Social Media Marketing

From the beginning, Apple's retail stores were intended to both be a showcase for the company's products and a place where communities would form. But until now, we've only known about the success of the former goal, and not the latter. Indeed, the retail stores generated $4 billion in profits on sales of $20.2 billion during fiscal 2013. But how many of the stores 395 million visitors during the year were actually paying customers? During an appearance last month organized by Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, former Apple Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson answered that question.

LinkedIn's new publishing platform is in the roll-out stage. It gives LinkedIn members the ability to create long-form posts similar to blog posts. Users create posts like they would a status update on the top of their personal page. High-quality posts can receive thousands of views, plus likes, comments and shares on other social platforms, thus amplifying the message exponentially. I've been very pleased with the results I've seen in the two-and-a-half months I've been using the service.  

American Apparel has apologized after posting a photo of the space shuttle Challenger disaster on its Tumblr account, mistaking it for an image of fireworks. The Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its flight on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven people aboard. It's a moment the space exploration industry will never forget. The Tumblr post was tagged "#Smoke" and "#Clouds." It's since been deleted, but screenshots taken by Tumblr users are still available. The post immediately attracted negative attention from online commenters. The company issued an apology on Twitter, blaming the mistake on a young international employee.

Nordstrom is betting big on digital retail startups. Just after news broke that BaubleBar jewelry will be carried in all 117 Nordstrom U.S. locations, the company announced that it will be integrating its Wanelo page (to be displayed on TV screens) in the juniors’ section of 107 of its physical stores. Social shopping site Wanelo operates similar to product aggregator sites like Polyvore or Svpply, except it's even more focused on commerce. The approach is catching on — Nordstrom has over 1.2 million followers on Wanelo who are actively engaged with the brand. 

Just as the Mr. Softee jingle and the distinct smell of suntan lotion instantly evoke summer days, Old Navy deems its annual $1 flip-flop sale, which launches on Saturday, a staple of the season. It's also become big business for the Gap's lower priced spin-off chain. The flip-flop promotion marks the retailer's second biggest sales windfall of the year behind Black Friday. Ivan Wicksteed, global chief marketing officer for Old Navy, spoke with Forbes about its first ever flip-flop vending machines, which rolled out to 36 locations in New York and Los Angeles. 

Lifestyle brand Ralph Lauren is putting a focus on its home furnishings line with a new separate Pinterest account. Ralph Lauren Home used to be represented on the social network with a board on the brand's general profile. Giving this collection its own space on Pinterest will enable Ralph Lauren Home to better organize its content and speak to

Bergdorf Goodman is reaching out to fashion-savvy men through a new Instagram account separate from the main store profile. Bergdorf Goodman launched its @Goodmans account at the beginning of the spring/summer 2015 menswear runway shows. Joining the existing male-specific Twitter account, this addition will help the department store connect with its male consumers on a more focused level. "Sometimes separating is hard to do, but sometimes it's for the best," said Jeff Cohen, director of social media at MDG Advertising. "This is definitely one of those times."

In a session last week at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, Diana Adair, director of communications at custom products retailer Zazzle, a company that's no stranger to crises, offered her top tips for surviving — and avoiding altogether — a social media crisis:

It's common practice for companies to look at prospective employees’ social media accounts to get a better sense of who they are beyond a resume and cover letter. Zappos is taking that one step further. The Las Vegas-based shoe retailer announced that it's doing away with traditional job postings. Instead, interested folks will need to join Inside Zappos, a new social network for the company's prospective employees. Joining the network will give applicants "priority consideration" for upcoming job openings. The network allows recruiters to get to know applicants and their interests, while allowing applicants to network with existing employees.

Following a sprinkling of ads from brands in other categories, Macy's is the first retailer to roll out Facebook's auto-play video ads within mobile news feeds, Adweek has learned. A rep for the department store giant claimed there were two other merchant brands testing the platform, but didn't disclose names. Macy's ads, which are marked as sponsored, ran on Friday within Facebook's iPhone app at the top of the news feed. They automatically began playing as users scrolled down the screen.