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 SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE WORLD OF LOCAL RETAIL |
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Until recently, only the employees of small businesses or extremely loyal customers had the opportunity to get to know the owner of a store or restaurant. You run into them at the coffee shop around the corner before they open for the day. They introduce themselves to you when they notice you tend to have lunch once a week and sit at the same table every time.
The social media explosion has changed this, though. It has created a channel for the local burger stand to let everyone know when its hours change or what new menu item it’s offering that week in a way that is low cost and engaging. Whether it's Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, local retail is getting on the social media bandwagon in a big way.
These small companies have a lot to teach a large retail chain. Here are a few of my observations:
1. Social media can be valuable, even when it’s boring. For example, my favorite restaurant made an announcement on Facebook that it was extending its hours. If I hadn’t seen that, I wouldn’t have known, and thinking it was closed I might've gone somewhere else.
2. Social media can help your customers feel connected to you, even you if don’t have a personal connection with them. A few agency employees recently went to a downtown restaurant for lunch and happened to meet the owner. They came back to their desks to find that he had started following our agency on Twitter and had tweeted to say it was great to meet them. He made a connection with a whole company, when he had only met four of the employees.
3. One size does not fit all. For local retail it does seem that a presence in all of the current Big 3 of social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) might not be necessary. Most of the time resources at a local retail establishment are tight, so choosing one area and making a commitment to it is a sound approach. For instance, Twitter seems like a good fit for a restaurant or bar.
4. Each avenue can have a different purpose, but all should have the same tone. For instance, if a clothing store chooses Twitter and Facebook, they might use Twitter to announce sales, new merchandise arrivals and store events. The Facebook page can have much more in-depth information, like store hours, a special events calendar and pictures from recent events. But care should be taken to ensure both Twitter and Facebook are used to convey the personality of the store, rather than the person responsible for updates. This rule serves many purposes, but the two most important are to aid in establishing a solid brand identity and to allow any trained person to update both.
5. Social media can make a positive impact on just one store. One of the keys is to be active and speak to your customers about what interests them. And, if you don’t know exactly what draws them to your store, social media is a great place to start a conversation about it.
Social media gives you a way to get involved in the conversation that is already happening with your customers online. The opportunity to build brand identity, create loyalty and drive sales is there for the taking.
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by Julie Martell, March 9, 2010 at 3:27 PM | Add a Comment |
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 SWAG’S NOT A DRAG |
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Most retail marketing budgets have a line many marketers absolutely hate. Call it what you want, but it’s the SWAG line. “SWAG” is actually an acronym for “Stuff We Always Give away.” And yes, I just made a G-Rated decision with the “S” portion of the equation. Use your imagination.
SWAG works but only when some brain cells are applied beforehand. It’s both art and science; so let’s do a little SWAG dissection.
SWAG with a capital “S”
Let’s start with what doesn’t work. You know the old saying, “garbage in, garbage out?” It really applies here. SWAG for the sake of SWAG is a losing proposition. So is “SWAG I want but it won’t do anything for my business.” Think of logoed golf balls for the manager that really likes golf. If there’s not a business reason for the SWAG you’re considering, move on. Save the money and the closet space
SWAG worth paying for
Here’s a cool idea: SWAG so good people will pay for it. I know, it’s contrary to the “always give away” part of the concept, but some marketers have certain items that are really SWAG loss-leaders for them.
A SWAG loss leader:
- relates to the core of the business
- is attractive and useful to the target
- can be logoed or can accommodate messaging
I’d love to hear from you about examples you have, but here’s a cool one I experienced: Cabela’s had these really handy outdoor activity tools at the front of the store. They’re pretty rudimentary, but for cutting a piece of rope, sawing up some twigs or negotiating line into a fishhook, they’re terrific. All those activities are ones Cabela’s has real products for, but for $5 you can buy a handful and scatter Cabela’s messages throughout your cars, campers, boats and tackle boxes. They’re getting their name in front of people when they are participating in activities that require products Cabela’s sells. Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
SWAG that replaces the big buck ad spend
Don’t tell anyone, but carving out small budgets within big marketing budgets can be really fun. “Small line item” does not mean “small thinking” and some very big ideas have come from the SWAG line item. Here’s my Hall-of-Fame, but again, send me yours and we’ll make this an even bigger blog!
Outdoor advertising = Fridge
We did these really great magnetic frames featuring a product message for a specialty brand. So instead of putting a sales message on a billboard next to a busy highway, we put our billboards in our target’s kitchens. And they get to slide their own pictures into the center. Did you know that people face their refrigerators over twenty times per day? Beat that, billboard.
Interactive advertising = Coupon organizer
Another one I really loved was for a specialty brand sold in grocery and drug stores. Our product was not on the everyday shopping list, so we needed to remind people we were there and then help people find us. We knew our target used coupons often but we didn’t want to rely solely on couponing. So we gave away coupon organizers that had our messaging printed on a canvas organizer. Five years after the promotion, we were still getting calls from consumers asking for new organizers because they had worn through the originals. Awesome.
Product demonstration = Tennis balls
Sometimes it’s just too easy. For a pet food client, we’ve done logoed tennis balls. We’re replacing the ratty old tennis ball people toss to their dogs with one fully adorned in brand colors and featuring the brand logo. Dogs that don’t feel well or don’t have healthy joints don’t chase balls. Our client’s food is so good for animals, restoring youthful vitality is not just a promise made in an ad, but an effect pet owners can see for themselves when their dog chases down our ball.
Television = T-shirts
While we do plenty of TV for this particular client, it’s the t-shirts that have people talking. Irreverent messages on t-shirts we give away at events have taken this brand a long way. Our t-shirts have become somewhat collectible with clever, bold messages on the back and brand identity on the front. People love free stuff but that’s a short-term proposition. Make it free and cool and you’ll see long-term benefit.
Speaking of SWAG…
I just realized this blog is the intellectual equivalent of SWAG. While we’re giving it away, I really hope the “S” stands for “something great.” Carefully considered, SWAG can be a good thing and drive people to purchase your brand. If you’ve experienced SWAG that’s not a drag, let us know. We’d love to add your ideas to our SWAG Hall-of-Fame!
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by Tom Tholen, March 4, 2010 at 3:56 PM | Add a Comment |
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 LOOKING FOR BLOGS IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES |
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Some surveys of teens and adults by the Pew Internet Project reveal a decline in blogging among teens and young adults. In 2006, 28% of teens aged 12-17 were bloggers, but by 2009 that number dropped to 14%. I have to admit this made my heart stop. All I’ve been doing is talking about how important it is for any organization to participate in online conversations, to become a part of online communities where they might have a voice. Good Lord, could the facts be proving me wrong?
Then I read the more detailed report. Traditional blogging is declining among teens, i.e., joining a blogging platform and posting a blog entry. But almost three-fourths (73%) of online teens use social networking sites. Wireless connectivity continues to rise among teens, with texting being the communication vehicle du jour. Twitter still hasn’t caught on with the youngsters, but once they enter the workforce, I’m pretty sure they’ll start using it.
But it was this statement by the report’s lead author Amanda Lenhart that created the idea for this (traditional) blog entry: Microblogging and status updating on social networks have replaced old-style ‘macro-blogging’ for many teens and adults. I found the distinction between micro-blogging, status updating and macro-blogging curious, and I wanted to pose a question for discussion.
Is there really a difference between micro-blogging, status updating and macro-blogging? Other than length, of course, aren’t they all the same - communicating a message to a group of people? If they are, as I believe, we should elevate the importance of the message and accept as a fact of digital life that the tools are going to continuously change.
What are your thoughts?
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by Kent Stones, February 24, 2010 at 3:54 PM | Add a Comment | Read Comments (1) |
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| HOTELS AND HASHTAGS |
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When I recently registered for the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference a little late in the game, I found myself struggling to locate a hotel that wasn’t 10+ miles from the Austin Convention Center. If you know anything about this conference, you know that events last until the wee hours of the morning and getting a hotel room right in the action is imperative for an optimal SXSW experience. So when I found myself with a hotel reservation out at the airport, I decided it was time to get serious and explore all avenues in my search for a room downtown. This was when I went to Twitter and used the #SXSW hashtag in the following tweet: “Looking for a hotel room in Austin for SouthbySouthwest Interactive. Can anyone help? Not interested in sharing a room. #sxsw.” It didn’t take long before I received a response from 1-800 Hotels telling me that they had several locations with availability. I tweeted back to them that I specifically wanted a location close to the convention center, at which point they began sending me hotel names and the distance of each hotel from the Austin Convention Center. Unfortunately, none of the vacancies were as close as I wanted to be, but I almost booked a hotel through them because of how helpful they had been in my plea for help! Before this experience, 1-800 Hotels was not my “go-to” hotel deal aggregator. As a matter of fact, they were not even top of mind. However, the next time I search for a hotel, they will be my first stop on the Internet highway. I think this is a brilliant way for a business to use Twitter to gain customers. For some reason, having an actual person out there working for me and responding back seemed so much more authentic than the other Internet hotel search engines I tried. I have a feeling they would have all yielded similar results, but just having that extra communication with someone on the other end of my tweet felt like they went the extra mile. Have you thought of a way to integrate Twitter into your business? It’s out there, you just have to get creative with your approach! |
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by Julie Martell, February 18, 2010 at 11:27 AM | Add a Comment |
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 ESPECIALLY SMALL BUSINESSES |
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I order things online all the time. I live outside the city limits and often can’t get to the brick and mortar stores as readily as I need to, so I rely heavily on online shopping. This also means that I have to take risks ordering things knowing it might not fit, might be a different color in person than it was online, might be the wrong quantity, or simply might not be what had hoped it would be. This is where good customer service is key. Having to send something back can be a hassle in itself, but even more so when that company’s customer service is uncooperative.
I recently received an extra box of diapers by mistake from the small business I order my specialty diapers from online. I can’t get these diapers in large quantities anywhere in town, so I have them “autoshipped” every 6 or 7 weeks, which means the company automatically ships them according to the parameters I set in my online profile. Very cool! However, in my most recent autoship order, due to a glitch in their system, they sent me 2 cases instead of one. Very frustrating! But when I called to straighten out the situation, they told me that if I wanted to send back the extra box, I would have to pay for the shipping. When I inquired further as to why they wouldn’t cover it for me (as it was their mistake) she explained that “they are a small business [15 employees], and it is standard policy for small businesses not to cover shipping for returned items.”
Standard policy for small businesses? My response was an immediate “Wrong!” Because they are a small business, they should be covering the shipping charge. If they want to not only retain their customers but also grow their customer base and customer loyalty, then they need to do anything they can to ensure their customers’ satisfaction, which includes covering any cost or inconvenience for a mistake they made.
Small business or large, good customer service is what builds loyalty. I guarantee that with this situation, I would have shouted from the rooftops what an amazing thing they did and how convenient it was to have them correct their mistake, which in turn may have gained them new customers. But instead, I spread a disgruntled message to as many people as I could about their backward philosophy, possibly costing them new business. It’s all about taking care of your customers.
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by Sally Holman-Hebert, February 11, 2010 at 2:42 PM | Add a Comment | Read Comments (1) |
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