Social Media Marketing

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.

What happens when you mix online shopping and gamers who have an affinity for sweepstakes? "Tournament shopping," the latest niche in the e-commerce industry.

Club Monaco is killing two birds with one stone with its new Tumblr lookbook. Lookbooks are the standard fashion industry PR tool. Rather than a print lookbook or a press-only site, which are the industry norms for lookbooks, Club Monaco decided to release its fall lookbook on Tumblr to make it into both a social media experience for consumers and an easy-to-access tool for press and media outlets.

Walmart.com's new site design, which features social media-style "Trending Now" tools designed to match online consumers' new shopping patterns, is only the most visible sign of Wal-Mart's extensive omnichannel initiatives. The world's largest retailer is making extensive use of its 4,000-plus store footprint along with mobility to achieve dominance in the digital sphere.

Can you offer a home improvement tip in six seconds? Apparently yes, as Lowe's demonstrates with these Vines. The retailer introduced the following Vines last week. Unlike previous Vines from brands, these are designed to be useful. The effort, called Lowe's Fix in Six, offers simple, everyday improvements that consumers will want (hopefully) to share with others.

If you're a freak for Facebook and you own one of the few Android smartphones that can run the social platform's new Home app, then you may be in social media heaven right now. Home, for those not familiar, enables users to replace their normal mobile

Forbes reported today that Foursquare received $41 million in convertible debt and loans. That will certainly help the company as it tries to figure out its clear path to revenue. But in the meantime, as I reported a couple of weeks ago, Foursquare continues to engage with retailers and consumers. In my post on Consumer Feedback, here are some data points from a VenueLabs report: Of the storefronts with local channels, a whopping 93 percent were on Foursquare.

With high-profile brands such as Gap, GameStop and, in the U.S., J.C. Penney, having opened and then subsequently closed Facebook stores (presumably because they weren't delivering return on investment), it would be easy to assume that social media isn't suitable for sales — too easy, perhaps. But those who dig a little deeper may find that opportunities abound if social media is leveraged in the right way.

Retailers are aware that a social media presence is important to their business, but it also opens the company to risk factors. Learn the guidelines of developing a social media policy.

Having a social media-based, customer-centric approach is truly a retailer's best chance at having a competitive advantage. The quality of the customer's experience will convert straight into the retailer's ability to obtain and keep customers, improve sales, and ultimately inspire loyalty and continued support.