Page 354 - Social Media Marketing

chapter 12: SOCIAL APPLICATIONS ■Curation applies to social interactions—liking someone’s Wall post, for exam-
ple—and to content itself. For these types of applications, there are as many choices
for plug-ins and curation tools as there are platforms. In the general application of
ratings and reviews as applied to commerce (the items being placed into a shopping
basket), the near universal choice among online/offline retailers (for example, physical
retailers with an online presence) is Bazaarvoice, and for good reason. Not only does
Bazaarvoice offer a proven, easy-to-implement platform, they also provide a rich set of
metrics that help their customers tune their online and offline commerce programs. In
June of 2010, Bazaarvoice introduced SocialConnect, a platform capability that inte-
grates customer’s comments between social networks like Facebook and the brand’s
own websites. SocialConnect supports the Facebook “Like” functionality as well, all
of which adds up to enhanced engagement, potential gains in sales, and importantly a
reduction in product returns. Best of all, it’s measurable.

332 Ratings and Reviews Made Easy

From the SaaS-based offering of Bazaarvoice to the DIY/Plug-in components of Js-Kit/Echo, Disqus,
and Intense Debate, adding ratings and comments to your social sites is literally a click way.

http://www.bazaarvoice.com

http://aboutecho.com/

http://disqus.com/

http://www.intensedebate.com/

If your business objectives call for adding ratings and reviews to a noncommerce
site (a thought leadership blog, for example), look in particular at the ready-to-use com-
ponents from providers like JS-Kit/Echo, Disqus, Intense Debate, and others. Social
technology providers offer plug-in modules for use in almost any application, as well as
specific components for use with DIY favorites including Wordpress, ExpressionEngine,
Drupal, Joomla, and other social software platforms. For nearly any online social plat-
form, there is an associated curation solution: If the platform you are using does not
support curation (again, most do), consider strongly moving to one that does.

Why This Matters in Business

Absent the ability to curate, the progression to higher forms of engagement is effec-
tively stopped. In nearly any act of sharing, for example, there is at least an implied
sense of rating: “If (I) didn’t think some particular piece of content was worth (your)