JupiterResearch gears up to deliver social marketing tactics and help businesses leverage new and interactive social media tools and methods.

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JupiterResearch Adds Research Service Dedicated to Social Marketing | Tekrati Analyst Firm News.

Great article today from Advertising Age but first…

How often have you clicked away from a product purchasing decision only because of the fact that you could not find a review of the product or service? I know I have done it more often than not.

Consumer reviews have become a vital part of my purchasing decisions and are more and more an instinctive part of the purchasing process. As online shoppers we expect to the have access to product reviews and we expect the opportunities to submit our reviews as well.

Just another part of the interactive, participatory open web that is characteristic of Web 2.0 and new media technologies for online publishing such as blogs, RSS, and podcasting distributed audio and video.

Customer feedback is a powerfully trusted voice that is highly influential on merchant sales. A Jupiter Research  survey of online shoppers revealed that 48% of online shoppers it critical that retailers post reviews. This means of course that “one of two people are going to leave your web site if you don’t have ratings and reviews,” says Brett Hurt, founder of Bazaarvoice.

Here are a few thought provoking quotes from the article Advertising Age - Consumer-Written Product Reviews Increase in Importance:

“…a signal that reviews themselves have become a major sales and marketing tool. Their mere presence on an e-commerce web site is among the most important factors in turning a visitor into a buyer.”

“A report from Jupiter Research, for instance, issued a call for retailers to "use consumer-created content throughout the full circle of customer interaction," citing research that 48% of online shoppers find it critical that retailers post reviews. That report also found that the number of online shoppers who found reviews the most important feature in a site doubled from 2005 to 2006. “

“Product reviews written by real people are perhaps the most under appreciated slice of the consumer-generated-media universe, the explosion of which has captivated the advertising and media worlds. But as marketers fixate on getting their virals on YouTube and making friends on MySpace, these relatively unsexy product write-ups have quietly become the most common form of consumer content -- Forrester puts it as the most-used form of peer-generated content -- not to mention the one with the most direct impact on purchase decisions.”

Consumer reviews are not new, yet the socialization of content on the web as living, persistent, trusted and by the people for people has created a new value chain for online merchants to factor into their marketing strategies going forward.

Consumer review enabled ecommerce is now being considered a primary activity for merchants large as small as research and bottom line revenues bear witness to the increase or decrease in ecommerce fortunes based on providing consumers access to product reviews. 

This drives home the point of openness, authenticity and consumer control. Word of mouth is powerful. As consumers we want to read it and write it and we’re will to make that point clearly through our purchasing power. What is just as important and perhaps exciting is the application of RSS technologies to literally channel reviews for increase web traffic generation and increase revenues.

Question for you: Got Reviews?

Read the full article: Advertising Age - Consumer-Written Product Reviews Increase in Importance.

  Microsoft releases a free and beta version of a new blog writing tool called Microsoft Live Writer. As with most graphical user interface blog writer tools, this one also let's you create blog content in WYSIWYG fashion. Of course, that is the Microsoft way for web content development anyway. Not a bad thing depending on how hardcore of a coder you are or the level of control you need for tweaking content on the back end your client tool or server.

Installation

Installing Live Writer is a simple process. Just download the Microsoft msi file and double-click to launch the installer (pictured at right). After the installation is complete you will prompted to configure Live Writer to create blog content for Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces or you can configure it for your custom blog setup. Currently, Live Writer supports the RSD, Metaweblog, and Movable Type API's. I haven't had a chance to test compatibility and usability across different blog software platforms yet.

Features

I just got back from a long deserved week long vacation in Jamaica. My wife's place of birth. I spent all of July on the road and traveling doing IT engagements which prevented me from posting here since I began publishing content here again a few months back.

No Problem, Mon!

 My mention of my vacation to Jamaica provides a segue for mentioning the Map Publishing feature of Live Writer. It's like a smaller version of Google Maps for your blog. You can do a high level map like the one I've inserted at left or your can drive down to more details is that is suitable.

Wow factor his is pretty low for me but it is one of the things that may not be as cool because it won't be used that much but becomes really cool when you want to share a location or directions with our readers in a very visual way within your blog content. The Interface is pretty clean and simple to use. Standard formatting bar and menu's are located across the top of the interface with quick access to features located in a Sidebar to the right. The interface looks, feels and functions like the standard MS Office family of products so if you familiar with MS Office, you will right at home getting up and running with this blog content creation tool.

Overall...

Eh...it's okay. Being that it is beta, it seems to work well but which much left for the developer community to pick up on an implement such as support for Tagging, insertion of audio and video into blog posts, and photo sharing support for sites like Flikr. Definitely not a bad start for a free tool that is highly Microsoft-centric.

Found via... MS Blog Tool Goes Into Beta - ComputerWorld Blogs.

Further Reading

Windows Live Writer - The Good, The Bad, The Surprising

Introducing Windows Live Writer - Digg.com