Operation Engagement

Drive store brand growth by engaging your customers through social media.

Joan has two teenagers who spend untold hours texting and on Facebook. She wandered onto Facebook to keep an eye on them. To her surprise, she found she was able to connect with old high school friends and family she doesn't normally get to see more than once a year.

Her kids' school moved online several years ago, scheduling parent-teacher conferences and posting homework assignments and grades. And Joan is enjoying the apps on her phone. Being able to check to see if merchandise is in stock before she heads out saves her time, and in her multi-tasking world, that is on the top of her list.

Joan could be one of your customers. She's already online. She's already adopted social media. It serves her in ways she never knew it could.

So the question for most businesses is: Have you adopted it, too? And do you know how to use social media to shape your brand and engage customers in ways that create meaningful interactions?

Statistics from Forrester Research show that almost 80 percent of customers take their cue from friends, family or peers when it comes to shopping. As competition from national brands intensifies in the social web, how can store brands innovate their PR, marketing and advertising mix to include social media?

Savvy store brand managers see their products as a serious investment opportunity — not just a short-term cash cow. They have studied social media and are talking about it within their organization. They are armed with data from listening tools and analytics.

Here's a short course in the steps to building and maintaining a socialized store brand:

Step 1: Listen

Use free tools to listen to what is being said about your brand and your competition in the social web. Then graduate to monitoring and listening tool/ platforms. If you aren't sure how to interact in the social web, use this time to observe how brands are creating conversations with customers. Also use it to see how customers express their frustration with a brand and how brands are dealing with this new public forum.

Step 2: Identify your audience

As you listen, you'll see who is talking about brands online. Identify advocates, influencers and "badvocates" for your store brands and your competitors. How are your competitors engaging folks? How many fans do you have? How many fans do your competitors have? Make a list of advocates and influencers you'd like to engage and why you think they might be advantageous.

Step 3: Determine Internet platforms

Where are the conversations happening? Twitter, Facebook, Foodie Blogs, Mommy Bloggers, Flickr, Youtube? Listening tools will give you this information.

Make a list of where you'd like to engage your customers. You might consider creating your own community platform and invite "SuperUsers" (advocates and influencers) to join and lead the conversations. Also consider using social mobile applications — most people don't leave the house without their cell phone — as well as social e-commerce.

Step 4: Create engaging conversations

What type of conversations are customers in engaging in? Customers are more likely to pay attention to a marketing message if they already are engaged by a brand before the brand tries to "sell" them something. Customers like to give brands feedback, test products and co-create product innovations. Determine your brand's "voice." Keep the tone of your conversations authentic and genuine. Don't use corporate speak or dialogue that's too polished. You'll turn customers off.

Step 5: Design social campaigns

Retailers and national brands are designing campaigns from the data they glean from listening. But listening isn't just about consumer research. You have the opportunity to engage customers in an authentic way that could literally transform your business and the nature of retail.

What are customers interested in? Saving money? The taste and quality of products? Recipes? Health? These clues will help you design your interactive campaign (READ: conversation) to engage your customers in topics and in ways that hold their interest. Don't guess.

Step 6: Continually assess and evaluate

As you participate and engage in the social web, evaluate your progress everyday. If you are just doing messaging, stop. Make friends. Learn from your critics. Interact as people. Use social measurement and analytics to understand what and why things are/are not working.

Use social media to reinvent yourself, your brand and your relationship with customers. It will pay off in new customers, loyal customers, increased revenue and reduced operating costs.

Natalie L. Petouhoff, Ph.D., is chief strategist for digital communications for the global public relations firm Weber Shandwick. Contact her at [email protected].

Free Social Media Listening Tools

Twitter (http://search.Twitter.com)

Blogs (http://www.technorati.com)

Forums (http://www.boardtracker.com)

Google news alerts for your brand name (http://www.google.com/alerts)

Google searches beyond just your brand name — use descriptors to get a handle on sentiment: ("[brand name] + sucks," "[brand name] + FAIL," "[brand name] + love").

Other Tools

Traditional and Social Media Listening Tools and Platforms:

Factiva, Radian6, Visible Technologies, Crimson Hexagon, Sysomos and Traackr

Social Media Community Platforms:

www.GetSatisfaction.com and www.Lithium.com

Social Mobile Applications, Analytics and ROI Measurement:

Art Technology Group, Moderati, Genex, Weber Shandwick, Flurry, Mobclix and Omniture