Social Media Marketing

There's a question hanging over newly IPO'd Facebook that's generating a lot of discussion: Is social commerce — i.e., having an online store within Facebook or another social site — working? This comes after a few big brands, including Gap, GameStop and J.C. Penney, closed their failed Facebook stores earlier this year.General Motors pulling its advertising from Facebook didn't boost confidence that the social networking site is effective at generating income for businesses other than itself.

In honor of hitting 1 million Twitter followers, luxury brand Burberry sent approximately 3,000 thank you GIFs to fans last Monday. The thank you e-cards were personalized with followers' names and were tweeted at them directly. While this certainl seems like a nice sentiment, and given that Friday was the GIF's 25th Birthday, I wanted to determine what impact these tweets had.

Cheaper Than Dirt sells everything from pool toys to wool socks, but when it comes to a social media presence, the brand sticks to its guns. If you assume a Facebook page filled with posts about ammunition and firearms represents the wrong kind of engagement, you’d be mistaken. Fewer brands know their fans better than Cheaper Than Dirt, which has amazingly good sense about the kinds of posts — a mixture of humor, advocacy and education — that inspire conversation and participation.

Saks Fifth Avenue has launched a talent acquisition page on Facebook. The new “Careers at Saks” Facebook page will allow prospective job applicants to interact directly with Saks Fifth Avenue’s talent acquisition team, search available positions and keep up with Saks Fifth Avenue. The Facebook news feed will include “Jobs of the Day,” career and interview tips, and other pertinent updates weekly. Saks Fifth Avenue’s internal brand ambassadors will speak on behalf of the retailer as an employer. 

With its IPO out of the way, attention has turned to how Facebook will make money to appease its new shareholders. Many retailers are using the free tools available on Facebook rather than paying to advertise on the site. While retailers are very happy with the returns they're seeing from Facebook, many are doing so for free. A prime example is luxury retailer Melrose.com, which has seen its sales rise 25 percent over the last two years. Melrose.com spent just $1,500 on Facebook ads in that time, with most of its activity focused on managing its (free) page.

Macy’s, Sephora, Michael Kors and Lancome were ranked as Facebook “geniuses” in the second annual L2 Facebook IQ Index, developed in partnership with Buddy Media, a social enterprise software firm. The index measured the “aptitude” of 100 luxury and prestige brands across beauty, fashion, specialty retail, and watches and jewelry on Facebook. The study — authored by Scott Galloway, New York University professor of marketing, experts from his L2 firm (a think tank for digital innovation) and Buddy Media — ranks the brands’ Facebook efforts across four criteria, including size and growth, engagement, programming, and integration.

Facebook hasn't yet confirmed whether it's the real Mark Zuckerberg, although it's a verified Fancy account, and the high-end Pinterest competitor has been generating a lot of buzz lately. The New York-based startup recently launched its own commerce platform, which is already seeing an average of roughly $50,000 in spending per week. It boasts nearly 1 million users, Kanye West's seal of approval, and a $100 million valuation thanks to the backing of PPR and angel investors such as Jack Dorsey, who sits on the company's board along with Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

Never before has social media been so attractive to consumers, literally. According to the 2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study, a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore and The Partnering Group, the visually appealing social media site Pinterest has become a big player in an even bigger arena, with online U.S. consumers reporting that they follow an average of 9.3 retailers on the site, compared to the average 6.9 retailers they follow on Facebook and the 8.5 retailers they track via Twitter. Nearly two out of five (38 percent) online consumers follow retailers through one or more social networking sites. 

Foot Locker announced the launch of a new marketing campaign involving the social media phenomenon Instagram. The campaign encourages Instagram users to tag pictures of themselves wearing their favorite kicks using #kickstagram and @footlocker. Uploaded photos will have the chance to be showcased on Footlocker.com, Foot Locker's Facebook page as well as in-store windows nationwide this summer. 

Despite all the buzz around social media over the past several years, the concept of "real" social commerce — when consumers can actually buy merchandise directly from whichever social network they're visiting and wherever they happen to be — has eluded the industry.