Luxury retailer Cartier recently launched a MySpace presence for its Love by Cartier campaign. But it faces an interesting reputation management issue: since MySpace already has hundreds of profiles that use the name Cartier (it is a surname, after all).

If you type in “Cartier MySpace” in Google, this is what you get:

If someone really wants to find the page, they may head over to MySpace and use it’s site search box, and still not find the official page:

You have to type “Love By Cartier” in Google or MySpace to get the link to the Cartier MySpace page (at time of posting, algorithm changes or incoming links to Cartier’s page may change that).

Yahoo’s algorithm does select the right page for “Cartier MySpace”:

Though you can’t control how Google matches pages to the search term (duplicate content filter in action), you can build links to the page you want to rank well to help boost its “Page Rank” which may cause it to beat out other pages in the search engine’s index. (If the search engine indexed 500+ pages from MySpace relevant to the term “Cartier”, it only picks 1 to show in search results, 2 if it uses an indented second result).

Cartier could also nag MySpace to tweak its internal search to rank its page tops for “Cartier” searches, especially since this is an advertising partnership between the two.

This is also an example of why brands should really claim their social network profile names / domains / Facebook Pages and Groups proactively, even if they just sit on them. It’s easy for net citizens to beat you to the punch which makes it harder for you to be found in search engines and social network searches.

Ed Whiting from Travel Remark put together this eye-opening video about Facebook travel applications. Just for fun, take a guess how many travel-related Facebook applications there are before you click play (the grand total will be revealed at the end).

And this is just one category of commercial applications, folks.

When Facebook applications were launched last year, first movers in ecommerce included Blue Nile’s Wish List and Backcountry’s Steep and Cheap. I give credit to these retailers for giving it a shot. Unfortunately, almost a year later you can count the number of daily users for these apps on one hand.

Other social shopping applications like StyleFeeder and Polyvore get a few thousand daily users - not bad, but they are definitely the exception.

Challenges in Social Shopping Facebook Application Marketing

1. Application Aggro - Requests to add applications from friends are no longer trusted. Much worse, in fact - it has turned friends into perceived spammers and prompted many Facebook statuses along the lines of “stop sending me [radio edit] applications!

2. Saturation - At this stage in the game, there are so many applications that to get popular, you have to be remarkable. You have to provide so much value that people will add your application and risk losing friends to evangelize your app with invites.

3. Commercialization - Judging by daily average users, it’s clear that Facebookers would rather buy and sell each other than buy real products.

4. App ADD - Even if someone adds your application, that person has to be really motivated to use it on a regular basis. Otherwise it will inevitably be removed.

5. Co-dependency - Many apps depend on a sufficient number of your friends’ participation for there to be any practical value (Facebook being a social network, after all). If a user doesn’t have mutual friends with the application, he can get no utility out of it.

Given these conditions, I don’t think there’s a future for e-tailers to win at this game. What do you think?

Facebook recenly released a guidebook for businesses titled: Facebook Insider’s Guide to Viral Marketing. Don’t get too excited about the title, just because you set up a Fan Page for your business and buy a few social ads does not mean you’ll unleash a profit-virus, or even make a ripple in the pond. But the guide does help you understand what Facebook has made available for you and how to get a Page all set up.

Considering the price (free) it certainly isn’t a bad idea to put one up. Especially since any of your fans can set up a page on your behalf without anyone knowing it wasn’t you, so it’s a good idea to be the first out of the gate so there’s no confusion and you can control your introductory message and the way your Page functions yourself. Other users of Facebook could still set up unauthorized Pages, but at least the early fans won’t be usurped by the unofficial Page.

Get Reviewed on Facebook

Unlike Facebook Groups and Sponsored Groups, Facebook Pages are like people — they can add applications. One application that is useful for online retailers and other businesses is Reviews. Reviews can only be added to Pages, not individual profiles, so you won’t find it in your regular applications search, but you can view the application page through the link.

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Get Your E-Store Reviewed on Facebook »

Many of us wonder what the Elf Yourself campaign could have been if it were a bit more focused on sales. Maybe it would have looked a bit more like Irish Spring’s Get Irish Now campaign?

(Due to annoyingness of sound, I have posted a screen shot in lieu of video. You can see the video here).

Yep, that’s me. I’ve Irishified myself - even down to an Irish accent. (Now, if only it could talk like an Irish pirate…)

Do consumers still get a kick out of this kinda thing? Or is this just another “me too” campaign? Irish Spring did do things a bit differently, which might give this a better shot at success:

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Get Your Irish On - Here Comes Another Viral »

Our own VP of Innovation, Jason Billingsley shares his social media marketing wisdom with Internet Retailer today in “MySpace opens it doors, but retailers may walk on by.”

This article is timely as MySpace has recently opened its developer platform, similar to what Facebook did ages ago. We’ve had enough time to watch the attempts of Facebook applications by online retailers to determine whether MySpace application efforts are worth the time or not.

“… merchants have had little success so far selling products through Facebook,” says Jason Billingsley, co-founder and vice president of innovation at Elastic Path Software, whose company has studied the e-commerce applications created for Facebook.

Some merchants have created popular promotional applications for Facebook, such as a JanSport back-to-school contest last summer that offered JanSport products as prizes to Facebookers who posted the best pictures of the contents of their backpacks. “But they weren’t selling products,” Billingsley says. “They were giving away products through a fun contest.”

There is one aspect of MySpace’s offer that makes it more appealing than Facebook’s, says Billingsley. MySpace has adopted a Google standard called OpenSocial designed to allow an application created for one social networking site to run on others. While Facebook has yet to adopt OpenSocial, Billingsley says an application built for MySpace will run on other social networking sites using the Google standard, such as U.K. social networking leader Bebo.”

Check out the full article at Internet Retailer, and subscribe to GetElastic if you haven’t already to stay in the loop on social media marketing trends and tips for ecommerce marketers.

Retailers like Target, Walmart, Victoria’s Secret and American Eagle’s “aerie” brand have found a way to direct-market to “Millennials” through Facebook Sponsored Groups. Like opt-in email campaigns, these retailers are using its Sponsored Group member lists to send notifications on contests, sales and even new Facebook applications.

Everyone who has joined a Sponsored Group has opted in by default to receiving Facebook “email” messages:

Here’s the latest Valentine email from aerie, a clothing line from American Eagle aimed at 15-25 year old females. It was sent to almost 50,000 members of its Sponsored Group:

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Sponsored Facebook Groups - The New Opt In Email Campaign? »

Thinking about running a Facebook advertising campaign? It helps to pick apart what advertisers are already doing. Today we’ll examine several campaigns of online retailers from ad copy and design to landing page and boil them down to 11 tips for Facebook banners and graphic ads.

Apple

Ad

I’m not too crazy about the ad text - it seems a bit awkward. It could be shortened to “Hottest Phone, Lowest Price. $399 + Free Shipping from the Apple Store.” Easier to read, capitalized letters are proven to convert higher in PPC - why should this be any different? Oh, and ditch the Christmas messaging, it’s January 21st!

Landing Page

This is a great landing page choice - leading right to the conversion page for the product advertised. BUT this is the Apple.com store, and the ad was served to me as a Canadian. Geo-targeting is available, please use it. It’s not clear that this is the US store unless you check the address bar. Especially disappointing as the iPhone requires “hacking” to be used in Canada. Can the average Facebook user figure this all out?

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Facebook Ads Deconstructed: 11 Tips for Marketers »

Since the launch of the Facebook Development Platform, literally hundreds of applications have been popping up each day. It seems most of these applications will never be added beyond the developer and his Top 8 friends. And you may be wondering: What might possess someone to go through the trouble of creating a Facebook application?

Of course, some developers will slave themselves just to make something cool for the Facebook-o-sphere to love, enjoy and share with all their friends. But there are at least 4 other reasons:

• For Branding (You’re a development house or a popular brand)
• To Sell (Example: Where I’ve Been gets bought by TripAdvisor)
• For Specific Actions (Affiliate products like iLike linking to iTunes)
• For Page Views (If you’re selling banner ad space on your application)

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Who Makes $1 Million off their Facebook Application Every Week? »

Facebook launched 3 new advertising options for businesses this week: Business Pages, Social Ads and Project Beacon.

Here’s the gist of Tuesday’s major announcement and how it impacts online retailers and other businesses:

Business Pages

Sponsored Groups have been dumped for free profile pages for any brand or business. True, any business can simply create a profile and added friends, but Business Pages are unique.

Here’s an example of the Join (RED) Page:

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Facebook Advertising - 3 New Ways To Play »

Expect a huge announcement from Facebook tomorrow about “Social Ads.” Recently partnered with Microsoft, Facebook’s been sitting on a very large pile of consumer information such as age, political views, favorite movies, college information, marital status and more that lends itself to behavior-targeted ads. Certainly this advertising model has been months in the making.

Depending on the details, there could be some low-cost opportunities for online retailers big and small to market effectively through Facebook. Until tomorrow’s big reveal, here is a recap of the Facebook rumors:

Project Pandemic / Mullets

Facebook may be removing “sponsored groups” and replacing them with sponsored pages that might include interactive games or other Facebook applications developed by Facebook itself, rather than third party developers.

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Juicy Facebook Rumors - Social Ads & More »