The Retailer's Source for Content & Community
Michaels Stores uses Facebook (where it has 1.2 million fans and typically posts three times a day) to showcase do-it-yourself projects and craft tips and to publish product info, discounts, class announcements and store sales flyers. It also cross-promotes content from its other social platforms, like Pinterest, where it has a variety of boards, including Polka Dots and Sweets and Treats, aimed at inspiring creativity.
The Facebook pages for Silpada Designs (174K likes), Boot Barn (590K likes) and 1-800-PetMeds (110K likes) are full of color, variety, warmth and humor. All three brands have a lot of fun with their fans on the social platform, and while not all of their posts succeed, they're earning — and sustaining — engagement.
This month, furniture giveaways helped home-goods retailer Wayfair.com score high on Media Logic's Retail Social Juice Index (RSJI). Wayfair's fan base, which typically only gives a few hundred likes to brand posts, responded by the thousands to posts about the weekly promotion. A console table giveaway? More than 16,000 likes and 3,100 shares. A chaise lounge giveaway? More than 16,500 likes and 2,700 shares. A Butler Bombe coffee table giveaway? Close to 69,000 likes and 13,200 shares.
A scroll through the Facebook Timelines of Bebe, Foot Locker and 1-800-Flowers.com reveals a common trait: each anchors its content with repeating themes and formats. Find out what these three brands are doing right — and wrong — with their Facebook marketing programs in this month's Retail Social Juice Index Spotlight.
Even a weight loss brand with 1.1 million fans can't take engagement for granted — not even during resolution prime time. So what did Weight Watchers do to encourage interaction and remain at the top of the RSJI? It didn't wait until the last minute to give fans and followers reasons to turn to its Facebook Timeline looking for support and encouragement. Throughout December, Weight Watchers published the final links to its 2012 365 reasons to believe Tumblr and later in the month helped fans recap their 2012 as well as set goals for 2013 via its pic your amazing Facebook app.
Media Logic's Retail Social Juice Index (RSJI) has been measuring social engagement for hundreds of national retailers since November 2011. Data for this post was compiled with engagement scores throughout August 2012, and the brands featured spent more than half the month among the top 10 most engaging brands on the index.
Like many jewelry brands, Tacori knows its fans like things that sparkle, so it regularly posts photos of brilliant, light-catching and attention-grabbing diamonds. Though blatant product plugs don't work for everyone, Tacori's straightforward Facebook posts earn consistently high engagement. In these posts, the brand leads with a positive statement (e.g., "In love with this classic Tacori stunner!"), follows with a style/product number and ends with a professionally shot photo. It's a strategy that kept Tacori in the top 10 of Media Logic's Retail Social Juice Index (RSJI) almost every day in July.
Diapers.com spent less than one-third of June among the top 10 brands on Media Logic's Retail Social Juice Index (RSJI) - but what an incredible surge it was. The brand's engagement score for the month ranged from 29 to 493. During the first half of the month, it averaged 46, which is comparable to the RSJI's daily average. But during the last half of the month? Its average jumped to 278.
Cheaper Than Dirt sells everything from pool toys to wool socks, but when it comes to a social media presence, the brand sticks to its guns. If you assume a Facebook page filled with posts about ammunition and firearms represents the wrong kind of engagement, you’d be mistaken. Fewer brands know their fans better than Cheaper Than Dirt, which has amazingly good sense about the kinds of posts — a mixture of humor, advocacy and education — that inspire conversation and participation.
The Monthly Social Index Spotlight is a new ROI Report column that features a monthly update from Media Logic’s Retail Social Juice Index, a daily ranking of social engagement scores for hundreds of national retailers. Media Logic distills data from Facebook and Twitter daily and turns it into a score which represents the effectiveness of a brand’s interactions with its fans and followers. This monthly column will highlight specific Retail Social Juice index scores for a given month, along with commentary about the findings.
Nothing delights us more than when brands offer amazing customer experiences. So it's wonderful to see retailers with character scoring high on the Media Logic’s Retail Social Index in January.
