Retailers Forced to Enhance Their Social Media Presence

Alongside the pressure to enhance their social media offerings

, retailers also realised the alternative of falling behind competitors far better placed in the digital marketplace. In order to avoid being left behind, the prospect of online socialising seems the only solution on offer.

The survey from Aberdeen Group discovered that the social media tools most commonly utilised by retailers include social networking sites (85%), microblogging (51%), and blogging (43%). Over the course of the next year, it appears that social networking sites are the most likely tool to be employed by retailers, with 4 out of 5 already using or planning to use Twitter.

The offering of a Facebook fan page by retailers is becoming a more common site, with brands such as Levi's and Topman providing the chance for site visitors to "like" them. In fact, an ExactTarget study in September revealed that 40% of respondents had "liked" a company via their Facebook page in order to receive discounts or promotional offers.

The evolving arena of online shopping has resulted in a move away from the isolated, individual shopper experience towards a social process, in which opinions can be sought and shared on brands on a global basis.

While it is evident that social media platforms have a significant effect on our shopping habits, it is only recently that steps are being taken to measure the exact impact of social media campaigns on tangible factors such as conversions and, most importantly, ROI (Return on Investment).

Brian Massey, author of The Conversion Scientist blog, has offered some guidance on this matter, detailing his social media experiment using Google Analytics. As a means of determining the extent of the increased sales/goals if any a social media presence would have on his site, Massey launched a GA campaign to track all those subscribing to the site mailing list who were directed to the site via social networks.

By promoting his site and the e-mail newsletter subscription opportunity socially, Massey hoped to attract higher traffic levels, and to convert those visitors into subscribers, i.e. increase goal conversions.

The results concluded that while, in this case, the social media effect was minimal, it is obviously a platform which cannot be ignored. In terms of conversion rate optimisation (CRO), and to a greater extent search engine optimisation (SEO), sites like Facebook and Twitter can provide some very site and ROI enhancing results. The ever-increasing reliance on social networking and blogging as a guide to everything online means that to dismiss the social media platform would be an extremely disadvantageous decision.

Retailers Forced to Enhance Their Social Media Presence

By: Harvey McEwan

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