Black Friday Launch Pad for Brand Social Media

There is mounting evidence in the use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, as an advertising medium. A prime example is the way that brand marketers are targeting Black Friday by sending out messages featuring special deals for their followers. Why? A recent blog post on Simple Thoughts quotes Deloitte Research as saying that, “One in five shoppers plans to use the sites in their holiday shopping this season.”
 
It has been widely reported that retailers and manufacturers have been effectively using sweet deals to attract consumers to follow their company presence on various social media outlets. The hope is that shoppers will continue to follow and build brand loyalty. Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, presents itself as a great jumping off point to disseminate information and gain followers. Hundreds of special offers are being leaked to vigilant consumers.
 
Brand marketers get additional penetration from special deal sites such as dealnews.com who also track and list Black Friday offers. Many e-commerce deals extend to the Monday after Thanksgiving, now known as Cyber Monday, because of consumers’ propensity to shop from their computers that day.

Twitter and the retail industry

Social Media has opened doors for every industry to improve communication with consumers. The growth of Twitter has developers, brand managers, retailers, and the average joe finding ways to use 140 characters for business. It’s an evolution of open communication with our business partners and customers.

Express advertises on the bottom of customer’s receipts to follow their CMO @ExpresslisaG on Twitter. Zappos, potentially the kind of retail Twitter, has successful used social media to stay connected with consumers on everything from busineess operations, team members, and customer service. @DellOutlet offers deals to Twitter followers, and @Comcastcares is a consumer’s direct channel to voice concerns.

The retail industry can use Twitter for product promotions, customer experience management, and brand appeal. There is virtually endless possibilities to how a retailer or brand could use open communication with consumers to better their customer experience.

One individual is testing a device to link RFID tags to Twitter. Mediapost reported digital agency R/GA’s Richard Ting has successfully linked RFID tags to Twitter. When the tag is scanned, a preconditioned Tweet is sent out. There is potential for the same technology to be used by merchandisers or mystery shoppers in store. A real time feedback of a display with missing product, products not properly set up, or real time customer experience feeback. The opportunities to for all levels of an organization to connect with consumers using social media is unlimited.

How are you using Twitter in your business?

Are You A Brand That Tweets?

The use of social media has grown exponentially in the past year. Mashable.com reports Twitter alone as grown by 752% in 2008. December had 4.43 million unique visitors. Those numbers prove that social media is the platform to reach millions of consumers, sometimes using only 140 characters. Read more…