BrainTrust Query: Five Steps to Effective Social Retailing
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt from a current article from Insight-Driven Retailing Blog.
With retailers still exploring the use of social media — or social retailing, for short — there are very few established best practices around this new type of marketing and engagement. Retailers often have to try many approaches before finding the ones that work for their brand.
Through my discussions and research, I've come up with five things retailers should consider:
Establish beachheads, now! Remember when brands had to pay exorbitant prices for their web addresses when the internet went mainstream? Don't let that happen with social media sites. Reserve accounts on the sites you might be using. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are the obvious choices, but there are others popping up all the time. You should also consider whether you need to support other languages and whether you want to establish a single corporate presence, or whether you want stores to have more control.
Acquire fans and followers. Sometimes they'll follow you just because they want to be associated with your brand, but most often they want to get something out of the relationship. This is where contests, coupons, and promotions can attract the masses. Once you've got their attention, you must continue to engage them with fresh content that includes sneak previews, product reviews, surveys, special events, etc.
Reward your best fans and followers. Offer them special deals, products, and badges that help them know you value them. They, in turn, will become brand advocates and help spread your message. When possible, make your rewards social. For example, put a promotion into affect only after 5000 likes, offer a discount for retweets, or award a badge for the most interesting comment.
Make shopping social. Social commerce is not about recreating your e-commerce site within a social site. Consumers will visit your website when they want to buy, but they'll visit your social channels when they want to learn. It's important to foster conversations about your products and services, and refer people to your website when they are ready to purchase. Similarly, you should add social features to your e-commerce site. Allow your customers to review products, make recommendations, and discover each others' preferences.
Mine psychographic data. Consumers, especially teens, are willing to share lots of information about themselves in exchange for a more personalized experience. With their permission, you can gather psychographic data that includes their interests, activities, and opinions. This additional information helps create a more complete view of individuals so you can tailor their online and in-store experience to meet their needs.