As I read through Brian Solis’ most recent blog post on social and syndicated commerce (Note: you should read all of his stuff if you’re serious about infusing social media into your business) I came to realize that few companies have mastered the art of making their conversions “social friendly.”

What do I mean by “social friendly conversions” you ask? Basically, what I’m referring to is the creation of a consumer transaction process that lends itself to being shared with said consumer’s social connections (e.g. friends, family, acquaintances, etc).

Very primitive methodologies, such as the “refer a friend” form, have existed for years (decades if you count offline paper forms) but they require manual effort as well as memory recall and are therefore only marginally effective. Still, they have proven their worth and have become foundational marketing element for social buying sites like Groupon and Living Social (e.g. refer a few friends and get your deal for free).

Fortunately, we’re fast approaching a point where the socializing and outright syndication of consumer transactions will become an semi-automated and much more seamless process, though it will require some serious creativity on the part of brands and business owners.

One of the best examples that comes to mind is the new actions and objects functionality that is being offered by Facebook’s “Open Graph” API. Though it’s still in Beta and will likely not become anywhere near mainstream until Facebook rolls out their new Timeline interface to the public, actions and objects (also known as “verbs and nouns” in some marketing circles) will allow brands to create meaningful interactions that go beyond a simple “Like” and will facilitate the communication of a more concrete consumer transaction to friends and friends of friends.

For example:

• Instead of “Liking” AutoTrader.com’s Facebook page after selling my car via their portal, my timeline could show my friends and friends of friends that I “sold” my “car” via AutoTrader.
• Instead of “Liking” Jet Blue after yet another smooth, DirecTV-laden flight, my timeline could show my friends and friends of friends that I “flew” on “JetBlue” from Miami to New York.
• Instead of simply “Liking” my favorite neighborhood restaurant, Lulu, my timeline could show my friends and friends of friends that I just “ordered” a “mojito” at Lulu.

No need to fill out a form or recall your friend’s contact info, etc. In fact, in some cases these types of status updates could be automatically built into the conversion funnel (e.g. perhaps a check box confirming that you’re ok with publishing the status update).

Granted, these are just examples that I conjured up for fun, and I’m sure that there will initially be some technological and privacy-related roadblocks that will make the syndication of these transactions somewhat cumbersome . Moreover, this functionality is currently limited to Facebook (if and when they actually release it to the public). Still, you can be sure that this is where all internet commerce is headed.

Is your website and your business poised to seize this new and virtually untapped social media opportunity?

Note: If you’re in the market for a enterprise-caliber redesign,CMS migration or conversion optimization services please don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll put you in touch with a well-recognized interactive agency.

Major website redesigns are almost always a royal pain in the neck for all parties involved. For starters, there are typically scores of decision-makers involved, both internally and via agency partners. If said redesign involves a migration to a new content management system all sorts of potential IT complications must be addressed (never mind the potential SEO headaches). Analytics tagging can also be a major stumbling block, particularly if the redesign involves multiple domains, multiple conversion funnels, and multiple business divisions. More often than not, these and other complications lead to delays, missed milestones, and a general inability to launch the new site(s) on schedule.

Oh and did I mention the  cost?

The good news is that some trailblazing, enterprise-caliber companies have discovered a way to move beyond the endless cycle of website reincarnation and into a state of web design nirvana; a state that is achieved when the concept of redesign is dismissed in favor of iterative website evolution.

What do I mean by iterative website evolution? Simply put, I’m referring to a website whose assets are constantly being tested and whose outer vaneer and inner nuts and bolts are constantly being tweaked based on the analysis and learning gleamed from testing. A good example of this would be a site like amazon.com. That site has gone through tons of iterative changes, most of which are virtually imperceptible, and virtually all based on A/B and multivariate testing aimed towards maximizing business metrics.

And yes, it’s possible to achieve a similar, Amazon-like, iterative methodology for your website. Here are some of the table stakes for doing so:

• Secure a competent design & development provider (in-house or agency). This is often the most difficult step, so make sure to do your research. If you’ve already got a solid team in place, then you’re one closer to Nirvana.
• Get a really solid hosting environment (either in-house or via top-flight providers like Rackspace)
• Install a scalable content management system (CMS). It can range from a free platform like WordPress to an enterprise option like Sitecore. Just make sure that the platform you choose allows for heavy customization and that the company supporting the platform is setup for the long run. I would advise against building a proprietary CMS unless you have mammoth budget and an absolutely elite dev/IT team.
• Integrate and heavily leverage A/B & multivariate testing software. You can go the free route with something like Google Website Optimizer (a very solid product with few limitations) or if you’re already running Omniture, I would recommend going with their extremely robust Test&Target product. FYI – in order to maximize these tools you’ll need folks that are good at both design (e.g. building the variations of objects that will be tested on particular pages) folks that can implement the testing/analytics code properly and folks that can analyze the test data as well as provide recommendations for future tests
• Create a mobile-friendly version of your site(s) that leverages that strategies listed above
• Make sure that SEO is baked in from the very onset and that it is always top of mind as new page variations and new content pages manifest themselves.

Will following these steps absolutely guarantee that you will never need to engage in a major redesign again? Perhaps not. After all, it’s hard to predict how the ever-changing online landscape will impact your site. What I can tell you, however, is that if you don’t engage in the activities outlined above, you will almost certainly continue to suffer through that endless cycle of website death and rebirth that plagues many brands today.

Last Wednesday, I finally went ahead and launched the Thesis Theme for WordPress for this blog. I’d been thinking about becoming an affiliate for the theme after hearing some good stories about how the program has performed. But then I thought if I was going to go through the trouble of trying to sell the theme, I should actually invest the money and time to install it on my own site, so that’s what I did.

Smart move.

Since turning on the theme I’ve seen my pageviews-per-visit nearly double, both for new visitors and returning visitors. That’s especially impressive considering that my setup is essentially the default with just a few minor tweaks. The only plausible reason that I can come up with is that the layout simply lends itself to readers wanting to check out additional posts before leaving the blog, which is something my site struggled with up until last Wednesday.

Granted, the data set is very small, since it hasn’t even been a week since I turned Thesis on, but the early results are extremely promising.

If you’re interested in checking out Thesis for yourself, simply click on the link below:
Thesis Theme 2.0 for WordPress