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HOW TO: Use Facebook Social Plugins on Your Website

While many companies’ early social marketing efforts were limited to social media sites such as Facebook, most are now eager to build social capabilities into the rest of their marketing efforts and turn their customers into brand advocates at every touch point.

One of the easiest ways to make your online presence more social is by adding Facebook social plugins to your website. There are many different Facebook social plugins to choose from — here are four of the top plugins for business and tips on how and when to use them.

You may want to stick to the simplified version if your Facebook activity and fan base are limited. This strategy might also net you more engagement — Otlican saw her “likes” jump 31% when she switched to the simplified Like Box.

Some companies even provide an incentive for visitors to “like” their page. Motorcycle Superstore, for example, ran a sweepstakes on Facebook using Extole’s SocialBuilder that encouraged fans to share the Motorcycle Superstore page with their friends. The site experienced a 240% increase in daily “likes” and a 30% growth in total “likes,” with more than 13,000 “likes” generated during the month of the campaign.

Read complete article at Mashable.

Klaus, Extole Look to Create ROI Around Social Media

Brad Klaus, CEO of San Francisco-based Extole, held executive positions at Qualsys, Inc., DemandTec, Siebel Systems and Raima Corp. before founding Syndero in 2004. After leaving the company and looking at investment and entrepreneurial opportunities, Klaus founded Extole in 2009. Recently, Response caught up with Klause to discuss the growth of Extole – and it’s future.

Read full article at Response Magazine.

How to Use Facebook Social Plugins on Your Website

While many companies’ early social marketing efforts were limited to social media sites such as Facebook, most are now eager to build social capabilities into the rest of their marketing efforts and turn their customers into brand advocates at every touch point.

One of the easiest ways to make your online presence more social is by adding Facebook social plugins to your website. There are many different Facebook social plugins to choose from.

Here are four of the top plugins for business and tips on how and when to use them;

Some companies even provide an incentive for visitors to like their page. Motorcycle Superstore, for example, ran a sweepstakes on Facebook using Extole’s SocialBuilderthat encouraged fans to share the Motorcycle Superstore page with their friends. The site experienced a 240 percent increase in daily Likes and a 30 percent growth in total Likes, with more than 13,000 Likes generated during the month of the campaign.

Read full article on Amex Open Forum.

Motorcycle Retailer Rides Shared Facebook Sweeps to Sales Wins

March 8, 2011

How do you build a critical mass of followers in social media—those social-grid head counts that are a prerequisite for giving a social campaign viral lift? In the case of online cycle gear seller Motorcycle Superstore, a relatively new entrant to the social whirl, the answer was in Facebook sweepstakes promotions whose entry details—and prizes—could be shared among friends.

Although it has operated an ecommerce Web site for years, Motorcycle Superstore was a relative newcomer to social media, only launching its Facebook fan page in May 2010.

“We branched out into Facebook/ YouTube/ Twitter viral interaction with our customers in early 2010,” says Chris Johnson, social marketing coordinator for the company. “It’s really taken off for us. Like most people, we’ve found a dramatic increase in visibility, and we think we’ve been able to convey a sort of personal touch behind the company’s online presence.”

Motorcycle Superstore began summer 2010 with about 50,000 “likes” on Facebook, but Johnson says the brand was determined to get that number up to 100,000, figuring that acquiring that critical mass was needed for any future social marketing efforts to pay off.

Read complete article at PromoMagazine

Email Marketing: Triggered email nets 75% of referral program signups

February 22, 2011

SUMMARY: Customer referrals are a powerful way to pull in more sales and leads. Some companies offer rewards, but you can push results even higher with a few simple tactics.

See how this consumer electronics company sent an automated email to encourage new customers to refer their friends and contacts. This email generated 75 percent of all registrations in the referral program.

Extole – powers Roku’s referral program

Read full article at MarketingSherpa

Facebook sweepstakes drives Likes and traffic for Motorcycle-Superstore.com

February 10, 2011

Motorcycle-Superstore.com today has more than 107,000 Facebook fans, about twice the number it had in June. A series of Facebook sweepstakes specifically designed to acquire new fans and have those fans spread the word to their friends produced the gains, says Chris Johnson, the e-retailer’s social marketing coordinator.

The e-retailer began working in June with Extole Inc., a vendor that helps firms drive word-of-mouth referrals using giveaways on web sites and social media.  Motorcycle-Superstore.com, No. 197 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, wanted to be the first e-retailer of motorcycle and biking gear to reach 100,000 Facebook fans. “Our goal was to increase Likes, not to directly benefit sales right away,” Johnson says. “We figured once we had a good fan base, we’d be able to implement our own sales tactics toward them.”

Read the full article at Internet Retailer

E-tail proving popular with older generation

February 3, 2011

Blake Hayward, Co-founder of Extole, a company that provides refer-a-friend services via Facebook and rewards customers who recommend retailers to online friends, last week told Retail Gazette of social networking’s great potential.

He said that social commerce is becoming more influential than PR and traditional advertising because comments from friends are much more effective than reviews by faceless commentators.

Read full article at Retail Gazette

How Facebook is revolutionising online retail

January 26, 2011

The potential uses of Facebook for retailers are almost endless, from product reviews and F-commerce to expanding customer bases and promoting deals.

Extole is a company that provides refer-a-friend services via Facebook, which rewards customers who recommend retailers to their online friends.

Co-founder and Vice-President for Marketing at Extole Blake Hayward argues that acquiring fans and gaining ‘likes’ on the global site is becoming the best way to promote an online company.

“Its about making it really easy for happy customers to raise their hands and say I really like this service and I think my friends should know about it,” Hayward said.

He believes that social commerce is overtaking PR and traditional advertising in terms of influencing online consumers, with comments from faceless commentators far less effective than a thumbs up from a friend.

Hayward points towards a promotion campaign recently launched by Extole for US retailer Babycenter, in which 40 per cent of participants were directed via Facebook by those initially targeted for the deal.

Read full article at Retail Gazette

How To Successfully Leverage Facebook To Drive Commerce

January 26, 2011

Socially-driven features like Share-Within-Your-Network (SWYN) and Refer-a-Friend enable retailers to extend brand outreach by empowering enthusiasts to spread the word. Social Marketing-as-a-Service program provider Extole, founded in 2007, offers a fully integrated platform designed to enable high-value customer referrals, social fan base expansion and visible brand recommendations. Retail TouchPoints had the chance to catch up with Extole CEO Brad Klaus to explore Facebook retail best practices, how to quantify Facebook marketing and the effectiveness of building a “social graph” to identify influencers.

RTP: In 2011, one of the key trends on the social/retail front is the ability to enable purchases from within Facebook. What are your thoughts on the potential for Facebook Commerce, or “F-Commerce?”

Brad Klaus: There is no doubt that Facebook is becoming a major channel for retailers. For starters, its reach is astounding: the site has over 650 million users, most of whom visit the site every day.  And according to data from Compete, social media sites send more referral traffic to online retail sites than Google.  It’s no wonder that retailers are leveraging Facebook as a new sales channel.

Facebook’s huge user base is a key reason why brands are adopting F-Commerce, but that’s only part of the story. Social networking sites have become important to retailers because they provide a platform for easy sharing of product recommendations between friends.  According to eMarketer, 68% of Facebook’s half-billion users are more likely to buy a product that has been referred by a friend. In other words, it’s not just that Facebook is getting traffic — Facebook is allowing brands to tap into their customer base to acquire new customers.

Our client Roku is also tapping into Facebook to increase sales based on social recommendations. Lomit Patel, Senior Director of Direct Marketing at Roku, the market leader in streaming entertainment devices for the TV, said: “We went from nowhere to over 10,000 customer referrals a month. Our program is really working.”

Read full article at Retail Touch Points

Best Practices for Refer-A-Friend Programs

January 26, 2011

Submitted to Electronic Retailing Association By Brad Klaus, Founder and CEO of Extole

Retailers are flocking to Facebook and Twitter because they present a new marketing channel to engage customers and attract new customers. Many savvy retailers are also recognizing the power of the social channel when their customers recommend their products to friends. There is no one “right way” to create and manage a customer-driven social marketing program, but here are several factors that marketers should consider before they engage with their loyal customers:

Make it easy to share.

• Create a branded—but personalized—solution.
• Make a compelling offer to the referrer and referee.
• Track the “chain of referrals.”
• Promote the program.
• Optimize and innovate.

Want to lean more? Click here to uncover the best practices you need to build your referral program.