Social Media Marketing

This has been one tough year for Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F). A megaviral "Abercrombie-Hates-Fat-People" meme started in May when a Business Insider piece analyzed Abercrombie's marketing practices and included a seven-year-old quotation from CEO Mike Jeffries. The piece then piled on with comments from a retail consultant with no connection to the company who explained that A&F didn't sell plus-sizes because Jeffries didn't want overweight people wearing his clothes. Social media outrage ensued, and a YouTube urging consumers to donate their Abercrombie clothes to homeless people for a "brand readjustment" garnered more than 8 million views.

The holiday shopping season is here. And I'm not just talking about those obnoxious pre-Thanksgiving Christmas decorations. I'm talking about your customers, who are flocking to the visual web (see Pinterest and Instagram) to prep holiday season wish lists and find gift inspiration. Have you made your list of how to best optimize your digital efforts for those customers, but not yet checked it twice? Don't worry, there's still time! Here are three ways retailers can visually ensure their products are at the top of consumers’ wish lists during this holiday season:

The Wet Seal announced a partnership with AwesomenessTV on a reality series, "The Intern." AwesomenessTV, one of the most subscribed to video destinations for teens on YouTube, debuted the series on Nov. 25 and will air four weekly installments throughout the month of December. The Intern, a series created exclusively for Wet Seal, has the brand's corporate headquarters as its backdrop, and episodes follow the experience of two interns during their time with the company. The series begins with the interview selection process, and each installment thereafter features challenges for the interns, who aspire to a future in fashion.

Optimizing Google+ Local pages can pay big dividends for retailers that want to increase visibility on search engine results pages, according to a new aggregate case study from my firm SIM Partners. Furthermore, the ubiquity of Google for local searches is growing according to a report from MDG Advertising. Consider the following:

Kmart's "Jingle Bells" ad has become the most viral of the early holiday season and is already among the biggest hits of 2013. So what's a rival retailer to do? For J.C. Penney, a lighthearted exchange on Twitter over the mildly risqué ad seems to have done the trick. The brand trolled Twitter on Nov. 16, and a humorous exchange ensued:

The idea of "learning computers" that become smarter with more time and information used to be confined to the realm of sci-fi or the most cutting-edge technology projects. But fact has caught up with fiction; machine learning is transforming both large and small businesses that want to take advantage of reams of data at their disposal.

lululemon's recent image problems are excellent news for other athletic brands, and J.C. Penney wants everyone to know that if lululemon doesn't want you in its pants, J.C. Penney is ready to hook you up. "When it comes to yoga pants, we fit any shape and size," J.C. Penney tweeted right about the time lululemon was making headlines for blaming the failure of its yoga pants on the size of its customers’ thighs. We can't help but snicker at the dig. There's no burn like a corporate burn to make you feel all tingly inside.

In anticipation of the holiday season, TopShop has partnered with Pinterest to create a campaign that will center around customers creating and submitting inspirational boards for the holiday season. This can cover all aspects of the holidays, including decorations, a dream dress, their ultimate festive tree and possibly even a few Topshop products. Entitled "Dear Topshop," the campaign plans to take a 360-degree approach and make its presence known online and offline. The collaboration will act as the ultimate gift guide that will feel personalized to each user. 

Home Depot is apologizing for a racist tweet and blaming the agency that sent it from the company account. The home improvement retailer pulled the tweet and apologized on Twitter on Thursday, saying, "We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive. Deeply sorry. We terminated the agency and individual who posted it." In a statement provided to ABCNews.com, Stephen Holmes, director of corporate communications, said, "We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive. The outside agency that created the tweet and The Home Depot associate who posted it have been terminated."

It's no secret that people don't just watch TV anymore. Their attention is divided between the big screen in front of the couch and the small screens in their hands and laps. But according to OVP of Emerging Media Marketing Maggie Hatfield, HSN wasn't going to get lost in this attention gap. Instead, it went where its customers are: social media. In her presentation at SocialMedia.org's BlogWell conference, Hatfield explains how HSN listens to its customers’ social media conversations to help guide what it features on its TV programs.