Jon Stokes

by: Jon Stokes, via the fresh networks blog

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, acquired social media firm Kosmix just over a year ago, creating @WalmartLabs, with the intention to use this specialist R&D unit to define the future of commerce by merging social, mobile and retail.

So far WalmartLabs has released two interesting developments using social:

by: Jon Stokes

A recent report has ranked the digital performance of 52 global hotel brands. The latest L2 Hotels Digital IQ Index rated brands according to the performance of their sites and use of digital marketing, mobile and social media.

post by: Jon Stokes

New Chinese social media sites have long been inspired by popular sites and trends from the West, such as Facebook’s distant cousin Renren and Twitter’s brother Sina Weibo.  It is no surprise then that they have embraced Pinterest with both arms.

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

Last year I wrote about the social media landscape infographic, highlighting the placement of Facebook and Google as all-encompassing, central networks. Fred Cavazza has published his 2012 version, and this year’s edition has quite a bit to take in – (click the thumbnail to see the full size image).

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

When people ask me to explain what social business is all about, I’ve found that describing it as an alternative to email for internal communication and collaboration is an easy-to-grasp starting point.

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

Earlier this year I wrote about how Chiltern Railways were using twitter for customer service.

Aside from their responsive Twitter account, I was also impressed by the company’s use of foursquare to reward the “mayor” of Marylebone station with the privilege of switching on the Christmas lights –  an innovative way to recognise a loyal customer.

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

A survey by McKinsey has examined the use of digital tools and technologies across the marketing departments of  792 companies from a range of industries, titles, company sizes and countries.

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

Making purchases directly from within Facebook (a form of social commerce) has the potential to make the social network a place where we spend not just considerable amounts of our time, but also our money.

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

Audio sharing site SoundCloud reached the milestone of five million users this week. This means that SoundCloud has gained two million members since February, showing a very impressive growth rate for the site.

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

Last night I was pleasantly surprised at how well Chiltern Railway are using Twitter for customer service.