Social Media Marketing

The facts: More than 11 million Pinterest users have driven more online revenue per click than 900 million Facebook users and 140 million Twitter users combined. What's more impressive is that this visual sharing pinboard social network achieved these numbers in roughly a year.

Despite rumblings that social media is losing its value and cache as a marketing tool (or commerce or customer service tool) for retailers — let the debate rage on — there are plenty of brands that are investing their time and money in the channel. The common refrain that you hear from all of them is that they seek better engagement with their customers and prospects, and social media can play a significant role in helping them accomplish that. In that vein, Retail Online Integration has compiled its second annual ranking of the top 50 fastest-growing Facebook retailers — with a twist this year.

When it comes to Pinterest, the million dollar (billion dollar?) question remains: How is the company going to make money? Fast Company's October issue has a great profile on the company and CEO Ben Silbermann that explores a couple different possibilites. Like The Fancy, Pinterest could try to make a commission off products purchased via the site or, like Polyvore, it could ramp up advertising.

Maybe it's the gargantuan boxes or pallets stacked to the ceiling, but Instagrammers love taking photos at Costco. Over at Wal-Mart, shoppers prefer Twitter, and Safeway shoppers check in with Yelp. All of these behaviors go by the same name — social media moments, according to LocalResponse, a mobile advertising provider. The company released its first study of retail check-ins from more than 136,500 social media moments at 10 top U.S. retailers, using four social networks — foursquare, Twitter, Yelp and Instagram — over the summer.

As merchants sift through their back-to-school receipts, it looks like the season's two best-sellers were social and mobile sales. IBM's Benchmark reports that social sales, or online sales that happen as a result of a referral from a social media site, accounted for 1.6% of July sales, a jump of 25% from the prior year, and 2.2% of all August sales, a 69.7% increase. M-commerce increased by 15.7% in July, and 15.4% in August. Overall, online sales gained 11% in July, then slowed to a 3.9% advance in August.

Empathica's Consumer Insights Panel surveyed more than 6,500 U.S. consumers. The findings show that mobile and social customer experience strategies are becoming more important than ever for brands, with retail and restaurant consumers using these channels to make decisions - even while in-store.

Walmart may have beaten mom & pop stores in many ways long ago, but when it comes to Facebook fan love, local businesses are beating the giant retailer handily, according to a new study by social-media metrics firm Recommend.ly. Nearly a year into Walmart's ambitious My Local Walmart program to establish individual Facebook fan pages for its 3,500-plus stores, the pages on average lag those of local businesses in fan counts, update activity and frequency of conversations, according to the study.

Any retail site knows that social media is their friend. Not only do sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have the massive user bases to drive traffic, but they also have the opportunity to drive traffic based on the trust factor. If one of your friends recommends a product (as opposed to a typical ad), you're much more likely to check it out. That's the thought behind Facebook's main advertising platform, the Sponsored Story (and why it's crushing traditional ads). But not all social media sites are created equal when it comes to driving retail traffic.

Women now account for 30 percent of sales for athletic apparel brand Under Armour, and women's apparel is the fastest-growing segment of its business. New marketing efforts reflect this shift, and are aimed directly at the female demographic - with social media as the primary tool for reaching out.

Facebook advertising has been the cause of much controversy among the marketing community as of late. While the site brings in a daily ad income of $1 million, many advertisers have been calling the channel ineffective and have pulled their advertisements, like General Motors did in May. At the same time, Facebook still boasts global ubiquity, an unmatched user base and the opportunity for brands of all types to connect with their customers.