With over one billion active Facebook users recorded at the end of May 2013, saying your customers are not on social media is almost like saying they don’t watch TV!
So with such a large marketing opportunity here, why are we happy to pay big dollars to advertising agencies to produce our broadcast television advertising, but still only just accepting that social media too requires investment.
Retail has and is undergoing a radical transformation, underpinned by a changing customer, with well documented technology changes including the growth of online retailing through to omni channel retail.
Just as previous generations would talk of communities of living, socialising and commuting, we now also speak of communities as social with a somewhat different meaning. Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest all help us form communities in real time. Consumers of similar aspirations, attitudes and dislikes all linking via social media, all extolling their opinion and being heavily influenced by the attitudes of their peers.
By way of example, Lorna Jane is well known as the Australian retail leader in social media integration, and for good reason. They have built a strong social media community through its 724k+ strong Face book page, where conversation and feedback is strongly encouraged. Interactive technology in-store entices customers to photograph themselves wearing the product and share it with friends. This is particularly suited to their target market of young, sociable and active women. And the next big social media move by this savvy retailer is into the world of Pinterest. Lorna Jane now has over 10,000 followers to their boards which feature a mix of product and lifestyle based ‘pins’.
So what is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images, ‘re-pin’ images to their own pinboards, or ‘like’ photos.
Speaking of Pinterest Did you know that from 2011 – 2012, unique visitors on Pinterest grew a whopping 286 per cent from 700,000 to over 20 million? In fact, a recent Pew study has shown that 15 per cent of Internet users are now on Pinterest, making it the third most-popular social medium.
Another fantastic global example of social media integration in store is C&A in Brazil, who make the most of peer pressure by displaying the number of times items have been ‘liked’ on face book on the hangers.
When it comes to converging your social media channel into your overall brand experience, there are seven key principles for retail fitness:
- Understand if the social media channel is both suited to your brand and inhabited by your customers.
- Build a Face book brand page that surprises and delights your customers and the community so that they’ll share their experience.
- Create a voice that marries to your brand and an experience that draws customers in.
- Start with the customers you already know and build from there.
- Listen to what your customers are saying. You’ll find incredible insights into your product and business. Then, act accordingly and tell them what you’re doing!
- Encourage & join the conversation, but be relevant and only add value, thereby giving people a reason to interact with you.
- Encourage staff to participate in conversation.
Online you can ‘poke’ someone, ‘like’ something ‘friend’ someone or ‘share’ something, but nothing can replace the experience that a face-to-face meeting provides. In retail, this is the same with an in-store experience. The physical store space must surprise and delight at every single level from colour schemes, layout, innovative merchandise, unique product presentation and effective, unusual lighting right through to the personal shopper sales and service experience.
So what does this all mean for retailers? Well essentially it means to embrace the right social media channel, invest in the resource required to grow this channel and in doing so offer your customers a richly integrated customer experience with your instore experience as the jewel of the crown drawing new brand advocates through the use of your social media strategy.
Happy fit retailing.
Brian Walker is CEO of the Retail Doctor Group. www.retaildoctor.com.au.