There are two ways to look at an unpaved road into the forest…

1. The road is impassable and should be abandoned for another route.

2. The road needs some improvements before it can be truly useful.

Impassable roads, un-traversed mountains and un-crossable rivers are ether dead ends or hidden opportunities, depending upon your perspective.

A recently released study suggests that retailers are finding the road through the forest of social media a little rougher than first expected. This report was highlighted in some of the Facebook blogs as a potential roadblock to the success of retail in this space.

Some are suggesting that retailers should just stick to using Facebook as an advertising tool and abandon the construction of a retail sales conduit in this friend network…

It is hard to argue with the fact that over 90% of the major retailers have started down the social media road with fan pages, only to see very low response.

But retailers have always looked for a new route for product distribution, and have been known to pioneer some dramatic new crossings in the past. Just consider the transformations in retailing from the past… Remember the move from catalog shopping to the department store, or the corner store to the mall to Amazon.

The report highlights the low return from retailing in Facebook, which might have many considering this social road impassable for retail sales. We suggest that the road just needs some improvements before it will allow for a smooth transit-way for retail goods. The trail needs the right pavement applied to make social retailing a smoother process. It will be worth the effort in the long run.

The social networks roll on the wheels of conversation and any route through this forest of friends must facilitate and add to the banter, in order to be successful.

A quick look at Main Street in Disneyland gives us a hint as to how we could pave the retail road on Facebook and other social properties. This adventure park draws millions of visitors for a day of fantasy and fun. Many attended on special occasions, like birthdays, weddings and holidays. Most come as families. The Disneyland experience is very much a conversation creator, built on an atmosphere of fun for all ages.

Entering the park, visitors are greeted by the famous Main Street. But you will notice immediately that retailing has been integrated into the fun at every turn….

How did they interject selling into the magic? First, they knew that people would come on special occasions and that these occasions usually revolve around some type of gift giving. Second, they knew that if they sold gifts that would add to the conversation they would ease the sales process and breakdown many retail roadblocks. Think of how many people bring back the purchases of Disneyland and share them in conversation with others.

Wise retailers who want to traverse Facebook will find ways to build small mimics of an adventure park, where family and friends can come on special occasions and buy gifts for one another and enjoy a conversation.

The road into the social forest may be undeveloped today, but the time will come that Facebook will play host to many great adventures in retailing. Pioneering retailers are currently paving the roadway for the next great main street on social properties…

PartyWeDo NOTE: Just as I was about to hit Publish on this post, I got a notification of a comment that Dave McClure made on a plane trip to NYC: “ASSERTION #2: “The default startup business model for 2010 & beyond will be subscriptions and transactions (e-commerce, digital goods).” It seems that Mr. McClure also sees retail sales as a way to pave the road for social media monetization.

Two powerful families are married for user convenience and for future opportunity.

So far, the wedding has been kept hush hush and is flying under the radar… So don’t expect this to make the front pages of the tabloids anytime soon.

It seems the social media superstar Facebook, with its huge entourage of friends has been secretively matched to Amazon’s world leading product inventory, by a party application developer.

Like most weddings, the focus is on a party, and in this case the party is the center of attention. Gifts for the party are to come from the Amazon side of the isle and the guest list will be handled by Facebook.

E-commerce insiders understand that the Facebook family is a very close-knit bunch and that an arraigned marriage will benefit both sides in this case. Massive gift sales is on the mind of the Amazon group and greater support and conversation is what Facebook members are counting on from this union.

Social media followers feel that the long-term success of this marriage will likely be a result of the party atmosphere in which the two have found common ground. Sociologists have long known that couples who communicate well and share with one another have a better than average chance to find success.

The fact that Amazon will shower the Facebook family with gifts should keep both parties happy, particularly when the Facebook side can see the profits that can be generated through real gift giving. Of course, Amazon is happy to offer gifts to a partner who has so many family members pre-disposed to share with each other.

This marriage is expected to produce several great party applications that will benefit the entire family during birthdays, weddings, baby births and many holidays. The next generation of Facebook applications will benefit from the superior DNA of Amazon and Facebook to build a great experience for the users of social networks.

Look for more details of this story as they develop….

Gifts are Conversation Starters

Parties that encourage participation include organized activities, and are much more complex than those designed just for visiting or networking.

Like a real party, the AlbinoPhant online white elephant party is a deeper experience than most online social interactions. In fact, it could be said that AlbinoPhant is one of the most complex and deepest applications on the Facebook platform.

AlbinoPhant is a real gift exchange party, just like the millions of gift swaps that are played in family rooms, community centers and church basements, all across the country.

To make a mimic of a real party experience, the developers had to mimic the gift shopping experience,  allow for virtual gift wrapping and then prepare a party room for the gift swap to unfold.

Beyond this, was the challenge of the gift revealing process, building in the opportunity to steal gifts, along with a system that tracks who got what gift; all in the craziness of a white elephant gift exchange.

The development team created a measuring system called the Banterithm, to tally the various engagement activities of the participants, so that awards could be presented.

Then there are gift ranking systems and gift voting programs to recognize superior shopping skills.

They have added several viral opportunities to share the game action into Facebook  walls and to push updates of the party onto other social networks.

Even the invitation management is unique, because a gift party can not start until the gifts are purchased and participants have joined the party.

At the end of the event there are the awards to present, and the final notifications of the outcome of the gift swap.

Finally, all those real gifts need to be actually purchased and then shipped to hundreds of thousands of doors.

This complexity required that the development team mash-up eCommerce applications, Facebook applications and payment systems to allow party invitees to shop for a gift, wrap it for the party, use it in the exchange and then get the  gift delivered to their door.

For this to work, a team from Facebookster, Gyrofly and Intentional Internet combined to develop the interfaces between online merchants and Facebook’s social operating system.

The online white elephant party might be complex, but just like traditional gift swap parties, AlbinoPhant combines conversation and participation to create a memorable experience that connects families and friends.