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.

Continue Reading:
Get Your E-Store Reviewed on Facebook »

Choosing a profile picture is a self-branding exercise. There’s no right or wrong way to present yourself online but many avatars are boring, forgettable. Here’s a gallery of 99 remarkable, creative, funny and memorable social media avatars. Why did we pick these pics? Check out how to choose an avatar to find out.

Are you in a mono-”logo”s relationship, or play the field when it comes to social network avatars?

Many of us take a number of images for a spin before we settle on “the one.” Some have joined themselves to one and will never look back. While others seem to have a new photo every week.

If you’re tired of the avatar-scene and are looking for a long-term commitment, perhaps it’s time to settle down with a single avatar. Or if you feel your avatar is going nowhere - maybe it’s time to break up.

Decisions, decisions. There are a few questions you must ask yourself:

• Is this just a relationship of convenience? Maybe you selected your profile from the social network’s default. You really gotta believe there is a better avatar out there, even for you.

• Is it purely sentimental? Have you had the same avatar since 2001? Familiarity is comfortable, but you may have outgrown your avatar. I mean, I’ve had many lovely walks along the beach with my Discman, but come on.

• Is your avatar a cheat? It seemed all fine and dandy when you turned yourself into a South Park character, but now you see your picture in other places, wearing other clothes, and with slightly different hairstyles…and you’re beginning to get suspicious.

• Does your avatar share your interests and future goals? An avatar is a personal brand, don’t waste your time if you’re not compatible. Eventually there will come a time when you will inevitably move on.

• Do your friends like your avatar? In a way, your avatar is a reflection of you - your avatar shouldn’t be boring or rude. In fact, if you have an outgoing avatar, it can introduce you to a LOT of new people.

• Can you bring your avatar home to mother? I think this is self-explanatory.

• Is your avatar high-maintenance? Does your picture need constant fussing and resizing for it to look good every time you take it somewhere new?

If you answered yes or no to one or more of the above questions, you may or may not need to break up with your avatar. But if you’ve read this far, please read on for some tips on what makes attractive, long-term avatars:

Logos

Logos are a great way to brand your blog or business, for obvious reasons. If you’re familiar with a blog or company, you’ll recognize the logo as a representative of that brand right off the bat. The risk here is there’s always a possibility you change jobs / careers and your avatar or user handle becomes outdated.

Examples

SEMvironment and Ecogeek’s logos communicate the green focus of their businesses. If your avatar somehow ties into what you do, that can be even more effective.

Another downside of using your logo is if your company has multiple people, it’s confusing if more than one person uses the logo. Who gets to use the logo? How will others in the company brand themselves?

I have yet to see this, but think it would be a neat idea if a company that gets its team to take similar avatar photos. Perhaps all wearing funny hats, tuxedos, team jerseys, doctor’s uniforms or even bobbleheads…

Characterize Yourself

I don’t mean Simpsonize yourself. I mean create a persona like The Mad Hat, Fantomaster, Slightly Shady SEO, Google Tutor, Incredible Help, OnReact or John Cow:

Caricaturize Yourself

Chris Hooley, Rohit Bhargava, Joost de Valk, Barry Schwartz, Andy Sernovitz, Shawn Collins and Jeffrey Zeldman are a few examples of personal caricatures.

Brand Yourself as a Celebrity Character

If you’re lucky enough to share a name with a popular cartoon character like Sebastian or Duff Man, you can go this route.

If you don’t have a name-connection, it’s less effective just to borrow a character. Chances are there are six or seven or eight others who had the same bright idea.

Use an Unusual Headshot

Black and white headshots can stand out because they’re less common, but stand out more with any interesting angle of your head. Examples from Bill Slawski, Muhammad Saleem and Shana Albert.

Bright colored backgrounds work, too. Examples from Ciaran Norris and Lyndon Antcliff:

Lyndoman also uses a half-head, a great technique shared by Wiep Knol and Matt McGee:

Or turn your head, touch your face, rotate your photo, paint your face…or use a prop!

Combine Logo with Photo

Best of both worlds. Robert Raught and Stefan Juhl do this well. Their choice of white background also makes it easier to see. In Robert’s case, you also know his occupation without clicking through to his profile page.

Adopt a Pet

Advertising execs know you can’t go wrong with baby animals. In social media, monkeys are particularly effective (perhaps because they’re almost people?) The pros are that animals are memorable and often funny. The downside is an animal doesn’t say anything about you or your business, unless it ties in with your name (maybe your name is Cat or your nickname is Bart the Bear).

Use an Inanimate Object

Attention-grabbing, stands out amongst the sea of faces and easy for people to remember, a single object can be a good avatar choice. Robert Gorell goes retro with a cassette tape (although this will alienate anyone born after 1985), Kristen Munson has her red stillettos (would be neat to where those to the conference!) and “Wingnut” has his…wingnut.

Want more inspiration? Check out more amazing avatars.

Greetings from the Rocky Mountains! I’m away this week in beautiful Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada for the CWC/Corus Digital Media Career Accelerator workshop.

This morning I will be presenting to a select group of women in the broadcasting industry a session on blog promotion through new media. I thought I’d give you a peek at the slide deck anyhow as the ideas can apply to ecommerce blogs also. (You may also download it from Slide Share)

They’re not the sexiest slides but I made them a bit more textual so the deck is somewhat understandable on its own.

| View | Upload your own

Blog Promo and Social Media For Ecommerce

I’d like to go into a bit more detail here on Get Elastic with an ecommerce focus:

Why Blog?

• Open up for conversation with your customers, gather feedback and attend to reputation management concerns

• Establish a personality for your company, employees or brands
• Attract long-tail search traffic and pre-sell your company or products
• Build backlinks to boost your overall link profile (if the blog is a sub-folder or sub-domain)
• Landing page for contests and promotions
• Information resource for customers, employees, partners, investors and affiliates

Blog Traffic Sources

• Offline awareness (your brick-and-mortar stores, print or TV/radio advertising, word-of-mouth)

• Link from your estore
• Links from other websites and blogs
• Search engines
• Blog search engines
• Social networks
• Email campaigns with blog call-outs

Basic Search Engine Optimization

• Keywords in the right places

• Links from relevant sites
• Blog plug-ins
• Good content / more content

Where to Place Keywords

• Title tag

• Page title
• Body text
• Link text (on your site and when others link to you)
• Post tags
• Alt attributes (images, video)
• Headings / bolded text
• URLs (keyword relevance in search engine and when people link to you)

Why Links Matter

• Search engines need a measure of authority or popularity

• Blogs are more “linkable” than static business sites
• Deep links look more “natural” to search engines (don’t look purchased or bartered for)
• Links send traffic and help branding

Examples of Link-Baity Content

• Humor: Jockey Stop Squirming
• Controversy: Dove Evolution campaign
• Contest: Target dormroom contest in Facebook
• Amazing: Ray-ban sunglasses
• Emotional: 1-800-Flowers mother’s day
• Informative: Sephora makeup how-to’s
• Timely: Ice.com - Mr. Cupid
• Ongoing: Blogs (Ecommerce Blogs of the Top Online Retailers)

SEO Plugins

• SEO Plugins for Wordpress from Michael Gray

• Best SEO Plugins for Wordpress from The Blog Joint

Other “Search Engines”

• Video sharing: YouTube, Google Video etc.

• Google / Yahoo News (Tips for getting into Google News from Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Guide)
• Blog search: Google / Technorati / Ice Rocket & more

Why StumbleUpon Rules

Because this is a fairly short session (45 minutes) and there are so many things I could say about the subject, I only had time to address one social network - StumbleUpon. In my opinion, if you do no other social media sharing, you should at least be on StumbleUpon. It’s a good entry-level social network for a number of reasons:

• Drives a ton of traffic (often more than Google)

• Don’t have to be a “power user” to get results (according to Dosh Dosh)
• Drives traffic long-term (as opposed to Digg-style sites where stories are hot for a day)
• General site but you can get very targeted (specific tags, groups etc)
• Toolbar makes submission easy
• Tech-savvy users often have their own blogs (link opportunity)
• You can discover things to blog about

StumbleUpon is a social network where members can surf tags related to their interests to discover sites, photos, videos and articles relevant to them. Rather than using a search engine and letting a machine decide what’s good content, StumbleUpon shows you sites others thought were cool. You can also follow members interested in your topic/industry and when you log in, you see a feed of relevant recently “thumbed” content that you can start checking out yourself. If you like it you thumb up, if you don’t like it you thumb down or hit the “Stumble” button again. Simple.

You can also share items with your network. This can be powerful when you have a network of like minded people who will thumb up content you share with them. Their recent thumbs may appear in Facebook profiles and newsfeeds as well as their StumbleUpon profile page and friends’ feeds. Here’s a StumbleUpon Networking Guide with screenshots for further reading.

You can friend a maximum of 200 people on StumbleUpon (but more than that can subscribe to your Stumble feed). Neil Patel gave us a tip back in October when he joined us for a webinar on social media marketing strategies: friend as many people as you can initially, and if they don’t friend back within a week, move on and friend some more.

I suggest looking for a group on a niche topic and adding friends from within that group or looking for people who have indicated their interest in a certain topic by tag. You can find niche groups by browsing http://group.stumbleupon.com or typing a tag keyword in the search box.

StumbleUpon users are techsavvy and are often bloggers themselves. They may be using their SU account to discover blog fodder and your content can reach more people (the blog’s RSS subscribers and search engine traffic). The back links also benefit you.

SU is also a social bookmarking tool. When people Stumble your content there’s a good chance they’ll come back later to view it again.

Other social media sites like Digg have algorithms that skew towards “power users” that submit topics that go popular. It takes a lot of work to build up your Digg history and friend following. StumbleUpon takes less effort – you can get traffic just for submitting stories to the StumbleUpon system. But you can get more mileage if you make use of the social features available to you: friending, joining groups, tagging and reviewing sites and members.

Public relations guru and author of Micro Persuasion, Steve Rubel, has taken a lot of heat this past week over his post SEO Shenanigans Pose a Clear and Present Danger to Social Media.

Rubel’s PR firm Edelman dipped into the dark-gray/black area of social media marketing (SMM) a while back - and the blogosphere hasn’t forgotten. Other intelligent comments on Rubel’s post come from SEO professionals defending their industry’s honor.

I don’t want to add to the debate here, but I will say that I agree with Steve that if you are “launching social media marketing programs solely for the purpose of influencing search engines, rather than with the intent of fostering collaboration and genuine communication” you fit the description of an unethical marketer.

But that doesn’t mean expecting an SEO benefit from social media marketing campaigns is evil. I don’t think that’s what Rubel was implying anyway (remember it’s the word solely that was empasized). But I wanted to throw in my 2 cents and clarify which social media marketing activities I believe really help SEO, which have minimal value and which are simply spam.

Social Media Marketing as a Link Building Strategy

The primary way social media or any other site can help your SEO is through attracting links. Social media can drive traffic that may convert, but search engines won’t factor that into their algorithms. So any dabbling in social networks for SEO purposes is essentially link building.

These links can be acquired directly or indirectly. This is what I mean:

Continue Reading:
Social Media With a Side of SEO - Hold the Spam »

Today, we all know how important customer reviews are to retailers and customers alike. They help convert buyers by building trust and confidence in the product, they reduce returns, draw long-tail search traffic and are a simple entry into on-site communities for ecommerce websites.

But there was a time when no one had them. It makes you wonder what we’re missing today that we don’t know we’re missing.

Let’s take another effective merchandising tool: cross-selling. Currently, ecommerce marketers are banking that their personal cross-sell suggestions or algorithmic-based recommendations will be relevant and attractive to shoppers. This *can* be really hit and miss. But what if we gave customers a crack at cross-selling?

Continue Reading:
User Generated Cross-Sells? Why Is Nobody Doing It? »

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.

If you recognized this was NOT an official OfficeMax Elf Yourself video, perhaps you’re one of the 26.4 million people who took part in the real OfficeMax viral campaign last Christmas. (For our non-US readers, you can read up on this campaign here).

There’s no denying that this was the biggest social media marketing success for a major retailer in 2007. Hitwise ranked ElfYourself.com as the 51st most visited website in December, and users spent a total of 2,600 years on the site. Even more remarkable, 40% of visitors to ElfYourself.com were 55 years or older - proving that social media campaigns can engage boomers successfully.

OfficeMax VP of Marketing and Advertising Bob Thacker said: “We were looking to build the brand, warm up our image. We weren’t looking for sales. We are third-place players in our industry, so we are trying to differentiate ourselves through humor and humanization.”

Continue Reading:
Viral Marketing: Can Dancing Elves Move Product Off Shelves? »