Apple Mesh Shopping With Social Network

At the beginning of September, Apple launched a new utility called Ping within the iTunes store. The purpose of Ping is to connect iTunes users who purchase similar music to each other and the artists that create the music. Famous artists can now interact with their fans on a more personal basis, comparable to Twitter. The ability of users to 'follow' artists and friends brings a societal aspect to iTunes which was previously not present. Users can view the activity of friends with Ping, such as album purchases and reviews. Friends now never have to leave the iTunes application to communicate with their friends regarding the newest movie or album release.

Ping's most revolutionary aspect in my opinion is the integration of the social aspect to the iTunes store. At any point in the Ping section of iTunes, a song can be purchased. This feature will prove extremely profitable for Apple since users are able to buy songs on a whim. A user can view the new purchases that a user with similar tastes also bought, which in turn encourages sales further.

Though Ping is a new feature of the iTunes store, it already holds great potential. It could be used as a powerful marketing tool since all the activities of the iTunes users are now recorded. It could also be used as a trampoline for new artists looking to get some face time in front of a production company. Ping also has the potential to alert users when their favorite artists are in town playing at a concert. Ping could also communicate to artists where their fan base is the strongest. Which in turn would bring that artist to that very location just because the users expressed the desire for that artist to preform in that location all made possible by Ping. Ping, like Facebook, is the beginning of a revolutionary aspect of internet communications. Artists and fans now have a median besides Twitter to communicate. The genius of Ping is that the communication is all under the control of Apple, and not one of its competitors. This in turn strengthens Apple's hold on the online music purchasing market.

Apple recognized the efficiency of a social network in gathering useful data by analyzing websites such as Facebook. Now Apple has a social aspect of the iTunes store which will generate sales and record data. This is the perfect hybrid between a social network and store. The article also mentions that Amazon has also partnered with Facebook Connect, which virtually the same idea as Ping only using Facebook and Amazon. I believe many other big corporations will begin implementing social networks within their business strategies in order to promote sales while recording user information. Like Facebook, the creation of these new social networks within mainstream applications will also offer advertising potential. Whether the social commerce phenomena catches on beyond Ping is still up in the air. Regardless of the success of social commerce, it does promise a very interesting move in marketing and social connection.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2010/tc2010092_114158.htm