Social Commerce: Deals drive engagement in social media

Multiple studies from marketing sherpa and razorfish are confirming the fact that most effective means of gaining social media traction is to offer deals and discounts through twitter and facebook. The Razorfish study points out

Of those who follow a brand on Twitter, for example, 44% said access to exclusive deals is the main reason. And on Facebook and MySpace, 37% cited special deals as the main reason they have "friended" a brand. The report points to companies such as Starbucks, which has amassed nearly 5 million fans and soared to the top of Facebook brand pages by offering coupons for free pastries and ice cream.

The study from marketingsherpa also confirms this fact but also has a different point of view when it comes to the power users or the influencers

Users described as “max connectors”—those with at least 500 social connections—were less interested than average in getting deals. Instead, they cared about new products and company culture, demonstrating the deeper engagement expected by social media power users.

 Both these studies actually reveal a much deeper trend the rise of social commerce and the fact that social media can be actually effectively used to acquire users for ecommerce platforms via the deals methodology and this way is way cheaper than by advertising on search engines like google.The best example of this kind of companies is groupon , hautelook and giltgroupe in US . Groupon's model of getting people to sign up for local deals which are only effective if a group of people sign up for it means that people had the incentive to refer people to it from the start which has powered its explosive growth.What took me by surprise is that even in India Mydala which is similar to groupon has gained some good early traction gaining nearly 7k fans which shows that the model has potential in India too.
via emarketeer and mediapost