It is important that companies optimize their brand in response to this shift. Brian Solis, a prominent author and thought leader in the area of new media, recently published a list of 10 steps for optimizing the brand for social search (below).

For brands in the retail, real estate, financial services, travel and other markets, our ShopTogether application for social commerce can help brands tackle six of the steps (Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 and the “Bonus” below) that Solis recommends, plus a lot more.

The ShopTogether toolbar modernizes a site by integrating sharing and chat functionality found on the most innovative places on the Web, and allows one-click distribution of a brand’s content to all of the social networks most important to its customers. On top of that, ShopTogether allows real-time interaction on the site itself, keeping friends and other site visitors connected on the page, where they can chat and browse each other’s products, giving them a voice and letting them share opinions that lead to buying decisions.

In addition, data collected anonymously by the ShopTogether Crowd application can be used for broadcasting the hottest items in the store in real-time, displaying those products dynamically on the site itself, or on the company’s Facebook fan page or in banner ads on third party sites, adding a new merchandising element for brands.

Which of the below steps has your company taken to optimize your brand for the way consumers are now getting information? Contact us and let us know.

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/03/optimizing-brands-for-social-search/

10 Steps for Optimizing the Brand for Social Search

1. Modernize and socialize your site to complement the experience visitors expect in 2010

2. Optimize the site and all social objects for traditional, social, and real-time search

3. Create meaningful and personable social profiles where consumers are active today (pay attention to where they will be tomorrow as well)

4. Establish an editorial calendar to produce and distribute relevant content for each and every network with cadence

5. Add social connectivity to the home site to facilitate maximum engagement (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Google, Yahoo) – eradicate proprietary login systems

6. Integrate social sharing functionality at the source of engagement – keep them on the page

7. Enable the social syndication of that content within one step

8. Manually introduce content and social objects to stakeholders and social beacons

9. Create paths that define and engender the experience you desire with destinations and calls to action integrated to close the loop

10. Monitor the activity and find ways to improve the experience and also sharing

Bonus: Give them a voice to make sharing more personal and contextual

According to the study, respondents said that they are currently spending 5.6 percent of marketing budgets on social. That number will rise to nearly 10 percent in the next 12 months and to nearly 18 percent in the next five years. These numbers reflect similar data that recently came out from the Society of Digital Agencies, and points to the growing importance of social media as part of the overall media mix.

It would be interesting to see how these numbers break down even further, for example, how much is going towards marketing  third party sites or networks vis-à-vis expanding the use of social tools on their own sites. Most of the companies we talk to are testing a variety of approaches. How are your budgets being allocated? Contact us and let us know.

Although design differs, many real estate and rental sites are strikingly similar in terms of functionality and usability.

Real-time collaboration technologies like ShopTogether can provide an immediate point of differentiation for real estate sites.  It’s a technology that has already seen success among early adopters in the retail segment; however, we think it could help connect agents, spouses and roommates online for a more productive home “search.”

For leaders in online real estate, early adoption of these collaboration tools can help further outpace competitors. For companies jockeying for the number 2, 3 or 4 positions in a crowded market, collaboration technologies like ShopTogether can be just the thing to help spread the word, build brand and catapult a company to No. 1.

Promotions that offer discounts to users who shop together encourages influencers and site fans to tell their friends about the brand and then brings them on to the site, where they can browse together, share ideas and have fun, all which help lead to purchase decisions.

ShopTogether can provide promo codes for customers to use at check-out; retailers can ask customers to invite one, two or 10 friends to shop together on the site at a time to receive discounts.

According to Charlotte Russe, with ShopTogether “Customers are shopping not only with their friends, but also with siblings, parents and other relatives…There is a branding aspect to this as well as a return-on-investment perspective.”

With the growth of social shopping, 2010 is sure to see even more examples of retailers engaging consumers and building brand.

In the study, Peter Caban of Mekanism suggests a possible force behind the growing importance of digital marketing for brands.  He says, “Just as much as the conduit for brand storytelling has evolved, the modern consumer of 2010 plays a huge role in your marketing plans. Consumers have beyond proven themselves as content creators and distributors – they are the medium. Consumers are living, breathing, passionate people who are redirecting traffic and content in real-time, based on personal interests, relationships, and the culture of the moment.”

What’s clear is that consumers have new demands for interacting with brands online, and marketers are looking to find ways to appeal to them. Social shopping apps like ShopTogether do just that through real-time collaboration and engagement tools that connect users, update friends on their various social networks about their brand experience, attract new customers back to the e-commerce site and bring an entirely new dimension to online shopping.

Steve Wages, the executive director of SoDA says that we “…must avoid complacency at all costs and continue to focus on driving innovation as well as engaging consumers with relevant dialog in uncharged and fast-moving channels…” We couldn’t have said it beter ourselves.

Additionally, 68 percent of home buyers are couples (either married or unmarried), and 87 percent work with an agent. What that implies is that an overwhelming majority of home buyers works with at least one, and in most cases, two other people throughout the decision-making process.

In spite of this inherently “social” nature of home buying, the online experience for the real estate industry is a highly isolated and solitary one, e.g.:  An agent emails pages of links and options from an MLS that may or may not fit the buyer(s)’ criteria; the buyer looks through the links on her own and eliminates the ones she knows off the bat don’t fit.  Then she goes through the site doing some research on her own, copies the links and adds them to the list.  Next, maybe she forwards the links from work to her fiancé, who then repeats the process. Once the couple has decided on their list, they may send it back to the agent, who then has recommendations on certain listings she knows have inherent flaws the buyer might not know about and finally they arrive on a set of possibilities.  Then, it’s time to start pounding the pavement.

Social commerce tools like ShopTogether minimize those hassles by allowing two or more people to view properties online together from different locations.  A couple can browse properties together in real-time from across town during their lunch breaks.  They can even have their REALTOR join in to guide them and answer questions, and couples can give a quick “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” on a listing.  And for rental sites, ShopTogether can provide similar benefits for friends or couples researching a place that will appeal to everyone in the group.

Given we’re still in the early stages of social commerce, ShopTogether can be a differentiator on innovative sites that will attract more visitors and keep them there longer, which benefits not only end-users, but also the sites that depend on ad revenue as part of their business model.

With the explosion in popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter, the real-time social potential of the web is finally starting to be realized, and the sooner real estate sites embrace this trend themselves, the sooner they’ll be exclaiming, “Sold!”