Social Media Marketing

Since January, The Fresh Diet has seen its Facebook fan base swell to over 3,500 fans. Here’s how we did it:

Japanese clothes retailer Uniqlo has found a novel way of encouraging U.K. shoppers give the brand a big presence on Twitter — by reducing the price of clothing pieces every time someone sends a tweet about an item.

Though consumers turn to Facebook primarily to connect with friends and fill downtime, product discounts and "social badging" are the most commonly cited motivations for "liking" brands on Facebook, according to a survey from ExactTarget and Co-Tweet.

As part of its continuing efforts to shore up its online offerings, Sears says it is launching Sears.com Shoe Experience Website, a 450-brand emporium that it will push through social marketing efforts.

if you're not tweeting, blogging or streaming, don't feel stupid. You probably just have bottom-line accountability and don't want to waste money. Come to think of it, you're actually sounding pretty smart.
 But, you're probably receiving pressure to jump on the social media bandwagon. It's just that you're justifiably concerned that it may not yield measureable benefits. Like all direct marketing, approaching social media efforts from a strategic perspective will improve 
your chances.

RightSize Health & Nutrition, a cross-channel retailer of healthy meal replacement smoothies, knew the potential of Facebook for gathering fans (i.e., leads) for the products it sells, which rely heavily on user-generated testimonials for sales.

Social media has given a voice to anyone who wants to attack your business, and there are people out there who seem to revel in attacking for any reason — or no reason at all.

Many fashion brands, particularly those in the luxury category, remain wary of social media.

Piperlime has raised the ire of some of its Facebook fans with a series of cheeky — or "snotty," according to detractors — wall posts last week. The Gap brand began posting updates on Facebook and Twitter such as "Every time you wear sweatpants in public, a single guy leaves New York" and "Let's put Saturday-night effort into Sunday afternoon." While some fans found the posts entertaining, even applauding Piperlime for attacking sweatpants, others were enraged.

In her keynote presentation at last week's eTail East conference in Baltimore, Zita Cassizzi, vice president of Dell.com, discussed how the computer technology giant has used social media to engage consumers online and ultimately drive sales.