November 8, 2010 Bands, Social Is Not Just About Sharing It Is Also About Commerce – CommerceSocial
Bands, Artists, Labels, Management Companies… it’s time to move beyond a single stand alone online store and bring your online store to where your fans are hanging out; Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Websites. Don’t just post your new CD on your Facebook Wall and link your fans back to a typical online store. Post your new CD on your Facebook Wall, MySpace Page, Blog or official website and let your fans buy it right there without even leaving. Let your fans share your new CD as a Wall post with all their friends, while including the ability to buy your CD in every single one of those Wall posts.
STOP, think about what I just said… every single Wall post by all your fans could be a store with the ability to buy your CD. What could that mean for sales?
It is time to bring your commerce to the world of social. CommerceSocial is a new tool that is extremely easy to setup and lets your CD spread virally through the social networks.
Here is how it works: Imagine that the next time you post a product on your Facebook Wall that instead of it just being a image that links off to your website where you need to get your fan through the entire conversion process to complete a purchase that now when they click on the product image a small window actually expands right inside Facebook with a mini shopping cart embedded,. This mini shopping cart allows the fan to instantly make a purchase right in the Facebook Wall… while they are still the most excited and interested in the product. Now what if your fans could become your sales force, they are your biggest supporters. There is a Share button right in the cart that allows the fan to further Share the product on their Facebook Wall. All of a sudden your Wall post is being spread across Facebook by all your fans, and every one of those Wall posts is a online store.
A major shift is happening in online commerce and advertising, consumers in ALL social networks and communities are relying heavily on peer word-of-mouth recommendations for their purchases as they chat about brands and products - it’s happening every minute of every day.
90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. 67% of shoppers spend more online after recommendations from their online community of friends. A product posted on a Facebook Wall or shared in a user’s blog is a recommendation of trust.
CommerceSocial even has a full affiliate program built right into your store. If someone posts a product on their Wall and makes a sale you can choose to pay them a small finders fee. Even more incentive for your fans to start posting your products… they can make some money selling your products!
I have been talking all about Facebook, but all of the same functionality works on MySpace, Blogs and Websites. You can post a complete working store wherever your fans are.
Check out CommerceSocial. Signup as a merchant if you are a band and have some physical goods to sell. Contact me if you have questions about how to best implement social commerce or have questions about CommerceSocial.
Michael Brandvold is leader in the management, development and marketing of large-scale international websites, community websites, subscription-based revenue streams for clients such as KISS, Britney Spears, Madonna, U2, Motley Crue, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Universal Music Group, BMG/Sanctuary Records, Rhino Records, Good Vibrations, Exotic Erotic Ball, GourmetCountry.com, Vivid Entertainment, Playboy, Private Media Group; selling products ranging from software to apparel, paper goods, CD/DVD, books, subscription memberships, Video on Demand and Pay Per Minute.
Reader Comments (22)
The tool seems very interesting indeed. But this is such a blatant pitch on an otherwise informative blog that I feel a little wary and uncomfortable. I guess I'll just wait for objective reviews...
WTF - is this an advertisement?
I am amazed you guys stuffed this ad through without telling everyone that it is an advertisement. Nice way to kill the audience!
that's awesome. the built-in affiliate program is a really good idea.
Hmm, sign up form only has one country. Why?
Michael is correct. It's time to bring commerce direct to the consumers and where they talk online. Great resource for the music business!
michael - i felt it was to good to be true and wanted to respond to this article with an attitude! but after a day of using commercesocial i am addicted! i went beyond the stores and created the video ads using 2 videos i created. these ads have my cds inside them to let my fans buy on that page, sick! no bad feedback here, thanks micheal!
Agree with some of the comments in here - blatant way of slipping in advertisement.
BUT: The concept of decentralizing sales is a winner if you ask me. Would love to try it out. However, when you guys run a campaign like this, PLEASE make it specific to our industry. Key questions are not answered here: how about digital sales (we're living in music industry 2.0, guys)? Possible? And if so, then where are the files hosted? On CommerceSocial's server or is all the system does send a purchase notice and it is for us to figure out how to distribute?
I just checked out the CommerceSocial website and looked at the demo store they display. It is a store for selling bags of potato chips. Come on, guys!! I don't mind you placing advertisement as an article if the subject/product is actually very interesting. But if you sell to a specific industry, then at least understand the needs and dynamics of that industry - immediately raises your chance of success.
4lostsouls, maybe what you say is true but you certainly sound like a shill
Great idea, it is worth a shot. I put it on our website, facebook and myspace. Thanks for the new resource!
Why does everything revolve around facebook. Also people won't click and buy from a wall post - very much doubt it.
I just spoke with these guys over the phone today. They are not set up to do digital distribution but will be around February or March of 2011.
Michael, thanks for your review and recommendation.
We created our social platform and tools with small business needs as a core focus; easy-to-use and well thought-out apps that provide great value independently, and as a suite they are, to quote many of our incoming merchants, mind blowing!
Chris and 4lostsouls, glad to see you put up your stores on Facebook, MySpace, blogs, and company sites. I took a quick look at them, you're great examples of how merchants can quickly put up stores wherever they want! I checked some of the stores and product shared mini-stores earlier today, well done.
The stores and product shared mini-stores are but one of the 3 tools available in the suite. If you have video content try the new interactive ads, you can drag and drop your CDs onto any spot of the video and you can endorse as many products as you want; one product for the entire video duration, or endorse 20 products in different spots of the video for different lengths - the video is viral and also allows same-page purchasing. Here is an endorsed music video by Crash Music, about midway down the page on the right side:
http://www.myspace.com/crashmusicinc
In case other are interested, here are a couple of other music artists/merchants (one of which posted a comment here today):
Music merchant: Dark Star Records
- Music merchant site: http://darkstarrecords.com
- Music merchant MySpace store:
http://www.myspace.com/darkstarrecords
(1/2 way down the page, look for product shared mini-store on right side)
- Music merchant Facebook store:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Dark-Star-Records/165168220170322
(click CommerceSocial tab)
Music merchant: Ockums Razor (this merchant/musician posted on this thread today, and here are his stores -- thought it would be a good example of the quick turnaround and ease of use capabilities)
- Music merchant site: http://ockumsrazor.com
- Music merchant MySpace store:
http://www.myspace.com/ockumsrazor
(1/4 way down the page, look for product shared mini-store)
- Music merchant Facebook store:
http://www.facebook.com/ockumsrazor?ref=search&sid=1003373509.4015288303..1
(click Retail Store in tab)
In addition to the viral stores and the interactive ads, merchants also have the ability to have all their goods endorsed INSIDE social member text, videos, and any YouTube viral videos they elect to share. Why would they endorse your products inside their social content and viral YouTube videos? The reasons are many but two of the more expressed reasons are that social publishers can now have 100% control over the products/ads that are now in and around their content and they are monetizing all of their their content and social Pages and profiles.
I also wanted to touch on a question above asking whether CommerceSocial provides support for digital/music downloads. Our rollout focused on providing the marketplace and all merchants a powerful and well thought out social sales platform. Now that we've attained that goal we are tending to the needs of the various industries, music included. Digital downloads/music support are due to arrive Q1 of next year, along with a couple of other music-related features we feel you will enjoy.
Thanks again for the review, Michael. Based on the registrations and calls we've been getting these past 48 hours from the music biz, you hit the right touch points!
Also, thanks to musicthinktank.com and hypebot.com for picking up your article and spreading the word: CommerceSocial really is that good.
Ariel Wada
CEO & Founder
commercesocial
www.CommerceSocial.com
www.Facebook.com/CommerceSocial
www.Twitter.com/CommerceSocial
Even though it's an overt plug for a product, the product is a good one. I love the idea that as my music goes viral, so could my sales. The point about a digital download is legit though. But, it's a new product...better to be in on the leading edge, driving development, than to miss business opportunities.
Thank-you all for your comments - bad and good. As the publisher of Music Think Tank, I take full responsibility for the good and the bad of what is published here. In retrospect, I probably should have asked Michael to tone done the level of his pitch. For not doing that, I apologize.
CommerceSocial appeared to me to be an interesting and somewhat unique concept - the kind of interesting concept that MTT readers want to explore. To be clear, MTT does not endorse CommerceSocial and did not receive any compensation from them in any form. In fact - although we will soon begin to run some ads on the site from other companies - to date, we have curated MTT as proud volunteers.
I sincerely want Music Think Tank to become "the place where the music industry goes to think"; and am proud of some of the writers we have attracted along with those that have discovered the site and left their contributions. Along the journey, we appreciate your feedback both good and bad; and learn from it all. - Bruce Hougthon. publisher Music Think Tank & Hypebot
Hi Ariel,
How can I use this in the non-american regions of internetland?
@ Felix
If I understand the question; as a merchant (seller) not in the US, how can you use the CommerceSocial suite? You could use it as a publisher (endorsing other merchants' products and video ads inside your text, videos, or any YouTube videos then getting paid for it), but I'm sure you are talking about your music distribution, sales, and branding/exposure, so the quick answer is no. HOWEVER, testing in the US market has gone well and we are looking at opening for the international market sometime in the next few weeks (fingers crossed!). Checked your site, you're in New Zealand - Paypal is supported there so we're a go (we use them for paying you and your social sales force). Send me an email (below) if you want to see a demo of CS' 3 tools (or a screen shot of the new CommerceSocial Music interface, slated for Q1).
Thanks for the Q!
Ariel Wada
CEO & Founder
commercesocial
email: ariel.wada at commercesocial dot com
CommerceSocial.com
Facebook.com/CommerceSocial
Twitter.com/CommerceSocial
I have many questions:
Where do the sales go? Who fulfills these sales? Where does the buyers information go? Do I own the information of the people that are buying from me? The last thing I want to do is go through the set up, get the fans on board... and end up with only compiling the email list for commercesocial to use to market to my fans. Or even sell their list to other companies to market to my fans. I would rather they go to my website. I would rather they buy music of my artists through a place they can trust that their name won't be sold, and I am clear I have complete control over how that information is used. Sorry, but this is a very serious issue to me. There are so many companies... including Facebook who are using musicians and their desire to acquire as many fans as possible to use as their own for marketing purposes. I take privacy issues very seriously. I see in their Privacy Policy how it pertains to me and my privacy, but what about our fans and the people that buy our music?
I would rather people take the extra step to go to my website, that's where I make them my fan to interact in ways you just can't on facebook. I'll wait for the reviews on REAL sales and real fans that are acquired before joining this. If anyone can post a success story selling music please do post. I would love to hear it. I want my musicians to make as much money off their music that they can. But not at the expense of losing fans because we compromised their privacy. This is why I want fans to start learning to buy their music directly from the artist and why I prefer the Topspin and Nimbit shops. I would love to rule out itunes, amazon and all those outlets if possible. Even Ping makes me nervous where that is going.
I invite anyone to convince me differently. I am a huge skeptic.
@skeptic (NFY)
CommerceSocial is SaaS, requires no integration, no download, no need for any merchant or musician to invest a penny. I'll try to address your posted concerns below. Some were not entirely clear, feel free to email us directly for more accurate responses.
- "Where do the sales go?" (not clear)
>> Merchant receives email upon sales transaction.
- "Who fulfills these sales?"
>> Merchant and customer have a direct relationship. Merchant fulfills sales orders themself or via their fulfillment center.
- "Where does the buyers information go?" (not clear)
>> Stays active in the merchants Sales Order tab for 90 days, archived after this.
- "Do I own the information of the people that are buying from me?"
>> As mentioned above, you have the direct relationship with your buyer - we do not act on your behalf and we do not contact your buyers. The information is stored and you can access it for a period of time, it's then archived.
- "The last thing I want to do is go through the set up, get the fans on board... and end up with only compiling the email list for commercesocial to use to market to my fans."
>> Good, that's the last thing we want too.
- "Or even sell their list to other companies to market to my fans."
>> That's not going to happen.
- "I take privacy issues very seriously. I see in their Privacy Policy how it pertains to me and my privacy, but what about our fans and the people that buy our music?"
>> Glad to see you take that stance. We do as well.
- "I invite anyone to convince me differently. I am a huge skeptic."
>> I hope we can work together one day.
Thanks for the points and concerns.
Ariel Wada
CEO & Founder
commercesocial
CommerceSocial.com
Facebook.com/CommerceSocial
Twitter.com/CommerceSocial
People, it's all for naught. The answer to music sales is NOT location (being on 10 zillion Facebook pages!). People do not go to FB to buy anything. That's not in their mind set. Besides, you're going to clog up FB even more than the sewer-hole its becoming.
NO....it's about PROMOTION. Does your music have the proverbial "feet in the street" praising it to the high heavens like so many "music evangelists"? If not...who will know about your music?!
Promotion...promotion and more promotion is the ONLY thing that is left to conquer.
Now... there IS a site coming soon that will answer this question like no other site. I have some "insider" info, but can tell no more. Look for it on 1/1/11.
Not necessarily. We're definitely not advocating that everyone abandon what works for them today, but hopefully we can all agree, "social" is here to stay and social marketing is a different approach altogether.
Having a zillion stores is not the answer, that's market saturation and not encouraged. I will argue thousands ++ though, when you look at each of your fans wanting one of your mini-stores or music videos with built-in mini-store in their social profiles and pages ;)
For the music industry, bands need smart and effective fan & network engagement tools that let you take advantage of all the sales opportunities happening INSIDE the communications everyone is having. CommerceSocial tools let you and your fans INSERT songs and products INSIDE your daily communications - posting and sharing text, uploaded and sharing music videos or other media, etc - as a natural element in the communications which will flow fluidly from network to network and fan to fan no matter where it's taking place; MySpace, MOG, Facebook Walls, music blog communities, and everywhere else your fans are talking about you.
How about a sneak peak of our new viral Music Center?
As a way of saying thank you to MusicThinkTank.com and its readers, here is a sneak peak of our new viral music center module (and yes, it also costs $0 to use, is highly viral, and comes with a built-in shopping cart for same-page or same-Wall checkout), coming Q1.
If you haven't seen our live stores and commerce music videos yet, take a look at this band's MySpace page - you can see the store, mini-store, and interactive video ad (store and mini store on left, video ad half way down on right): MySpace.com/CrashMusicInc
Now take a look at what you and your fans are getting in Q1. CommerceSocial works everywhere, including MySpace & Facebook, and manage everything from one central console. Unlimited stores, unlimited music videos, unlimited sites, unlimited songs - all with great fan sharing and instant buy capability.
Click to see CommerceSocial Music Center (NOTE: images show music center on Facebook Wall, but music centers can be shared anywhere)
We recommend ALL sellers start getting their feet wet in what they think is a smart soclal commerce and/or advertsing solution - it's not coming, it's here. And word to the wise, the social solution should NOT cost anything unless the vendor can generate the numbers that warrant the price outlay.
Exciting times!
Ariel Wada
CEO & Founder
commercesocial
CommerceSocial.com
Facebook.com/CommerceSocial
@Ignacio Lois
You should be a private investigator, that post was indeed biased. I just found out a short while ago, a friend made it. 4lostsouls is a friend and musician who was with me that evening and made that post - though her story is true it was not a unbiased comment. My apology to the thread's readers. (Thank you Jen!)
Ariel Wada
CEO & Founder
commercesocial
CommerceSocial.com
Facebook.com/CommerceSocial