Social Media Marketing

A few years ago, retail giants (and maybe even the general public) scoffed at social media as frivolous and irrelevant to business. Today, it's common knowledge that the likes of Twitter and Facebook, and increasingly growing networks such as Pinterest, are forces to be reckoned with in e-commerce. Based upon Adobe's recently published Social Intelligence Report, it's these three networks in particular that are currently shaping the future of the digital marketplace. Adobe analysts posited that Facebook is still the frontrunner in this field, dominating the share of social-referred visits to retail sites.

The attacks are a reminder of social media's power to undermine the reputation and shares of a public company. J.C. Penney, struggling to turn itself around after the failed strategy of former CEO Ron Johnson, is especially vulnerable to market sentiment. "J.C. Penney's is a very specific situation," said Liz Dunn, an analyst at Macquarie Group in New York. "I wouldn't expect this to be a rampant problem of anonymous Twitter users bashing companies." 

Flyers are frustrated with the FAA's in-flight rules that keep them from accessing their e-readers, shopping apps and emails during takeoff and landing. There's one company that's much more focused on reaching flyers once they get off the plane, however. The quirky, always-present SkyMall catalog tucked into airplanes’ seat-back pockets has transitioned from an in-flight catalog launched in 1989 to a thriving e-commerce site with $80.5 million in revenue in 2009. The majority of SkyMall's sales are now completed online.

These days, it's not just print and television that secure dedicated campaigns — Instagram and Vine are getting them, too. Earlier this week, Polo Ralph Lauren began rolling out a series of nine 15-second videos on Instagram as part of its "Polo Ralph Lauren Survival Guide." As of Sunday, seven of the videos have rolled out, demonstrating, for example, how to pitch a tent, how to start a fire, and how to chill and uncork a bottle of champagne.

This past week, Uri Minkoff, co-founder of fashion apparel retailer Rebecca Minkoff, sat down with Refinery 29 Co-Founder and CEO Phillppe von Borries for a fireside chat at Fashion Digital NY. During the candid conversation, Minkoff shared what "growth hacking" is, how the brand connects with its millennial audience and what it's like working with his sibling.

Most retailers now have some sort of social presence, but too often it consists of having an account on popular social media networks and little more. The following are five examples of recent retail social media offerings that leverage social media's unique ability to engage consumers, improve operations and boost profits.

Last Thursday, Diane von Furstenberg's studio in New York's Meatpacking district underwent a temporary transformation. Gone were the large pieces of furniture on the east-facing wall; in their place were cameras, studio lights and a half dozen production people, in addition to representatives from Google, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), public relations firm KCD as well as von Furstenberg's own design company. The occasion? Von Furstenberg was hosting the first shoppable Google+ Hangout, one in a series to be held by CFDA designers.

With over 130 million users, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram is being used by 67 percent of top brands. Marketers have been swift to realize the potential impact of Instagram by integrating it into their off-site social strategies. Yet the golden question remains: Can Instagram generate return on investment? Or are we all just wasting our time on yet another social network distraction.

Pinterest, and specifically the act of "pinning," is driving people into stores and influencing purchase decisions. Recent data distributed by Vision Critical and highlighted in the Harvard Business Review found that 21 percent of Pinterest users had bought an item in a store after pinning, repinning or liking the item on the site. Vision Critical describes this as part of a wider phenomenon it calls "reverse showrooming," in which consumers search or browse products online and then enter the physical shop to make a final purchase.

Physical gift-giving site Wantful — a joint venture with Nordstrom — was forced to suspend operations on Monday. Nordstrom and Wantful formed the joint gift venture earlier this year, but Wantful recently lost a planned follow-up investment. Nordstrom put up $100,000 in last-minute cash to help ease the blow to the 16 Wantful employees who would be losing their jobs. "What we didn't accomplish yet, both by circumstance and execution, is the kind of highly accelerated growth required to secure later-stage venture capital, despite the enduing enthusiasm around what we've built," Wantful Founder and CEO John Poisson wrote.