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In my last post, I introduced you to personalised search. In the second of this series of articles, aimed at helping you understand the latest developments in search, and what they mean for your digital marketing efforts, I’m turning my attention to social search.

What is social search?

Google’s social search feature allows you to see search results from friends and others in your social circle, as determined by your network of contacts. Social search helps you find content created and shared by people you know and trust.

For example, if you searched for a particular hotel, reviews written by your social contacts may appear more prominently in your search results, assuming they have stayed at the hotel in question and written a review about it. This information is then included in your search results allowing you to read reviews from people you trust. In turn you can make a more informed decision on whether to book at the hotel based on this information.

In order for social search results to show up you must be logged into your Google account. Once logged in you will see these results appear at the bottom of the search results page, in a section labeled’ “Results from people in your social circle for name” as shown in the example below:

As you have to be logged into your Google account to use social search the results are custom tailored to individuals, therefore no one but you will see your social search results because those results are presented according to your network of friends, colleagues and contacts.

However, people connected to your contacts (that you may not actually know or be connected to directly) may show in your search social results, since Google assumes a connection of sorts.

So now you’re probably wondering how Google determines your social circle is in order to produce relevant results from only people you know. Well, people who make up your social circle are gathered from:

• People you’re connected to through social services that you’ve listed in your Google Profile, such as Twitter and FriendFeed
• People in your Gmail contact groups and Google Talk chat lists
• Websites you have subscribed to in your Google Reader account

Therefore, social search makes it easier to find relevant, public content from your social circle, such as the following:

• Websites, blogs, public profiles, and other content linked from your friends’ Google profiles
• Web content, such as status updates, tweets, and reviews, from social services that your friends have listed in their Google profiles
• Relevant articles from your Google Reader subscriptions

Why has social search been introduced?

The aim of Google social search is to help you find more relevant content from your broader social circle. So with the new social search feature Google has taken further steps to improve the relevance of search results for individual users. Our results are already increasingly being tailored thanks to the recent universal roll-out of personalised search but social search means we can also opt-in for them to be tailored still further.

The introduction of social search also has to be considered in terms of the broader changes in online behaviour we have witnessed in recent years. In buying products, services, booking holidays, restaurants, choosing a local dentist and just about anything else that involves parting with cold, hard cash, web users look for recommendations, referrals and reviews to aid them in their decision to purchase. And in doing so, who’s word do we trust more than anybody else? The people we know of course. So Google is extending the familiar features of websites such as Trip Advisor, where customer reviews, often from people we do not know, dictate our decision to book a hotel…or not as the case may be.  But instead of relying on reviews from people we may not know from Adam, social search allows us to see information from people we are likely to share more in common with and therefore who’s word we trust. Clever eh?

In Part 2, I’ll be looking at the impact this has on your digital marketing efforts. Until then…

Calling the UK’s premium home and garden retailers! We are delighted to announce the launch of a survey and round table event exploring how advanced, and how effective, premium retailers are in their use of digital marketing. This first survey is aimed at home and garden retailers with a further three, sector-specific surveys to follow over the course of 2010.

Why take part?
It’s free, the survey will take no longer than 15 minutes and with the follow up report you’ll be able to benchmark your digital marketing efforts against other companies in your sector. The survey investigates the specific tools and techniques being used by premium home and garden retailers, budgets and attitudes towards search, social media and other channels.

Take the survey
The survey can found here. We request that you complete it before February 26th. By taking part you will gain free access to the benchmark report.

If you have any questions, please give Ben Potter a shout on 01273 322833.

Round table event
We’ll be inviting a number of home and garden retailers to a round table event with facilitated discussion of the surveys findings. The first of these will be taking place in March with confirmed attendees including Feather and Black and Aqualisa. Please see the event details below:

‘How effectively are the UK’s premium retailers utilising digital marketing - home and garden”

Date: Thursday 11th March

Time: Please arrive at 1.30pm for a 2pm start. The session will run for approximately 3 hours

Location: myhotel Bloomsbury, 11-13 Bayley Street, Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3HD

Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street and Russell

Confirmed attendees: Feather and Black and Aqualisa. We expect a total of 12 – 15 home and garden retailers to be in attendance, as well key members of the Leapfrogg team.

Towards the end of last year, I announced (in slightly candid fashion) a shift in direction for Leapfrogg in 2010. With a much disrupted January now behind us (please, never mention the word ‘snow again!) the time has arrived to tell you a bit more…in our typically open fashion.

If you missed the last post, I explained how in the increasingly competitive and complex market for digital marketing services, it has become more and more difficult to differentiate one agency from another. Most of the good agencies tend to offer the same services and say the same things, just in a slightly different way (which adds to the confusion if you are a buyer of digital marketing services!).

The lesson we really learnt in 2009 is that regardless of the market you operate in, or the great reputation you may already have, you still need a business proposition that is unique. We realised last year that we had fallen into the same trap as many of our competitors in using the same old buzzwords and points of difference (which in reality were not that different at all!).

So what do we do to break the mould? Well, after a whole load of research, analysis, brainstorming, head scratching and the odd ‘eureka’ moment, we have come to the conclusion that demand is on the increase for specialist, boutique-style agencies, with exceptional knowledge and experience in one particular market.

So on the basis of this research, and our many years spent working with, and learning from, brands such as Feather and Black, we are creating a new division here at Leapfrogg focused on servicing premium retail brands; a specialist offering that helps differentiate Leapfrogg from other agencies, whilst providing premium retailers with a viable alternative to the ‘one-stop-shop’, ‘we service any client’ approach taken by many agencies.

The new division will build on the solid expertise we already possess in this market. For a number of months now we have been reviewing our existing services and how they can be finely tuned to better suit the requirements of premium retailers. We have already overhauled how we deliver work to clients with much more emphasis on research and planning, as well a more integrated approach to digital marketing that combines search, social media and content. It is our belief that these channels cannot operate in isolation but instead must be used in combination to maximise reach, targeted traffic, online conversion rates, levels of customer retention, as well as developing those all-important advocates of your brand.

New services specific to the needs of premium retailers, and in line with how we expect retail to change in the coming months and years, are also being investigated by our team. Mobile, augmented reality, rich media content, dynamic merchandising, cross-channel and customer retention tools are all on the radar with services due to launch over the course of 2010.

We will also be ramping up our ability to accurately measure results across all channels with an Ecommerce Analyst due to join the team in the coming weeks. A recruitment strategy focused on sourcing experts with the right blend of skills to complement those we already possess will be an ongoing theme.

Alongside all of this, we are going to be freshening up the Leapfrogg brand and website, a project kicking off in the next couple of weeks and one that I am particularly excited about.

With all of the excitement around a new division, it would be easy to forget where we have come from. But rest assured that won’t be happening. We’ll continue to deliver exceptional digital marketing expertise for new and existing clients in other sectors, running alongside the new retail division.

So that’s us…a new division, new direction and newly found strategic focus in everything from sales and marketing to recruitment. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below or get in touch.

Get involved
We want to involve premium retailers in the ongoing development of the division. This will begin with surveying dozens of the UK’s premium retailers to better understand their experiences of digital marketing. We’ll be using this research to compile an insightful report looking at the state of digital marketing in premium retail, as well as a series of round table events to explore the findings.

Keep a look out for the survey launching later this week.

What is the appropriate response time for a brand to get back to you through a social media channel, such as Twitter or Facebook? What are your expectations as a prospect, an existing customer having a rant or a brand advocate?

On this occasion my focus is on Twitter. Although these questions apply to all social spaces, Twitter, it seems, is the most instant and fast paced platform. It’s also the ideal place for a quick-witted rant if you are unsatisfied with the service received from a company you have engaged with. But how quickly should you expect a response…if you are lucky enough to get one? With more traditional means of communication, expected response times vary; a phone call is pretty instantaneous (if you ignore the time you are on hold!), an email you might expect a response in a day, a letter maybe a week. But all of these channels cost money, time and people power. Not that I am suggesting that monitoring and responding through social media doesn’t. But the speed and immediacy of a tweet, as well as the fact it is in the public domain, offer numerous benefits to forward thinking brands willing to integrate social media tools into their customer service processes.

Absolutely integral to achieving this, is listening to what is being said. Some companies it appears are better at this than others. This post highlights two companies at polar opposites when it comes to responding to their customers through Twitter. Sales Director, Ben and I had a rant about o2 recently on Twitter. The persistent texts about their iTunes Christmas offer were frustrating. The fact that texting ‘STOP’ had no effect (despite this action supposedly putting an end to the barrage) made the whole thing infuriating. But despite a very public rant that brought in comments from other frustrated customers, 02 were completely silent on the issue, despite having a live, and pretty active, Twitter account.

At the other end of the scale was ASOS. The experience with o2 prompted the Social Media and Content team here at Leapfrogg to see if their favourite online clothing store had a better response time. It is well known that ASOS have very open and transparent dialogue with their customers; they are a successful retail brand that has embraced social media brilliantly, both with their Twitter and Facebook channels. But it’s always a test to see how closely brands are listening. It’s all too easy to use social media as a vehicle to push out information and products but fail to listen to what their customers really want, so @copyratty (aka Matt our Digital Content Specialist) and I did a little experiment.

The results

I asked Matt to Tweet using the ASOS review box. While we still don’t know if they are screened, this response popped up within minutes.

And then after Matt responded, back came ASOS with more lighthearted banter:

He has since heard directly from the menswear buyer at ASOS, as well as two other representatives. Now that’s a stellar example of ‘listening’ to your demographic. Oh, and Matt is a big shopper too….

Social media works as a service tool

Since this interaction, Matt has now started to send his ‘look’ to ASOS once a week. Their response has created an advocate in Matt.

“I feel that there are people behind the brand, they are approachable and you can connect with them if you need to,” Matt said.  “With any large brand you want to feel that they are accessible I feel I have built up some good rapport with them over the last week”.

So if you are looking for a fine example of how to interact through social networks, such as Twitter, look no further. And in particular, note the impact it had on a customer; the promise to go back to the site and purchase products that he might otherwise have purchased elsewhere, or not at all…he just had to wait until pay day first!

Leapfrogg MD, Rosie, came across this little gem of a video this morning. If for one moment you think social media is a passing fad, digest the facts and figures from this video and see how you feel at the end of it!

Mind blowing eh? Social media isn’t going anywhere!

Video courtesy of SEOMarketingExperts.