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.

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?

Smart brands are starting to use social media as a marketing and research tool. Still, there are thousands of brands choosing not to embrace social media. Here are some ways in which brands are using social media and ways your brand might think about starting to:

1. Research marketing
Brands that are using Twitter can monitor what consumers are saying about their product. It’s a nonintrusive way into the hearts of your market. The data is not compiled into a nice business report, but if you want to see the impact of a recent social media campaign (just look at Motrin’s) or new product release, follow your market on Twitter.

2. Branding Personality
Lou Cohen made an excellent point that brands have personality. Social media allows brands to show their personality to their market through non traditional advertising. Some brands have moved into the blogging community, take a look at Alltop.com’s corporate blogs to see some. For instance, Clorox bleach has a blog with cleaning and useful tips for using their product. Sure, they could take the approach of publishing a quarterly magazine or advertisement with the tips but instead they decide to engage their consumers with non-direct marketing approach.

There is an immense amount of discussion on whether or not brands should be on social media such as Twitter. The fact is brands that want to be in tune with their consumers, NEED to be. The right way for a brand to use Twitter is to listen and respond to consumer needs. Avoid the blasting marketing campaign as consumers may take offense to the disregard of their opinion. If your brand who wants to build a reputation for being in touch with consumers, don’t let the social media boat sail by. Jump on board and get in the conversation.