Top Dog - Total Retail

By Melissa Campanelli

15 Social Media Tactics for Retailers

We asked John Lazarchic, PETCO’s vice president of e-commerce, for his best retail social media tactics. He offered the following list

Start with small, simple tests on Facebook or Twitter. After all, it’s free.
Have patience — social marketing takes time to build.
Temper internal expectations on results during the early stages of your program.
Create compelling content, events and conversations targeted to the interests of your customers.
Don’t be a “me too.” You need a compelling reason for customers to give you their limited time!
Merge social networks into your other marketing channels -— such as email, brick-and-mortar stores and print.
Think about what adds value to a customer’s life (i.e., tips, tricks, how-to’s and did-you-know’s).
Share photos and videos from your stores, even if the quality isn’t perfect.
Start following other pages in your industry (corporate and noncorporate) to get ideas.
Speak with your fans, not to them. It’s a conversation, not a press release.
Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want your mama, friends, CEO, manager and legal counsel to see!
Be 100 percent transparent at all times.
Don’t be afraid of negative comments. A complaint is a tremendous opportunity.
Never underestimate the power of a simple thank you or apology when speaking with your customers.
Be flexible with your program and tool-agnostic. No one knows what the next Facebook or Twitter will be.

When it comes to cross-channel marketing, PETCO is at the top of its game.

The specialty pet products retailer sells its merchandise in more than 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores across the country and an e-commerce website, regularly using its online channel to bring customers into its stores and vice versa. But the buck stops in the e-commerce department.

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Melissa Campanelli Author's page Melissa Campanelli is Editor-in-Chief of Total Retail. She is an industry veteran, having covered all aspects of retail, tech, digital, e-commerce, and marketing over the past 20 years. Melissa is also the co-founder of the Women in Retail Leadership Circle.

Cover Story: Top Dog