This week Wishpot, the parent company of Venpop, had the Wishpot API added to Programmable Web’s API directory.

The new Wishpot API framework allows developers to create an end to end social shopping experience. The API can standalone or it can be integrated with existing applications. Developers can generate revenue by integrating the Wishpot API into existing applications, specifically mobile applications or on their websites.

Wishpot CEO, Max Ciccotosto, sees a wide range of uses for the Wishpot API and monetization, “Consider a handyman app. Once the handyman utilizes the inherent capabilities of the app (e.g. design, materials, budget, etc.), the Wishpot APIs can integrate with the app to suggest products, pull product pricing information, and allow the user to purchase the suggested product through paypal.”

Also added to the directory are Wishpot Coupon API , The Wishpot coupon service aggregates and normalizes a variety of coupons data sources. The Product Portals retrieve coupons from a single service. These coupons can also be queried via an API. The API uses RESTful calls and responses are formatted in XML.

Wishpot Price Alert API The Wishpot Price alert engines enables any requester to track price changes and trigger alerts on specific URLs. The API uses RESTful calls and responses are formatted in XML.

Wishpot Publisher API The Wishpot publisher API enables publishers to display and monetize products in their web and mobile properties. The API provides access and optimization for all the top CPC and CPA based product providers.

Wishpot Social Commerce API The Wishpot Social Commerce framework enables developers to build social, mobile and web commerce applications. Users can build marketplaces, specific mobile shops, dedicated apps, and more. Cart and checkout scenarios are supported through PayPal. The API uses RESTful calls and responses are formatted in XML.

You can get started with anyone of these API’s by requesting an access key: Email developers@wishpot.com if you are interested in learning more.

In the next few weeks Facebook is said to launch its own application store, or application gallery. Here, Facebook members can pick and install their favorite apps, much the same way they do with the Apple app store. For the first time Facebook is allowing Facebook app developers to charge for apps and sell directly to consumers. According to Reuters the launch of the Facebook App store is yet another way Facebook seeks to monetize,

“Facebook Inc unveiled a new hub for consumers to find games and other apps on the social network, including its first storefront for selling paid apps, in the company’s latest effort to expand the ways it makes money from its massive audience.”

Currently the majority of Facebook’s revenues are from advertising, but the Facebook ad platform has yet to prove itself and marketers are still unsure of the long-term value. “Consumers will need to use Facebook Credits, the company’s payment system, to purchase the apps and Facebook will take a 30 percent cut of the revenue as it does with in-app purchases,” said Facebook spokeswoman Malorie Lucich. The introduction of Facebook Credits as payment for applications will allow the company to diversify its income stream.

The Facebook App Center will display apps based on the quality scores that users give apps and other Facebook data. And each Facebook user will see their own customized version of the App Center, as opposed to seeing the same version.

In a post on the Facebook developers’ blog Aaron Brady says: “For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga.

The move comes months after the launch of Facebook’s Open Graph.

“By far, the biggest predictor of engagement was that the post was on a topic relevant to the brand,” said Sean Bruich, head of measurement platforms and standards at Facebook. “It impacts everything, from lightweight likes to more invested shares. It’s actually one of the most important things a brand can do. People are seeing the content because they liked the brand, and it makes sense that content about the brand will get them engaged.”

Facebook ran a monthlong study that looked at more than 1,200 posts from 23 different brands. The measurement team tagged each post for various attributes and then plugged them into a quantitative model that was able to effectively predict which brand posts would result in more engagement. Engagement that was measured in the form of likes, comments and shares.

Above is an example of a brand product post, that is relevant to Elf Cosmetics and interesting for fans of the brand. It is all about tying in your brand, products and Facebook deals in a way that is meaningful to your fan audience. There is nothing wrong with a conversational tone, but Facebook’s recent study shows that brands should stick to discussing what they know, and not offer random thoughts that have nothing to do with their product or service. Instead these types of unrelated posts, should be used as a change of pace instead of the norm.

We know that everyone loves a good deal. In fact, the desire to get deals and exclusive offers is one of the top reasons that people on social media follow or become fans of brands. Above is an info graphic for the most common types of deals that retailers offer.

According to Steelhouse data only 1-7 % of all monthly visitors come from a social website and the conversion rates are around 3%. There is room for growth here. Retailers can and should engage their fans and followers around their products. This doesn’t mean just posting about products, but instead creating stories and sharing product content that fans and followers will find interesting and valuable. Content they may even want to share. This explains it best, it isn’t about sharing a dress you sell, it is about sharing ten ways to wear that yellow dress this Spring. And if you offer a deal on the dress well that is just the icing on the cake.

A recent study a by media management firm Strata marketing looks at how social media advertising has surpassed search.

The study looked at 1,000 advertising agencies that together spend a total of $50 billion annual advertising dollars. The results showed that 69% focused their advertising budget on social media. More than those who focused on search (65.5%) and just short of online display (71.3%).

The breakdown for those who focused on social media was as follows: Facebook, 44.8% on YouTube, 39.1% on LinkedIn, 24.1% on Google+, 9.2% on Foursquare and 1.1% on MySpace.

According to brian solis, “In social media, a new wave of digital advertising services and products offer brands the ability to reach beyond their existing communities. Twitter’s Promoted Products suite, Facebooks “Sponsored Stories” program, and YouTube’s Promoted Videos, for example, help brands extend their reach by tapping into the social and interest graphs of consumers.”

This notion of social recommendations, from friends and family is key to the success of social advertising.
Social Advertising is most effective when a friend or someone known to the user recommends or endorses a product being advertised. Trust is key to the equation. Not only does the person get to know about the benefits of what is being advertised but he/she is learning about it from someone they trust. It is essentially advertising on a social, personal level. And it is incredibly powerful.

Still with, many retailers questioning the value of facebook advertising with studies like this it appears social advertising continues to grow strong.

Interesting enough, the study shows television way ahead of digital as the medium of choice for agencies. Over half (54%) of surveyed retailers were most focused on television, with digital coming in second with 24%.

It is said that Pinterest is mainly driven by woman, more specifically woman who love to shop. Retailers know how powerful the female shopping demographic can be. Woman who pin, spend a lot of time carefully choosing and pinning the things they love, want, and own- and sharing them with friends and family. Pinterest, lets anyone save all the beautiful images they find online. And a picture is worth a thousand words.

Pinterest is hugely powerful because it has staying power, it is the favorites button times a hundred. Think if every time you liked something on Facebook, you could go back and see what you liked. Imagine if everything you liked was saved somewhere, and you could access and organize your likes and other people could also see and engage with your likes long after they were created.

See why Pinterest isn’t going anywhere anytime soon?

Another up and coming social media game changer is StumbleUpon.

1. Traffic, Traffic, Traffic- Sending traffic to websites is high on the list of priorities of what retailers want and in early 2011, StumbleUpon surpassed Facebook in the amount of traffic it sends to websites. That is huge. “StumbleUpon accounted for 50.27% of referral traffic from the top 10 social media sites from March 2009 – August 2011, leaving Facebook trailing behind with a 38.9% market share.” Source: social media playground

2. New Audiences- A second key thing for brands is the potential of marketing to new audiences. Stumbleupon is a content discovery tool that is not only set up to introduce your content to new audiences it can drive huge traffic to your website.

3. Brand pages- StumbleUpon launched its own version of brand pages, which it has yet to really use or leverage. Brands can use these to share their content on StumbleUpon via integrated RSS feeds, Twitter, and Facebook. Right now, these brand channels have yet to take off but with a better integration they represent a huge opportunity for retailers.

4. Paid Search- Currently StumbleUpon offers retailers the option of paying for discovery. Facebook isn’t the only one charging brands for exposure. And retailers can use it to target interests, locations, or demographics. And as a bonus it integrates with Google Analytics so retailer’s can see what’s happening with their traffic.

5. Rate of Growth. Even though StumbleUpon’s user base of 25 million users, pails in comparison to Facebook’s 800 million user base StumbleUpon is quickly growing. According to Mashables StumbleUpon is gaining over a million users a month. With that kind of growth, retailers should look into how StumbleUpon could work for them.

Enjoy this list of tools that you can use to mix and match and grow your internet marketing strategy. Which of these are you already using? And which tools are missing from the list?

Last week Venpop was pleased to be included in a select group of Facebook Preferred marketing Developers. According to Techcrunch, “The new Preferred Marketing Developer program offers certifications for high quality developers of apps and Page management, ads, and Insights tools and services.

Venpop, helps retailers leverage their merchandise on social networks and Venpop works directly with a retailer’s product catalogue. Venpop provides technology and services to help retailers build, engage, and monetize their community. More than 4000 retailers currently use Venpop services. And Venpop is pleased to announce it is a Preferred Facebook Marketing Developer for applications.