate and be nimble in the space. This is much how the computer industry has evolved over the years.

Stephen bought the second Apple Macintosh computer in the UK, and realised how extraordinary a computer could be. He saw how the graphical interface changed everything. And while it took Bill Gates the best part of 10 years to create the Windows interface for PCs, people fell in love with Apple. When the Mac came out in 1994, it was expensive and incompatible with business users; however, it brought people joy. “It’s something that Steve Jobs and Apple continue to do in their design — create things that, while they might not be the best version of a technology tool, they make their users laugh with joy,” Stephen says.

As social media — and all things digital, for that matter — continue to evolve, Stephen encourages all of us to remember that people are not people who become “business people.” They are always people. “We are made as emotional characters,” he said, “and if we have a device with us at all times, we want a joyful one — even if it doesn’t have all the functionality of the other ones.

“I suppose the element of social media that bothers me is that it has to be led with human understanding first and business understanding second,” he says. “If businesses lead with their wallets and not their hearts, businesses will fall by the wayside with social media. I have so many Twitter followers because I’ve been on TV and I got on Twitter early. I would never exploit my followers for my own commercial gain. I would keep them updated on where I will be, that I have a new book and so on, but I wouldn’t tweet that ‘I like these biscuits’ and get paid by a biscuit company for it. I’m trusted to be myself and I wouldn’t want to break that trust with my followers.

“The huge challenge of the internet,” he continues, “is the enormous positivity of what comes from the conversations across the globe, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, or using open API, the analysis of that traffic is a hugely valuable tool of who we are. Most films open on a Friday and the first weekend gross is incredibly important to Hollywood in terms of its long term success. On the Wednesday before a film opens, people can tell how much money it will make by analysing Twitter noise. Translate that across the whole commercial sphere and it’s very amazing what were on the brink of.”

Stephen contends that businesses can’t “learn” how to maximise Twitter. “The fact is it’s like saying, ‘How can I be more popular? Teach me.’ If you want to be liked, you like other people, you listen, are friendly and kind. It’s about being as human as you can be and not hiding behind jargon. “It doesn’t matter what your job is, you can escape the tedious treadmill of business talk and think about what is exciting and occasionally you may need to use a phrase like user-generated content,” he continues. “Be more exciting; think of yourself as running EMI studios with the Beatles coming in. That’s the world we’re living in, it’s all of us who have voices now and they can be heard. They can be unbelievably exciting. We’re all part of this excitement as these technologies begin to converge. “That’s my message. Be human.”

Failure and learning go hand-in-hand in social media.

Gregg Spiridellis founded JibJab Media in 1999 with his brother, an independent film maker. At that point, two trends influenced him. First, video had become easy to capture and produce — you just needed the talent to do it well, which his brother had. Also, file servers made it incredibly easy to distribute and share video. These two things led Gregg to believe JibJab would be successful — and it didn’t hurt that people loved to forward videos.

In 1999, they began by creating funny videos that went viral via email, then evolved over time to create offbeat Sendables® eCards, personalised Starring You!® videos, and satirical viral videos. They work with major brands to bring personalised, shareable fun to get people talking. Due to the dot-com bust, when all their clients went out of business, JibJab have worked to reinvent themselves while staying focused on their core value: making people laugh. Here are the lessons Gregg learned over the past 11 years with JibJab.

1. Do something really dumb. When JibJab started, they had no idea how to monetise media, but they went with what was happening at the time to be pioneers.
2. Experiment broadly. Experimentation taught them that people love humour, faces, and music in animation. On 9 July 2004, they finally had an “overnight” success with their U.S. political video, “This Land.” The video got 80,000,000 online views in the United States and gave JibJab huge exposure
3. Learn from your success. The way their videos were shared showed them that the social distribution was really what set them apart from traditional media — their audience is the network. They kept creating content that was relevant to the audience, but continued to strive to monetise it. In 2007, the online e-cards trend and social media were converging — people were truly starting to live their lives online and this was a huge trend that JibJab saw they could fit into. The influx of social sharing is not just a new market — it’s the opportunity to disrupt a huge industry.
4. Pivot and reinvent yourself. Gregg and JibJab pivoted from political satire videos to e-cards. They saw e-cards could be really great if you could put your own faces on them, so they launched the Starring You offering, which lets people use JibJab templates and create fun videos using their own faces. Experimentation and reinvention helped JibJab create content that’s instantly relevant to people because they put their own faces into it. JibJab creates one template, but it’s relevant to millions of people because they can personalise it, and each video is then viewed five to 15 times, on average. This creates a huge scale for JibJab, a model they could build and invest in.
5. Invest and execute. There are now more than 500 Starring You titles on JibJab.com. They monetise this model through individual memberships and creating partnerships with top brands. For example, they worked with OfficeMax in the United States on their popular “Elf Yourself” online interactive promotion. They have extended out to partners such as Disney, including a promotion that lets teens put themselves into popular movies. In the last three years, users have made almost seven million Starring You films, which upload 169 million Starring You heads into system and create 400 million streams for content. There have been 1.7 million credit card swipes from people signing up to JibJab, and now 90% of their business is direct to consumer. It’s incredibly rare for a creative company to have end users as its customers, but JibJab has had great success.

“You don’t have to be a comedy brand to do this well,” said Gregg. “You just need to tell stories that appeal to an audience, give them the tools to share it, and create more value.”

Start the conversation, then take action: Successes from Dell, Homebase, The Body Shop, and more.

Manufacturers often have the hardest time deciding to implement customer reviews, and this was the case at Dell. When they first launched reviews in 2006, they were hesitant; however, they soon learned that reviews help them increase sales conversion.

Beyond that, though, former Senior Vice President, Dell Product Group, Alex Gruzen, saw the potential for reviews to improve Dell products. The inconvenient truth? Dell products had an overall average 3.7 out of 5-star rating — Alex knew they had to act. He set a goal to have an average of 4.5 out of 5-star reviews for all products. The product team now strives for that 4.5 star mark, based solely on customer reviews — not surveys or focus groups — and they have created great products in the wake of this goal.

DIY retailer Homebase realised they needed to get their in-store shoppers involved in leaving customer reviews. They created a postpurchase email that asked these shoppers to review their recent purchases, and today 97 percent of their online reviews come from in-store customers. This content increases conversion online and gives their in-store teams some great information to share with shoppers.

Debenhams are still early in their social experimentation, and wanted to test how Facebook may work for them. They launched a Facebook page that focuses on the Debenhams Beauty Club, then set a goal to gain 10,000 fans. They put the word out on their existing Facebook page, then let relevant bloggers know that the first 10,000 people to “like” their Facebook page would get 50 Beauty Club points, which can be used for discounts on purchases. While they thought it would take them some time to get to 10,000 fans, they got there in three days — and shortly after, they were up to more than 50,000 fans. To Debenhams, the high number of fans indicates that people are passionate about their Beauty Club and their brand overall.

Joanna Robb, Head of Development and CRM for B&Q Direct, pays special attention to reviews and actually tracked down a person who wrote a negative review. This person had bought a product in a B&Q store, and was pleasantly surprised to hear from the company. It turned out that this customer was a blogger, and B&Q’s quick action resulted in a positive experience for this customer. B&Q focuses much of its social activities to assist with customer service needs, and are building up their Twitter and Facebook communities.

Gino Goossens, Chief E-Commerce & Innovation Officer from Germany-based Conrad Electronics, shared that the 90-year-old company gains most of its sales from its online channel. “People use our products to build inventions,” Gino says. “Social media is the best way to share these stories and show off their innovations and how they built them.” Conrad has great success getting customers to share their input, and they work to ensure that the intimacy between the brand and their customers remains — it’s important to them that everyone who participates feels appreciated and wants to continue contributing.

A post-purchase email campaign helped The Body Shop UK increase their number of reviews 500% almost overnight, according to Adam Plummer, User Experience Manager for The Body shop UK. “The level of engagement has been surprising,” he says. “People do want to talk with us, and they opt to come onto the site and add reviews. [Reviews] represent a hotline to our customers and take us closer to our customer base than we’ve ever been. Our customers love writing reviews; the average rating is 4.7 out of 5.”

The Body Shop saw immediate negative reviews when they launched a new product, so they were able to address the issue immediately, and their biggest challenge now involves evangelising the whole concept of the social web to try to leverage these tools across the business. Retailers have a variety of ideas about what really matters when it comes to measuring the results of social marketing. Adam from The Body Shop looks at revenue per visitor, comparing those who interact with user-generated content, like product reviews, to those who do not.

“Social is the most cost-effective way to use your best and worst customers to evolve your brand,” says B&Q’s Joanna. According to Craig Barry, Retail Operations Manager for Multi Channel & Loyalty with Homebase, “It’s not about ROI yet — it’s about customer service.” “Customers seek reassurance from customer reviews, which leads to more conversions and sales,” says Simon Forster, Director for Debenhams.com.

Peter Fitzgerald, Director Google UK, has seen brands have great success by leveraging the entire shopping ecosystem – multiplying the value of all content — by making it available beyond the organisation’s site. For example, Google Product Reviews Program is the first program that lets online brands use their full review content to directly impact natural search, mobile, and Google advertising results. Brands can expose star ratings to searchers, put their logos next to their reviews, and link directly back to the product page where a searcher can buy. This lets the consumer reviews gathered on the site help consumers who are still just searching for products.

Argos improve the entire business by listening to customers.

Argos are a large general merchant retailer with 750 stores in the UK and Ireland. Known primarily for their twice-a-year catalogue, they now sell through many channels, including mobile reserve-and-collect and online ordering. They attract £1.4 billion in online sales annually and £1.9 billion in total multi-channel sales. David Tarbuck heads up multi-channel programmes for Argos, and he has helped bring customer opinions into the company to transform the entire organisation. David and his team added customer reviews to argos.co.uk at the end of 2009 and launched customer Q&A in mid-2010, all in an effort to start conversations with customers, allow them to tell Argos what they think, and provide additional information that helps shoppers buy.

“This is how we started, with [getting customers to contribute],” David says, “but we moved on to listen. It wasn’t easy [to decide to add reviews]; it took us 12-14 months from our decision to sign the contract to get started. We needed to get all the right evangelists for word of mouth throughout the entire organisation in front of right people. “We had to overcome questions such as, ‘What will customers say?’, ‘How will we use the information?’, ‘How can we control what is said?,’ and ‘How will we manage the content?’”

A short time after customer reviews were launched on the site, Argos saw that most customers were positive; their average product rating is 4.3 stars out of five. Argos have gathered 760,000 reviews from customers since 2009, and more than a million shoppers read reviews on their site each week. Today Argos use reviews across all marketing channels, including, print, emails, via their iPhone app, and in social sharing, and they share customer input across the entire business. “The view that all areas of business will improve by engaging came true,” David explains. “The value of negative can outweigh the value of positive. We can now articulate across the business that if people don’t like something, let’s change it. If we listen, we’ll learn about product, service and brand. What’s important is as a company how we listen and what we do.”

Argos use customer conversations in many ways, including:

To contact customers. “Over 1000 customers a week are contacted as a result of customergenerated content,” David says. “We have automated reports that send moderated content directly to our contact centre agents who respond to concerns or issues. Customer feedback from these conversations is fantastic – often customers are surprised that we are listening.”

To improve products and the information about them. “We care about getting product descriptions as accurate as possible,” David explains. “This is linked to customer satisfaction. We have automated reports that email reviews containing product detail errors to product information teams. All of these are investigated and, when required, improvements are made to fix data issues. Improved product data is distributed across the business to all customer touchpoints.”

To give feedback to manufacturers. “This has benefited our trading teams; when we meet suppliers they understand what we’re doing and value the information,” David says. “Buyers take packs containing product ratings with them when meeting suppliers to help negotiations, put information on customer reviews down with margins, and talk about what needs to change to improve ratings. This leads to improved supplier relationships, which is enhanced further as we collaborate to improve ratings.”

To change products. “Before [reviews], we wouldn’t know if we were stocking products that customers don’t like,” David says. “Now we look at what’s sold objectively and change products based on comments. Customer comments lead to a stronger product. If we didn’t have this content, it wouldn’t have happened; it’s very unlikely that word would have gottten back to us. Today our quality control (QC) team have direct access to review information, helping them target products and suppliers. We can collaborate with suppliers. If the QC team sees a drop in quality and ratings, we adapt buying patterns.

“For example,” he continues, “we had put a huge order in for an item that received an overall negative review. We went to the manufacturer and this led to a re-design and testing of the product. After reworking the product, it got a 5-star review. We are using this content now in our contact centre, online, and with merchants and manufacturers. We are pushing this now to the back end and looking at how we use it in store marketing and across other channels. Customers said they wanted reviews on our mobile application, so we added them. We use customer conversations as integral parts of the changes we make across the business.”

To assist with the product selection process. “Trading teams use what customers have said about products to assist them when choosing which products to re-include in the Argos catalogue,” David explains. “Obviously, we aim to remove lower rated items. The result is that customers get better products to choose from and therefore have a better Argos experience.” Argos’ contact centres are geared up to listen to the customer, and they use word clouds for products to understand customer sentiment and how to fix problems with products. Word clouds for customer questions show Argos the specific content they need to add to help products sell.

Argos’ participation to transformation in summary

• We know our customers participate in social commerce
• We know our customers like talking to us
• We know they like to hear from us
• We know they want to share knowledge with other customers
• We know when we listen and act, we improve our products, our service, and our brand
• Customer-generated content is expected and we are expected to act on it
• We are still learning, getting better and developing
• Customer conversations are transforming our business

To be successful, make the most of your unique influencers.

Social media levels the playing field, making consumer contributions as loud as – or sometimes louder than – the corporate marketing message. Dmitri Siegel, Executive Director of Marketing for Urban Outfitters, shares how this unique brand – with independent, creative consumers – uses social media to take core business values and blow them out exponentially.

According to Siegel, “We don’t have a logo. We don’t have a style guide. We have a spirit.” Their social strategies reflect this spirit and get their customers involved. Here are some guidelines Dmitri suggests.

There are some people you want to be friends with, and some you don’t, just like in any social situation. Urban Outfitters started out by featuring some of its customers on its blog – people they or their customers “want to be friends with.” They interview their customers to draw in others who share the same lifestyle/style.

But don’t be a snob – don’t ignore people. To get all types of consumers involved – not just the fashionistas or style mavens who regularly review products — Urban Outfitters ran a contest where consumers submitted images of love, so anyone could submit something creative. The company also embraces different uses of its products – photo reviews show the way people actually wear Urban Outfitters clothes, even paired with clothing and accessories that do not come from Urban Outfitters. Their products don’t really come to life until people show exactly how they actually wear them in the real world.

Be a good listener. This is basic. Urban Outfitters get about 1,500 reviews per week; they read them and dig into them. You also see what it’s like to be your own customer. For example, one woman said that a shirt she purchased was too big, but she cut it and wore it off the shoulder, and submitted a photo of her new creation. This gives Urban Outfitters a relevant data point about how a product is actually used.

Ask good questions. If you put a good question out, you’ll be amazed at what you get. For example, last year Urban Outfitters did a “lo-fi, high style” sweepstakes/contest, where customers shared the cool things they created for cheap. When Urban Outfitters started getting photographs from customers, they were beautiful and creative. Today, when Urban Outfitters mash up their own professional photos with those submitted by customers, even the marketing team can’t tell the difference – which is exactly as it should be. Urban Outfitters’ customers’ creativity inspires Dmitri and the design team.

Make some introductions. Urban Outfitters added community Q&A to their site, which created a good format for introducing customers to one another; they now get about 400 questions each week. Other customers as well as Urban Outfitters designers respond. The more people you can get involved in the conversation, the better the experience.

Stop talking about yourself so much. Being social allows you to let your customer be the voice for awhile; be quiet, ask questions, and see what they have to share.

You need a good party spot. It must be free to participate. For example, Urban Outfitters often invite unsigned bands to perform in its Backlot, their back parking lot behind a flagship store, and they stage similar events around the country. They’ve been doing these events for years, so now tens of thousands of people watch them through live online broadcasting. During and after the events, they feature cool people they met in their blog and on Twitter.

Music can really set the mood. Urban Outfitters have Music Mondays on Twitter, giving away hundreds of thousands of songs each month; it’s a top topic on Twitter each week. They usually feature unsigned bands, and play these songs in their stores, too, creating a sense of discovery in the store. Urban Outfitters believe that if someone recommends good music to you, their level of credibility goes up.

Be spontaneous. Urban Outfitters share live links to their in-store events, so customers can watch even if they’re across the country. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Anybody can be cool, but awesome takes practice. Social media is a chatty medium; be authentic to your voice.

Be vulnerable – share information to get information. When Urban Outfitters encouraged customers to send photos of their mothers as part of a Mother’s Day contest, their team members sent in their own photos, too.

Keep in touch. These relationships have real value – keep them going. Keep up with the people you have interacted with. It’s less about numbers; more about one-to-one connections. Social media can’t be measured solely by the number of people who potentially see the information, like traditional advertising is measured. The deep connections with individuals build over time and create an annuity that continues to grow.

Forrester share trends that shape e-commerce in Europe.

Patti Freeman Evans, VP and research director at Forrester Research, shares the top trends for European e-commerce. “In the past, if you were [shopping] alone, you had very few options,” she says. “Now you can be alone with many options anywhere. Connected through your mobile phone, you become a nexus for communication. You are able to engage with someone who has used the product you are considering. It’s a different world full of complexities.”

Patti says that, going forward, it’s important for brands to focus on the four C’s:

1. Clarity: Who are you? Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said that “Brands are the solution… brands are how you sort out the cesspool of the internet.” In a sea of options, clarity is about how quickly and clearly you can send a brand message. Apple does a good job of this; you see an Apple product and you know what you’re looking at. The stores only have around 20 products and the product is simple. That is clarity. That is what Apple have always been about.
2. Competition: It’s not what you once thought it was. Today, competition includes different sales channels, new online models, and new options for not just products, but how shoppers find and buy them. Brands need to realise that customers could be coming from anywhere around the world.
3. Customers: What are they looking for? The customer is more elusive and intimate with you at the same time. We don’t have people in mass audiences like before as it was with traditional media. In new media, people are fragmented, so communicating with them is more personal and intimate. We can have a personal conversation but it’s fragmented and happening in more places. Brands must strive to be relevant to each customer segment — and each customer — to where they are and what they are saying at the moment.
4. Connection: We have easier access to consumers; we know them in a way we haven’t before. There are now so many ways people buy and shop — up to half of buyers research online, then buy offline. And channels don’t rule each other out — the invention of TV didn’t kill radio — but the channels continue to evolve. Today, mobile devices are used to connect, even settle arguments at dinner parties. Consumers are now used to instant access to information.

Three megatrends powering the next phase of social media.

Brant Barton, Chief Innovation Officer and co-founder of Bazaarvoice, points out three megatrends that power long-term innovation for Bazaarvoice and, he believes, social media in general: new retail, co-creation, and mobile empowerment.

New retail: social media changes the way we shop. Retailers should now think of shoppers in relationship to their social graph. For example, Amazon recently deployed active social network integration with Facebook. Shoppers can now access their friends’ tastes, which can help them discover new products.

Groupon and other group buying sites are huge trends in the United States. In short, Groupon emails and tweets limited-time, deep discounts each day, but a certain number of people must respond to make the deal a reality, so users share the coupons to get the discount, which is usually 50 to 90 percent off a product or service.

There are many examples of this model, with more entering the market each week. Brands should take care to keep the new customers they attract by providing a great customer experience and gathering their contact information to keep conversations going.

ShoeDazzle gives its members, who pay a monthly fee, personalised stylist recommendations, advice from celebrities, and one pair of shoes or an accessory each month. Items are carefully curated and selected to appeal to members. Bag Borrow or Steal also uses a subscription model to allow members to borrow luxury accessories, giving consumers less expensive access to trendy accessories.

Brant challenges retailers to think about new models, new ways to present products, and to take part in existing models that make sense.

Co-creation makes consumers part of the brand. Burberry introduced “Art of the Trench” in 2009, where the brand and consumers submitted photos of the iconic coat. Burberry let the consumer become the face of the brand, resulting in a highly viral, long-living campaign.

Threadless.com takes this a step further, allowing consumers to post their own t-shirt designs. The community votes on the best ones, and those designs are created and offered for sale to the same community. Nike iD lets consumers create their own unique, customised shoes, creating a hugely profitable business.

All these examples are benefiting from the “IKEA effect.” When consumers invest their energy and time into assembling a product, such as they do with IKEA furniture that must be assembled, they feel a greater sense of ownership. Brands should consider how to get consumers intimately involved in helping to create the company and extend the brand.

Mobile empowerment lets brands attract buyers exactly where they are. The iPhone has been a revolutionary device. Mobile has transformed consumer behaviour; Google recently shared that 10 percent of its search volume was from mobile – and it’s still rapidly growing.

There has been a move to location-based and mobile services. For example, Foursquare lets users “check in” to physical locations via their social networks, and brands have taken advantage of this. To introduce its new trainers, Jimmy Choo launched a “treasure hunt” around London via Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter. Brands should think about where many of their social consumers are congregating — how can you leverage this data?

The mobile device also means that brands should think more like video game producers in creating the consumer experience. It needs to be interesting, there need to be twists. The smartphone is like a controller for your videogame, enabling you to interact with this world like never before. For example, Shopkick is a mobile commerce start-up that has partnered with a number of large US retailers and created a game. With the Shopkick app, you go into a store and earn points by entering. As you interact with products, you earn more points, which can eventually be redeemed as discounts. Shopping tools like this are quickly evolving and becoming more like playing video games. These applications are in their infancy, but they are bridging the gap between the offline and online worlds. This convergence of channels is a sign of where things are going.

Other big truths for the future:

Social isn’t a just feature. For a couple of years, social was seen as an add-on. But if you look at today’s examples, social is an intrinsic part of these businesses and even their fundamental function. Think about how the social experience is shaping consumer experiences, expectations and behaviour.

The web is dead. This is a very current debate. The web isn’t dead, but it is increasingly fragmented. The linear experience of searching, landing on the homepage, navigating a site, then buying a product is dead. New apps create rich experiences and shape consumer expectations.

Shoppers are people, too. These new models like Groupon play on the fact that consumers are attracted to exclusivity and fear rarity. There are triggers that brands can employ, but remember shoppers are still people — we respond to basic things.

Customers are your brand. Urban Outfitters are a perfect example of this. If you don’t like how a consumer is using or wearing your product, that’s too bad — your customer is fundamentally your brand. The co-creation examples are extreme versions of this. Getting consumers involved in how you run your business gets them involved at a level that loyalty schemes and marketing plans can never achieve.

The fourth dimension of mobile. Simply optimising your site for mobile is not enough. Mobile is a whole new layer of services and control; it will change customer expectations of the web.