Now Search is turning Social

Jenna Wortham at The New York Times  says "Now, even on the Internet, it is not what you know but who you know." With this statement I think Jenna has hit the nail firmly on its head. This is what we truly believe at ShopSocially and it seems to become more and more obvious to everyone on the internet. In the past, if we wanted an opinion or a review about something we informally polled our friends, neighbors and colleagues. From this we evolved to using search engines to get information about everything under the sun. Now the wheel is turning a full circle with leading researchers and Search companies suggesting that getting results from our immediate social network will make search results more relevant. This is the new wave and it is here to stay. The multitude of social recommendation engines are proof. We believe that this will have an effect on not just search, but our whole lifestyle from where we shop, eat, spend our holidays etc. 

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Interesting Article on Importance of Social Merchandising by Sam Decker

"Today's shoppers don't go to a store to determine which TV they want - they already know which product they want when they arrive." says Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer at Bazaarvoice. We at ShopSocially, have been talking about how the online market place needs new tools to leverage the power of social recommendations. In his article on ClickZ, Sam explains how traditional merchandising efforts don't translate to the web and that shoppers don't trust traditional marketing material anymore and want to hear from people like them. He has dissected the process which shoppers use to buy products online into three simple phases - Discovery, Choice and Validation/ Confidence. Discovery can start at the search engine but more recently seems to begin at social networking sites. Shoppers read reviews and stories from "poeple like them" to make or reduce choices. Finally, validation occurs by reaching out to a network of friends before making the final purchase.

Click here to read the entire article.

Posted via email from ShopSocially Blog