Then I saw this post from Chris Brogan.  In that post, Chris gave a video review of his carryon bag, the Eagle Creek Tarmac 22.  I had found my bag.  Chris told how he loved the bag, and how Mitch Joel had turned him on to it.  Now I know and like Chris, so that alone got me looking at the bag.  But both Chris and Mitch do more traveling than I do, so if the bag would work for them, it would work for me.

So I decided to get the Tarmac 22, and I noticed Chris had added an affiliate link so you could buy the bag off Amazon.  I definitely wanted to use Chris’ affiliate link for the purchase, cause I wanted him to make a few bucks off the sale, as a way of showing appreciation for him ‘showing’ me the bag.  I tried to use the link in Chris’ post but it wasn’t working, so I contacted him and he gave me a new link, which I used when I purchased the Tarmac 22.

I absolutely LOVE this bag.  I used it on a work trip and packed a complete 3 day dress wardrobe, plus a jacket and sports coat.  I probably could have gotten 5-7 day’s worth of clothes if I had to. 

So I am elated with my bag, and I was able to see that Chris got paid a few bucks for showing me the bag.  And that latter part is important, because Chris had created content that had led to a sale for Amazon, so he deserved to get a cut of that money.

But the process seemed entirely too clunky for me, and really Chris did all the work.  He had to create the video review, insert it in a blog post, then get set up with Amazon to get an affiliate link he could use.  You would think that by 2010 that companies would be doing a better job of leveraging social media tools to facilitate C2C transactions.  Nettwerk Music’s Terry McBride was talking about how music labels should move toward paying consumers for P2P recommendations via digital technologies at least four years ago.  Goodstorm was offering a way for bloggers to get paid for sales they generate from their blog as early as 2006.  But for the most part, companies don’t seem to be in a hurry to leverage social and mobile technologies to empower customers to sell to each other.

Why is this?  Enabling customers to more easily sell to each other would obviously increase revenue AND lower marketing costs.  I am constantly asking my Twitter network to give me advice on a purchase decision, and am constantly making purchases based on their feedback.  I want the ability to compensate the person that convinced me to purchase the item.  And that ability should be baked into the buying process.

Am I way off base here?  It seems like a no-brainer that companies would want to leverage social and mobile channels to facilitate consumer-to-consumer transactions, and giving consumers a share of the purchase seems like a wonderful way to incentivize the exchange. 

What do y’all think?

Author:  Mack Collier is a Social Media Strategist who advises and trains companies on how to use social media to connect with their customers and grow their businesses. His clients include companies of all sizes, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies. You can learn more about Mack and his services at his website – http://www.mackcollier.com and you can follow him on Twitter @MackCollier.

One area where this really comes into play is the issue of adding product reviews to your e-commerce site.  Many companies do NOT want to do this, because they fear that letting customers post reviews on their site will hurt sales.

I was discussing this on Twitter last week, and Ian at Bazaarvoice started chatting with me.  If you haven’t heard of them, Bazaarvoice works with companies to add functionality to their e-commerce sites, including Ratings and Reviews.  Ian sent me a ton of useful information and data about companies that using ratings and reviews on their sites, and I wanted to share some of the key points with you.

First, Bazaarvoice has found that 80% of the people that review products with its US clients give those products a 4 or 5 star rating (out of 5 stars).  For its clients in the UK, that figure jumps up to 88%.

Second, there’s the case study of how QuickBooks added the functionality of reviews to its Pro Advisors (Quick Book experts that help customers use the software).  Quick Books found that Pro Advisors with reviews had their profiles clicked on 555% more than those with no reviews.  Quick Book also found that volume trumped rating, as some Pro Advisors with more reviews got more clicks than Pro Advisors with higher overall ratings, but far fewer reviews.

Another key advantage to reviews that Ian shared with me is that reviews are great sources of customer feedback.  If you see that several customers are complaining about a particular aspect of your product and/or service, then obviously that’s alerting you to a pain point for your customers that you need to address.

One final tip from Ian: product reviews lower the number of returns (and the associated restocking fees/costs) cause customers have a better idea of exactly what they are getting before they order it.  Makes complete sense, eh?

But at the end of the day, the key lesson here is to be proactive in monitoring online mentions (even if its reviews on your site), and responding to them when appropriate.  We talked recently about examples of ‘social media backlashes‘ that brands have endured.  In each instance, the problem grew over time, due to the company not monitoring the situation.  The company not responding in a timely fashion was the main culprit behind the problem for them.

Most customers that complain online do NOT want to ‘hurt’ your company.  They just want you to listen to them, and help them with their problem.  If you’ll do that, you’ll often flip a detractor into an evangelist.  Hopefully these stats will help debunk the myth that any negative mention/review online hurts your company.  In reality, it’s often an opportunity.

Author: Mack Collier is a Social Media Strategist who advises and trains companies on how to use social media to connect with their customers and grow their businesses. His clients include companies of all sizes, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies. You can learn more about Mack and his services at his website – http://www.mackcollier.com/ and you can follow him on Twitter @MackCollier.

*This post original appeared on the Mack’s blog and has been reposted with permission.

I thought this same thing for 6 months before I *finally* started to ‘get’ the value of Twitter in late 2007.  Over the last three and a half years of using Twitter, I’ve seen some smart applications by marketers.  If you’re not sure what the big deal is with Twitter, here are 4 ideas for how you can use Twitter to better connect with your customers, and grow your business.

(1) Twitter as a Networking Tool.  

This is probably where Twitter really excels.  If you think about it, the basic functionality of Twitter is very similar to texting.  But instead of texting just one person, you can send out short messages that can be seen by dozens or even hundreds or thousands of people at once.  That gives you the ability to connect directly with people, and can help you expand and boost awareness for your company, or even yourself!  

And here I have to mention the value of Twitter chats.  I’ve been participating in Twitter chats since Jan of 2009, and I can tell you that these are a fabulous way to expand your network, and meet like-minded individuals.  There are now well over 100 regularly-scheduled Twitter chats, and you can see them all here.

(2) Twitter as a feedback channel.

Did you just relaunch your website?  Did your new ad go live on your site? Or did you just walk off the stage after presenting at a major industry event?  In each case, you can go to Twitter and get real-time reactions.  I do this every time I speak at an event; I search on Twitter to see what attendees think of the event itself, and the topics being covered.  I can see what attendees like and what they dislike.  That information helps me better customize my session so I hit on the points that attendees have identified as being valuable to them.

Give Search at Twitter a spin, no telling what you might find!  

(3) Twitter as a customer-acquisition/service channel.  

I was talking to an attendee at an event last year, and she mentioned that her company sold printers, and they were curious about Twitter.  I asked her if they had ever searched Twitter for company mentions.  She said they had not, so we went to the above link for Twitter search, and found that recently a customer had expressed a problem with one of her company’s printers.

THEN a competitor had quickly responded and offered to contact the customer about THEIR printers, and the customer said she’d love that.  An opportunity lost because the company wasn’t monitoring what their customers were saying about them on Twitter.

Or if you’re a local business, here’s another great tool for you, Monitter.com. What I love about Monitter is that it not only let’s you search Twitter, but you can also search based on LOCATION.  

For example, if you own a pizzeria in downtown Nashville, you can search Twitter for tweets within a 10 mile radius of your zip code that contain the terms ‘lunch’ and ‘pizza’. Then you’ll be able to see everyone that’s on Twitter within 10 miles of you that’s tweeting about how they are interested in pizza for lunch.  You can reach out to them directly and let them know about your lunch specials!

(4) Twitter as a crisis-communication channel.  

What if your website suddenly goes down, or a major recall is announced? Or maybe some of your customers are upset about a new ad that just started running over the weekend?  In each case, your customers could be on Twitter talking about you, and if you are able to jump in and connect with them quickly, you can put out potential PR fires before they start.  An appropriate and timely response on Twitter also helps grow goodwill with your customers.

There are plenty of other smart ways that marketers can leverage Twitter as a tool to grow their businesses and connect with customers.  

What are some examples of ways YOUR company is using Twitter to connect with its customers?  What did I miss?

Author: Mack Collier is a Social Media Strategist who advises and trains companies on how to use social media to connect with their customers and grow their businesses. His clients include companies of all sizes, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies. You can learn more about Mack and his services at his website – http://www.mackcollier.com/ and you can follow him on Twitter @MackCollier.

*This post original appeared on the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) blog and has been reposted with permission.