The Engaged Consumer

I remember well the first request I got, back in 2003, to become friends with someone on Friendster. The idea was pretty simple – you logged in, you created a profile, and you created a hard link from your profile to the profile of the person who invited you. You invited your other friends to do the same (if you had any), and over time this network of online links started to resemble the linkages you had in your offline life.

This foundation is what all social networking websites have in common. By setting up your virtual identity and establishing virtual relationships, you are able to accomplish many of multitude of things you would accomplish by networking offline.

You might be trying to find a new job, make new friends, plan a vacation, buy a digital camera, stay connected with old friends, sell your consulting services, promote your retail store, explore new music – any activity that is enhanced by having relationships offline can be enhanced by social networking online.

Over time literally thousands of social networking sites have sprung up to serve those varied purposes. Some are generalized and serve many purposes, like Facebook, MySpace, or even LinkedIn. Others are very specific, such as Lending Club (Borrow money from someone), Neighborrow (Borrow stuff from your neighbors), Cafemom (Meet other moms). Depending on the purpose of the network, they will have different, specialized features to serve their purpose.

Social commerce has come along as what I view as simply a newly defined sub-category of social networking – the group of people who are networking with others for the purpose of shopping and eventually purchasing something. Because people are focused on this task, certain networking features don’t make sense, such as the ability to form groups, add friends, or play games (all prominently part of Facebook and MySpace).

So you may not encounter some of these features in heavy use within Social Commerce sites. But you will see other things you don’t run into on popular general-use social networks, like Ask an Expert or User Badges. Good social commerce technology isn’t simply white-label social networking, it’s a different and select subset of social features.

But is social commerce social networking? Yes. But it is social networking with a purpose. People engage with brands when they are in a shopping mood, not when they are just looking to hang out with their friends. So give them a social network that remains tightly bound to their focus on shopping, and they will pay you back for it. Literally.