Social Media Strategy for the Retail Industry

RETAIL INDUSTRY EBOOK / MARCH 2012 / www.radian6.com / 1 888 6radian
Copyright © 2012 - Radian6

RETAIL INDUSTRY EBOOK / MARCH 2012
Social Media Strategy for the Retail Industry

Retail Industry eBook:
Social Media Strategy
for the Retail Industry

RETAIL INTRO

CHAPTER 1: What Is Social Media?

CHAPTER 2: How Do I Get Started In
Social Media?

CHAPTER 3: How Do I Train My Staff for
Social Media?

CHAPTER 4: What Does A Social Media
Monitoring Platform Do?

CHAPTER 5: How Do I Start Listening?

CHAPTER 6: How Do I Start Engaging?

CHAPTER 7: How Do I Start to Measure,
Analyze & Report?

CHAPTER 8: What Are The Key Social
Media Opportunities For Retailers?

WHITE PAPER: How Retailers Can
Use Social Media Monitoring to Track
Industry Conversations

CASE STUDY: GNC: Building Healthier
Online Communities

www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2012 - Radian6 [2]


Retail Industry eBook

Hi Radian6 shoppers, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully, you’ve
brought your wish lists for what you want to take away from
today’s visit. We have some great content that just arrived in store,
so grab your carts as we take you through the aisles of our Retail
Industry eBook. Here are some of the things you’ll learn:

• How to avoid “the Three Ds” that could cost you customers, or your job.
• How often you can talk about yourself without driving your customers away.
• How to use social media to gain valuable competitive intel.
• Four simple phrases that can get you through nearly any difficult social media
situation.
• Five things you should be listening for to get real business value from social media.

Social media is an exciting space for retailers today. Today’s consumers are increasingly
turning to their social networks to find the information that influences their purchasing
decisions, as well as share their own retail experiences with others. Not only is the
social web a growing resource for your customers, but with the increasing popularity of
smartphones, your customers can access this information anytime, from anywhere. From
marketing and sales to customer service, the entire retail experience is going digital, and
the success of your retail brand hinges on how you build your own presence and engage
in the social space. This is where a well-planned social media strategy comes in.

Do you want to dazzle with your customer service, show appreciation for your loyal
shoppers by offering exclusive discounts or event invites, or identify and turn around
potential crisis situations early on? We can help you leverage social media to achieve
these goals. Maybe you’re looking to get intel on your largest competitors, keep track of
up-and-coming trends in the retail space, or identify and engage with rising influencers in
the retail industry. Whatever your social media goals might be, we have the resources you
need.

Before we continue, there are a few questions we want you to keep in mind:

• How are you already listening to and engaging in the social media conversations around
your brand?
• What is your current social media strategy?
• What are some ways you can build off this strategy as the needs of your brand and
your customers change and evolve?

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Whether you are just getting started in the social media space or have an existing social
media presence that you want to take to the next level, this eBook will help you answer
questions you might already have as well as provide additional content to get you thinking
and inspire you.

Before you start browsing, remember that just as your customers have their own individual
needs, personalities, and style, your social media strategy will be unique to your retail
brand. No two are alike.

Happy shopping!

[4]


Chapter 1
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
Where Did It Start?

The use of computers in every day life has fundamentally changed how retailers and
customers interact as a technologically advanced culture. In the business world we’ve seen
memos transformed to email, conference calls morphed into virtual meetings and even
sticky notes have gone digital. It’s no surprise that all these shifts to digital have affected
the way we do business, and do our jobs. Just as the amount of information we were
able to access has increased exponentially since the dawn of the Internet, our personal
and professional connectivity has increased significantly since the introduction of social
networking.

The onset of companies using social sites for marketing and advertising, as well as client
care and feedback, is what transformed social networking from a personal focused method
of connecting with others into the business oriented use of Social Media - a use that can be
closely tied to the concept of Word of Mouth Marketing.

The social web is fundamentally changing the practice and culture of how retailers do
business. It’s shifted how retailers communicate within their own walls, and how they
communicate with customers. It has also given customers a voice and a platform for
feedback, opinion, discussion, and collaboration that has never quite been seen before.

Where Do You Start?

Your retail brand may already have a social media strategy of some kind, even if it’s simply
to monitor. Maybe you were prepared when your boss said it was time to get serious about
social media. Perhaps you’re still waiting for that conversation to take place. Regardless
of where you are, you’re probably full of questions. What do you do to tie your social
media activities to your bottom line objectives? How can you make sure your social media
presence is as effective as possible and helping you reach your goals?

Step 1? Breathe! Let’s start or refresh your social media journey by talking about how you
can get started using common social media platforms and the etiquette that goes along
with it.

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Chapter 2
HOW DO I GET STARTED IN SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media now covers a variety of sites and information with
new avenues being created daily. It can be a lot to take in, so before
we discuss how to use these from a business perspective for a
retailer, let’s spend some time making sure that you are comfortable
with how to use these platforms and the etiquette that goes along
with online engagement.

Social Etiquette
Before you start to look at the social networks, think about online etiquette. It will help you
to make your experience even more successful. For starters, we probably all remember
that big poster board from elementary school listing the rules for proper etiquette in the
classroom:

“We say please and thank you”
“We use our indoor voices”
“We treat others they way we would like to be treated”

These were posted as reminders and were referenced whenever we fell off track. In terms
of etiquette, not much changes over the course of our lives. Being polite and respectful
to others is still Social Etiquette 101. Having proper etiquette on the social web means
being aware of your audience, understanding how they communicate and being a valuable,
welcomed and positive contributor to the community.

There are several benefits to proper social etiquette and unlike kindergarten, they amount to
more than simply avoiding that playmate who squished scented markers on your face.

There are three main points to keep in mind to exhibit proper etiquette. They are:

• Reciprocation - It’s above give and take. A good rule of thumb is to promote others
more than you promote yourself, such as Chris Brogan’s 12:1 ratio.
• Respect - Add value and be helpful and others will treat you with respect. People
want to interact with and buy from companies that treat them with respect.
• Reliability - Since social networks, for the most part, are public, always put reliability
in the forefront, whether you’re an individual or a business.

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Now that you have the three points, how do you execute them? Think back to those
elementary roots.

• Join conversations because you’re interested in the subject matter or because
you have something beneficial to add – not because you have an agenda or want to
push your material and advertise your retail brand.
• Saying hello when you jump online is a nice way to start your daily time online and
encourage conversation. Saying goodbye at the end of your time online lets people
know when you’re heading offline. No one likes to be left hanging in the middle of a
conversation. If you do this consistently, your community will come to know when
they can expect you to be available.
• Introduce yourself and introduce others. Anytime you friend, follow or engage
with people who may not know you, it is always a good idea to introduce yourself
and share some of the basics like who you are and where you are from.
• Say please and thank you. If you want to share someone’s content, ask politely.
If someone has shared yours be sure to thank them whenever possible. Though
you may not be able to respond to every comment on your blog or Facebook page,
you can take a moment to respond to a few and perhaps make a general statement
thanking everyone who shared your content.
• If your social circle online is a large one, there are probably people in it that you
don’t know as well as others or people you don’t know at all. Review your friends/
follower lists frequently. Set some time aside each week to manage your following/
follower ratio. It’s ok to step outside your comfort zone and expand your horizons
when it comes to connecting. Not everyone you connect with has to be like-minded.
Diversity breeds inspiration.

The Three Ds
Whether you are using social media for personal or professional purposes, take some time
to familiarize yourself with The Three Ds. Remembering what they stand for, the examples
below should help you steer clear of potentially disastrous situations.

• Disclosure - Steer clear of disclosing trade secrets or intellectual property. This could
cost you your job and give your competitors an unfair advantage.
• Defamation - Do not make statements about someone that are false and could
potentially cause economic consequences.
• Discrimination - It should go without saying to not to be discriminatory. Remember,
the social web is a public place so your voice is amplified.

These are just a few quick tips; for more detailed and in depth looks at proper social media
etiquette across platforms check out these great posts:

An Insider’s Guide to Social Media Etiquette - Chris Brogan
The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook - Tamera Weinberg
Do we Need to Revisit our Settings for Trust and Transparency? - Valeria Maltoni

[7]


Social Sites

Once you feel comfortable with how you will be speaking on social sites, you’ll need to
know a little more about the sites themselves and how to use each one. Let’s cover some
of the major sites you’ll encounter and how to use them.

Twitter

If you’re already on Twitter, you know it’s more than just talking about what people have
for breakfast. It’s more like “conference call IM.” Link sharing, conversations, personal
connections that break the ice before in-person meetings, professional networking, etc. In
many ways, its become the equivalent to having another phone on your desk, in a different
form.

If you’re just getting started on Twitter, you’re probably a bit overwhelmed and looking for a
few ways to help optimize your experience. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• When setting up your profile, use your real name and a profile picture, or include
the real names of the real people who are tweeting behind your retail brand’s twitter
handle. It lets your followers know that there’s a real person(s) behind the profile.
Build your bio the way you’d introduce yourself or your retail brand in person.
• To get the ball rolling, search Twitter for people you know by entering their
names and plug in topics that interest you and see who’s talking about them. As you
get more followers, check out the people they’re following. That’s the most organic
way to build your network.
• Treat Twitter like a conversation. Start with 30 minutes, twice a day. The best
way to build relationships and a community on Twitter: participate. Spend some time
sitting back and listening, then join the conversation. Jump on in, say hello.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the virtualized and interactive version of that pile of business cards on your desk.
True, it’s home to your online “resume,” but it’s also a mechanism to both demonstrate
your expertise and share in the expertise of others, make business connections, and help
connect others in your network with each other. So here’s our down-and-dirty guidebook for
LinkedIn along with a handful of tips.

• Use a real photo. The real you.
• Share your goals more than your daily tasks. Focus on what makes you and your
abilities different from the next person with your same title.
• Are you a blogger by night? A speaker in your own time? Share that too!
• Connect! Find connections, request them and watch your network grow.

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• Ask for recommendations from those who know your work, and display them
on your profile. Offer to write recommendations for those whose work you’re
familiar with.
• Join the conversation! Check the LinkedIn Answers section for opportunities to
lend your expertise to questions in your field. Join relevant groups and contribute
with content and conversations.

Facebook

Often more of a personal social network than a business one, there’s no denying
Facebook’s reach and popularity, and it can be a comfortable way to get acquainted with
what it means to participate in social networks.

• Remember: Social networks are searchable, and you just never know who might
come knocking at your virtual door. Use a picture that you’d be proud to show off
in public. Set privacy settings to ensure the public sees only what you want shared
publicly.
• You can choose who you’d like to connect to. Some people prefer to keep their
connections to people they know personally. You should check in once a day or so to
catch up with friend requests and peek at the “people you may know” sidebar, just
to see who’s lurking out there that you should say hello to.
• Facebook has a lot of applications. Choose wisely as they are a reflection of you
and how you spend your time.
• If you’re thinking of starting a group, this is where a business can make good use of
Facebook. However, Facebook groups need to be nurtured and tended after by the
people who build them. Group members are looking for dialogue, interaction, and
discussion. As a retailer, consider taking your group discussion a level above your
brand, and giving your fans, friends and loyal customers some meaty topics to digest
and discuss.

Blogging

Blogging is such a ubiquitous form of media today, but people are still incredibly intimidated
by starting a blog. Is blogging something your retail brand should do? That answer will vary
from retailer to retailer. Do you have something to say? Do you want to share thoughts,
interests, ideas? Are you interested in others weighing in on what you have to say? If so,
starting a blog may be a great idea.

Our getting-started philosophy: learn on the job. There’s no better way to learn about
blogging than to immerse yourself in it.

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• The very best way to learn about blogging is to read. Read lots of blogs, both
inside and outside your interest area. Pay special attention to things like tone, writing
style, and how writers break up the content. Try Google Reader to aggregate your
blogs and make it easier to organize them.
• Begin commenting on blogs. Share your voice; the authors want to hear from you
- it’s part of their validation that they’re writing something of interest. It’s okay to not
have all the answers.

Ready to start writing?

• Set a goal, such as three posts a week. They don’t have to be mammoth, and at
first, just worry about getting comfortable with the medium. Talk about what you
know. Write to share something valuable with others in your community, and serve
as a discussion hub and a resource. Get feedback and ideas from across your retail
brand’s organization.
• Scribble down post ideas when you have them. Starting post drafts and save
them unfinished. You can always come back to them later when inspiration strikes. If
you get a burst of writing done, schedule your posts in advance.
• Share. Ask questions. Get people talking. You’re a conversation catalyst.
• Staying plugged in to the comments on your blog is important. Commenters like
to know that you’re listening and paying attention to their contributions. How often
and how deeply you respond is up to you, but comments are an important part of the
blog ecosystem, so find a way to engage.
• Link out to the posts that may have inspired your writing. Point your readers to
more resources relevant to your topic. Disclose relationships you have that may have
bearing on the opinions you write about (most especially if you’re being paid to do so;
it’s the law now). If you’re including other people’s work, make sure to attribute it.

Once you’ve got a handle on the different sites yourself you may be wondering how you
can start to train your staff to use social media both for their personal use & for your retail
brand’s purposes. Let’s dive in to training!

[ 10 ]
www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2012 - Radian6 [ 10 ]


Chapter 3
HOW DO I TRAIN MY STAFF FOR SOCIAL MEDIA?

Training your staff on how to use social media can be a daunting
task. Since social networking and the concept of social business
is so new, many people entrenched in the world of retail are still
learning how they can best use the medium. When you start thinking
about training your staff, you may notice that their experience falls
into the following areas.

Digital Native: They’ve grown up in a highly digital world being very comfortable with
using online platforms and learning new ones.

Savvy Technologist: While not having grown up with them, they feel comfortable using
most online social platforms and digital tools. These people approach new platforms with
caution and often let others fumble around before joining in.

Reluctant User: They are aware of the digital world and social media but hesitate to
explore and dive into the digital space. They do not think about or use digital tools more
than necessary and generally resist incorporating those tools into their lives.

Digital Contrarian: They are averse to the digital world. They’ve probably heard of social
networking but they think it’s a bunch of piffle, and they’ll use email only for work purposes
and rarely in their personal lives. These folks prefer traditional methods like phone calls.

Digital Newbie: Unlike the digital contrarian, the digital newbie isn’t opposed to the digital
world so much as they are simply unaware of it. Their life and day-to-day activities go on
just fine without any digital intervention, and they don’t see the need to change their habits
or behaviors.

Knowing that all these different digital archetypes exist within your organization is an
important step. Even though not all of them may be as excited about or involved in your
social media process, they should all at least have the overall understanding so they feel
comfortable with the space. This will help when you start building the framework of your
training program.

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Training Program Prep and Framework
When starting to plan your training framework you can go one of two ways. You can
involve your staff in the initial discussions to get their input on how they would like to use
social media and their current understandings of the space or you can keep all those initial
discussions to your management team. Either way, talking through your strategy first is the
right place to start.

With these discussions you’ll want to establish a few different things:

• Who within each team is going to be using social media
• If there will be a single point person to oversee department social media activities or
if everyone will have a fairly even distribution of tasks
• Which social media tasks each team has been assigned to perform, or which tasks
you believe they should be performing
• The social media comprehension levels of all team members (not just general use,
but understanding of how social media can be applied in business settings crossing
various departments within your retail brand.

The findings you glean from these meetings should give you a clear view of the various
user levels you must accommodate, as well inform you as to what sorts of conversations
have already happened around the retailer’s social media initiatives and how people are
feeling about those plans.

So, you’ve gathered all the information you can about the current levels of social media
adoption and understanding within your retail brand, and now is the time to use that
information to your advantage. The folks within your organization who are enthusiastic
about social media and “get it” could be a great help in planning and helping this training
program take flight.

Social Media Training Team

Create a cross-functional social media training team that can act as both a point of contact
for coordinating training course attendance and employee benchmarking, and as a resource
to answer questions and provide constructive feedback. They can - and should - tweak the
training program as necessary.

When the time finally comes to begin building your training program, you’ll need to make
sure it includes these things:

• Clearly stated purposes for why the retailer is adopting social media and why a
training program is in place
• Clear goals and measurable objectives for each piece of the program

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• Different course levels to account for different levels of adoption as well as create
multiple opportunities for achievement and break the process into easily digestible
mental bites
• Tactical how-to training, as well as conceptual training and example scenarios
• Testing or benchmarking to gauge the progress of employees as they move through
the program
• A review process for assessing the effectiveness of the program

Developing a successful team takes planning and training but in the end, you’ll have a solid
foundation and a group of rockstars to create great social strategies. While the people are
crucial, so is technology. A social media monitoring platform is a tool your team will utilize
on a daily basis. So let’s take a deeper look at this technology in the next chapter.



Chapter 4
WHAT DOES A SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING PLATFORM DO?

Social media listening, tracking, monitoring and engagement tools
allow retailers such as yours to successfully employ a social media
strategy and understand the impact the Social Graph and Social
CRM have on their success. This enables organizations to become
Socially Engaged Enterprises, with the power to understand and
gain insights about social media through metrics, measurement,
sentiment and analytics reporting.

Social Media Monitoring
A social media monitoring and engagement platform, such as Radian6, allows you to
view relevant conversations happening around your brand and products in real time. This
aggregation of data ensures you are gleaning the most relevant information from your
online conversations, and have the ability to share important reports with those who need
them most.

Social media monitoring is beneficial for not only discovering public sentiment surrounding
your retail brand, but can also be used when dealing with crisis situations, to benchmark
your competitors or even to generate interest from new customers, sell all the items on
your shelves. When used effectively, social media monitoring can help you reach out to a
whole new audience, and enhance your online profile.

How does this sync up with Social Media Marketing?
With the rise of the social web, social media marketing is changing the face of how you interact
with your customers. Instead of your clients clamouring for your attention, it’s up to you to reach
out to them. Take your messaging to where they’re gathering most – the social web.

Make the switch from traditional marketing to a format that allows for increased interaction
with your customers, ensuring you’re engaging with them at the point of need. Adapt
content and messaging based on what people are talking about on the social web. Monitor
public sentiment to gain a better understanding of how your latest campaign is faring in
the marketplace. Once you’ve harnessed the potential of the social web, your options are
almost limitless.



Social Media Strategy
For any organization, the key to a successful social media strategy is to tie it to your
existing business objectives, and your existing sales, marketing, customer service and
other strategies. An effective social media strategy can mean the difference between
successfully nurturing online relationships with your customers and missing out on
opportunities for outreach.

Your social media strategy should cover the guidelines you need to best interact with your
consumers on the social web. From the frequency of your posts, to how to handle negative
feedback, your social media strategy will ensure that you’re not only connecting with
followers, but that you’re being consistent and engaging during these interactions.

An effective social media strategy not only allows you to engage on the social web, but also
works to enhance your online profile for those who might not already be connecting with you.

A social media monitoring platform can help you with this process. It addresses these key
steps in the process:

• Scaling your mountain of content. These platforms cull through content based on
a number of algorithms so you don’t have to!
• Tracking trends. Over time, you’ll start to see trends emerge as you view the data.
• Lightening your load when it comes to reporting. Platforms can aggregate your
data so you can simply pull the information you need.
• Getting information to those who need it most. Log in and grab the data - it’s that
easy. You can often segment by different user settings or admin rights.

Social media monitoring platforms provide the opportunity to get to know your community
inside and out – because when you’ve got an indicator of their past preferences, you’re
better suited to give them a richer experience in the future. The discovery process gives
you a deep dive into many areas, including who is the most influential in conversations
surrounding your retail brand. These loyal supporters are instrumental in spreading your
message even further throughout the social web.

As we’ll discuss in the next few chapters, a strong social strategy starts with listening and
extends through engagement.

• Listening - Get tuned in to all of the important conversations surrounding your brand,
the retail industry and your competitors.
• Engaging - This could be reaching out to your customers or using their feedback to
enhance your services. Either way, you’re part of the conversation.
• Measuring, analyzing & reporting - Once the conversations start rolling in, you’ll
want to start measuring your results. Tracking discussions will help enhance your
social media strategy, and help you get to the bottom of what’s being said.

Let’s take a deeper look at these steps in the next chapter.



Chapter 5
HOW DO I START LISTENING?

Once you and your staff are trained on what social media is and
the platforms that work best for your brand, it’s important to
understand the potential impact all of that information could have on
your work.

Listening – or social media monitoring – is the notion of searching for the key words and
phrases being used online to hear what’s being talked about. It’s about homing in on the
data, conversations, dialogue, and other bits of information that are relevant to your brand.
From the people talking specifically about YOUR BRAND, to people talking about the retail
industry or even your competitors, listening is about harnessing the conversations that
matter to your business, and extracting the information that helps you decide how, where,
and when to engage with your community.

Listening: The Ws
Why Listening is Important:

A sound listening strategy forms the cornerstone of a sustainable, scalable social media
strategy. It helps you understand what’s being said, where it’s happening, what kind of
volume you’re dealing with, and where on the social media presence curve you sit as a
company. Consider this the initial research phase of your work to get a lay of the land, and
an ongoing temperature gauge that helps you adjust your continued activities.

What to Listen For:

As you start with a monitoring program, the potential can be overwhelming. So much
information, so many sites, and all of it moving by at the speed of light.

Start with a tiered system that takes you from brand-centered listening, to competitive
listening, to industry-wide listening (some more specifics on these are below). Within those
categories, you can organize and prioritize those conversations by classifying them into
relevant buckets, like:

• Complaints
• Compliments
• Questions
• Leads and Inquiries
• Opportunity Conversations



Where to listen:

The answer to this question is different for every retailer. The important place to start is
casting the net wide, using a tool or set of tools that will help you sweep the entirety of
the social web to find the conversations that matter to you. As you sort through the posts
and discussions you find, you’ll be able to sort out where the relevant discussions are
happening, and what media types you need to pay attention to.

Although they are the primary social media sources for the retail industry, social media isn’t
just about Twitter and Facebook. It’s about the function of social communication online,
which is to more easily share, create, and contribute to content. That means that for some
industries the best place to be may still be forums and message boards. For others, it could
be LinkedIn or niche online communities. And for some, it could be blogs.

The searches you undertake as part of your listening program will help you focus your efforts,
uncover the concentrations of discussion and dialogue, and help you understand where you
should be spending your time and effort to engage the communities you care about.

Who Should do it:

As you embark on a listening program, the first question is often “So, who’s responsible for
doing this?” To answer that question, you need to ask yourself:

• What’s the central focus of our social media participation? Customer service?
Marketing? Product ideas?
• Do we have dedicated human resources for this, or does it have to be part of an
existing role?
• Is there someone on our team already interested in this?

Front-line listening as part of a “listening grid” – a workflow and system of routing and
sharing the intelligence gathered from a monitoring program – can be a dedicated role,
or part of many. But at its best, listening is wired into many roles and functions in an
organization. Much like having a telephone on every person’s desk, equipping employees
and departments with their own listening tools and stations means that they can integrate
social media information and intelligence into the work they’re already doing. They can use
the tools in the ways that support their jobs, and treat social media as a new phone, a new
line of communication from your retail brand to the outside world and back again.



Listening: The How
So, brass tacks time. How, exactly, do we build listening programs in all of the right
buckets? What do we search for?

Brand:

In the brand bucket, you’ll want to concentrate your searches around terms, words, and
phrases that are directly related to your retail brand. You can go broad or narrow, but in
general, you’ll want to develop a stack of keywords and phrases that reflect:

• Your company name
• Your brands, business units, or product offerings
• Names of specialized services you offer such as rewards programs
• Names or terms around specific campaigns
• Key stakeholders in your organization
• Nicknames, abbreviations, or misspellings of any of the above

The general thread here is that it’s the terms that will help you understand whether people
are talking about you or not. If they’re not, that’s intelligence in itself. If they are, you’ll
want to know if it’s positive, critical, or indifferent, as all of those things will help frame your
future strategy.

Industry:

Industry listening is proactive. It’s intended to help you understand the larger landscape that
surrounds your retail brand, the conversations that are above and around your brand. It’s not
about you, but rather understanding how you might fit into the larger profile of your industry
on the social web. Here, you might search for:

• Terms related to products and the retail industry that are not brand specific
• Phrases that define the markets you serve
• Larger industry keywords or categories
• Professional organizations you belong to or that fit your business profile
• Names of thought leaders in the retail industry

By listening, you can learn about overarching perceptions of your markets or your business
purpose. And you can identify and locate conversations that aren’t about your company, but
where you can engage and communicate expertise, meet new people, and establish your
online presence as a resource and authority without a focus on sales or marketing.



Competitors:

Competitive intelligence used to be limited to expensive, paid reports from business
intelligence companies, or whatever information you could glean through your network
of acquaintances, friends, and contacts. The social web has brought a new dimension to
competitive analysis, and put a wealth of information out there to find. You can look for:

• Names of competitive retailers, brands, products, and services
• Stakeholders in those companies
• Buzz around competitive campaigns or promotions
• Nicknames, misspellings, or the like of any of these

What can you learn here? If folks are talking online, they’re sharing information about your
competition. Who they’re hiring, who’s recently left. What new product they’re coming
out with. They’re communicating what your competition isn’t doing, which presents all
sorts of opportunities for you. And it can pinpoint emerging crises or buzz swells that you
might want to be aware of for your own purposes. The same unfiltered, fast moving and
open information that’s out there about YOU is out there about THEM. It can be awfully
worthwhile to pay attention.

Your listening program will set the tone for the rest of your social media activities, so it’s
imperative you take the time to fine tune each piece of it to ensure you’re listening in the
places that are most relevant to your retail brand and to the conversations that have the
most potential impact. Once you’ve got this part of your strategy solidified, it’s time to
tackle engagement.



Chapter 6
HOW DO I START ENGAGING?

Engagement is often seen as the “holy grail” result of a listening and
monitoring program. For many retailers, it’s a natural evolution, but
for some, it can be a bit more complicated. Engagement has become
a hot-button term for something that really is more fundamental in
its marketing need: Gaining and holding the attention of customers
and prospects through regular retailer-to-community interaction.

According to Dictionary.com, to engage is: “To occupy the attention or efforts of (a person
or persons).” In the context of social media, engagement usually means talking directly
with your target audience, but the method and depth of engagement is individual for each
company. Engagement becomes a bit less fluffy when you remove the “buzz” aspect of
the term and remember that this is what you, as a business, have been aiming for all along:
If you get someone engaged with the messages you’re putting out there, they’ll buy what
you’re selling, and, if you’ve done it right, come back for more.

Engagement: The Ws
The social web has made it easy for people to share their opinions about everything on a
mass scale, making it harder for brands to break through those opinions and stand on their
own two feet. In the best cases of online sharing, brands are being stewarded by their loyal
fans and long-time customers; in the worst cases, retailers are losing business because
people are sharing negative opinions that are deterring possible prospects from taking that
next step and buying.

Most of those negative cases can be turned positive if the retailer would only take steps to
show they care about their customers’ and prospects’ experiences with them. That can be
done through direct interaction, acting on customer feedback collected either passively or
actively, or making sure the purchasing cycle for people is as easy and positive as possible.

What to say:

“What do we say?” is often the hardest question to answer, largely due to the fear that
letting people speak on behalf of your brand could create problems like mixed messages,
the spreading of inaccurate information, or even legal issues.



There are basic comments you can make, though, to reassure people you’re listening to
them without causing problems for your brand, including:

• We’re sorry.
• Thank you.
• How can we help?
• We’re listening and we hear you.

Despite common fears about responding to negative comments, addressing those
mentions openly with an eye to calming the issue can turn a potentially sour situation into
an opportunity to create a loyal brand fan, much like what your support team members do
on a daily basis, but via social channels.

Where to engage:

Figuring out where you should be engaging starts with looking at where your audience
currently exists. Your audience will appear in a few places to start, or perhaps many if your
business is inherently social, and you’ll be able to identify exactly where that audience is
through your listening strategy.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t put effort or resources into interacting on big social
networks if that’s not where your audience happens to be. Software companies, for
example, are often mentioned on support forums or communities, thus showing a much
larger portion of customer activity than, say, Facebook. Just because certain social networks
are more popular than others – or even more popular than other types of media – doesn’t
mean your market is there. Do your research before you commit to engaging on a particular
network. The audience of one retail brand may, in fact, not be frequenting all of the same
social networks as the fans from another retail brand, for example.

Who (internally) should engage and who you should engage with:

There’s a good chance some of your workforce is already out there on the social web
talking with your customers. Identify these folks, not to make examples of their behavior,
but to bring them into the fold and gain an understanding of how and why they choose to
interact online. Embrace their passion, feedback, and buy-in, and work with them to create
a more structured and effective engagement strategy.

Depending on your goals for social media involvement, you might want to engage with a
few different types of people, including:

• Customers with inquiries in need of support
• Brand evangelists
• Brand detractors
• Retail veterans and influencers



You might want to start interacting with just one group to gauge what kind of time and
resources your engagement strategy will require to succeed, and add more groups when
you feel you’re ready and able.

Engagement: The How
So, how do we build a solid engagement strategy? How do we start talking?

Brand:

When it comes to speaking on behalf of your brand, the possibilities for engagement are
seemingly endless. From saying thank you for a positive mention to calming down an angry
customer who’s thinking of switching stores, the one thing to remember is there is no right,
industry-standard way to engage – the “right” type of engagement for you is defined by the
goals you set for your social media program.

Don’t leave your team hanging, though. Establish guidelines for engagement that give
those engaging on the frontlines enough freedom to be themselves while still properly
representing your retail brand.

Industry

Getting involved in the conversation surrounding the retail industry is essential for
establishing your brand as not only a thought leader but also as a helpful retailer that truly
cares about its community. At the end of the day, you’re providing a service that solves
a deep human problem, and sharing your knowledge about how to solve that problem –
outside of selling people on your products – will create trust in your customers.

You’ll want to spend a certain amount of time being reactive to your community first,
catching up with their direct mentions of you before delving into industry discussions. But
when you’re ready, creating and adding to conversation threads will provide a wealth of
perspective to both your retail brand and community. Some conversations you might want
to get involved in include:

• General questions about the services and special campaigns your retail brand offers.
• Requests for opinions on a subject matter your retail brand can share expertise in.
• Detracting commentary about why a service you provide is not useful.
• Conversations about specific professional roles, where team members can grow their
own educations.



Competitors

Competitive engagement isn’t about interjecting yourself into conversations about your
competitors carte blanche. It can be useful to help you highlight points of differentiation,
though, and it allows you to reach out to people interested in products when it naturally
makes sense.

Competitive engagement can also be used to stay on top of industry happenings like
mergers and acquisitions, as well as help protect and build your retail brand through
ongoing interaction with people who mention you as well as your competitors.

Many would say that engagement is the most important aspect of a social media strategy
– it gives you the chance to get involved with your customers, potential customers, and
greater industry community in ways that weren’t previously available via traditional business
communication channels. From market research to community assistance, engagement
gets you tuned into what your market really needs from a retail brand like yours, and allows
you to build relationships that carry into repeat business and referrals, and those are the
ultimate successes.

Now that you’re listening and engaging in conversations on the social web, you’re probably
becoming interested in really tracking what’s being said. Maybe you’re even ready to work
some of your results into your social media strategy. Although the idea of tracking millions
of conversations can be daunting, the next chapter is here to help.



Chapter 7
HOW DO I START TO MEASURE, ANALYZE & REPORT?

Just as putting together a list of items makes your customers’
shopping experience more organized and efficient, you’re going to
need to chart your course to define the objectives/key performance
metrics that will show you if you’re really making the most of the
social web (as it relates to your goals, of course). To get where
you’re going, you need to know where you’ve been and where you
want to be, and this is where that charted course comes in handy.

Measurement: The Ws
Measuring the progress of your social media program isn’t an option – it’s a business
necessity. Social media is a business channel just like direct mail and other traditional
communication and marketing channels, but unlike many traditional methods, social media
unlocks the door to instantaneous, two-way dialog, creating a new level of necessary
measurement.

While traditional metrics still matter, it’s essential that you select highly relevant and
measurable objectives specific to your social media program to make sure your efforts are
indeed providing strategic and financial value.

What to Measure:

Familiar with the phrase, “You are what you eat?” This holds true with social media: Define
your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) carefully here, because you will become what you
measure. Understand what your brand wants to accomplish and what market you want
to target to determine what metrics are actually relevant to your brand. It’s important you
establish both qualitative and quantitative measurements for your goals, too, because both
matter in providing a holistic view of the progress of your social media program.

And while you’re at it, don’t settle for measuring only outputs and outtakes, either. Impact,
especially in terms of ROI, is determined by measuring outcomes (the quantifiable changes
in attitude, behavior and opinion). If you only measure superficial results such as number of
followers or fans, your social media and engagement strategy will also remain at that level.

Here are some metrics to help you brainstorm what you might want to measure and why:



Revenue and Business Development
• Number Percent of Repeat Business
• % Customer Retention
• Transaction Value
• Referrals
• Net New Leads
• Cost Per Lead
• Conversions from Community

Activity and Engagement
• Members
• Posts/Threads
• Comments or Ideas
• Inbound Links
• Tags, Votes, Bookmarks
• Active Profiles
• Referrals
• Post Frequency/Density

Cost Savings
• Issue Resolution Time
• % of Issues Resolved Online
• Account Turnover
• Employee Turnover
• Hiring/Recruiting
• Training Costs
• New Product Ideas
• Development Cycle Time
• Product/Service Adoption Rate

Value Awareness and Influence
• Brand Loyalty/Affinity
• Media Placements
• Share of Conversation
• Sentiment of Posts
• Net Promoter Score
• Interaction with Content
• Employee Social Graphs



How to Measure:

Go beyond measuring traditional web analytics that provide data about channel use and
begin layering onto those metrics that explore audience behavior and engagement found
within social media analytics. Having a hypothesis to start from will help you pinpoint
which beyond- the-traditional metrics you should be tracking. For instance, “We think that
an increase in blog subscribers over six months will correlate with an increase in online
purchases,” or, “Post activity on our help forum will decrease call center costs,” are strong
hypotheses to get started measuring and benchmarking.

Build your goals and objectives based on these hypotheses, and measure against them to
see if you’re on the right track. The beauty about setting a baseline with your hypotheses
is that you have a roadmap to follow to keep you on track; you’ll know exactly where you
stand at all times, and you can course correct in real-time as you track changes in the level
of content and customer engagement.

Brand

Measuring engagement around your brand can help you understand if your messages are
resonating with your intended community, or whether there’s a disconnect between how
your retail brand is presenting itself and how your community perceives you.

To gain insight on just how well your brand is being reflected on the social web, begin
measuring:

• Reverberation: The total volume of inbound linking and generations of retweeting
of a post.
• Repetition: The average times per month a source inbound links/retweets your
content.
• Activation: The monthly total of new sources that have shared your positive content.
• Engagement: The amount of repeat commenting and length of those comments.

Industry

Keep your finger on the pulse of your industry to spot emerging trends and topics of
interest that help you drive content creation or product and service improvements and
ideas. By tracking the trends of your industry you’ll also be able to find out who key players
are and get early insights into the new voices in the industry, and you can apply all these
insights to help mold your outreach, engagement, and future business strategies.

To see which sorts of topics and issues are gaining traction in the retail industry, begin
measuring:

• Exuberance: The monthly count of testimonials (or twestimonials!) and positive posts.



• Attention Span: The average span of time a post is commented on and retweeted,
or shared on Twitter.
• Resonance: The total volume of “in sync” conversation around an idea.
• Potential: The monthly comparison of declared need and estimated revenue from
successful referrals.

Competitors

Competitive intelligence can clue you in to rumors and insights about your competitors’
business moves, how their customers are perceiving them, and help you identify unmet
needs of the crowds. That information will also help you establish if you’re ahead of the
social media game, behind the curve, or somewhere in the middle. Benchmarking your
competition on the social web can help you clarify how your social strategy should emerge
and evolve, too.

To get a handle on how you’re comparing in the competitive landscape, begin measuring:

• Conversation: The total monthly relative share of conversation versus competitors.
• Infatuation: The score of the relative direction of inbound and outbound links/tweets
between sources.
• Bucket Volume: The monthly count comparison of post types (i.e., complaints,
referrals, etc.).

Measurement, as a practice, should already be wired into your organization – if it’s not, take
the time to figure out why that’s the case and how you can remedy that situation before
embarking on your journey into social media.

The most important truth to keep in mind about measuring any business initiative, be it
social media or a traditional marketing/customer service/sales program, is that the metrics
you select to track your progress must relate directly to your goals; there is no template
or best way to measure anything, but the information we’ve shared here should get you
started brainstorming which metrics make the most sense for tracking your social media
program.

Analysis
Defining the measurement that you are going to use for your social media program can
be different from the stage where you are analyzing those results against your business
objectives. The thing to keep in mind is that analysis takes time and you’ll need to benefit
from some others who are already doing great work in the space.



Share the Knowledge

We’re not talking about exposing internally sensitive or trademarked information here,
but rather methods and metrics that have been found to work well in the social space.
If we are sharing this information we can start to learn from each other in a collaborative
environment. Collaboration could be done through conferences, white papers or councils.
Perhaps you have an idea for a Twitter chat for collaborating ideas? Check first to see if it
already exists, and if not, be the leader!

Try, Try Again

There will be metrics and methods used that will seem very promising but at the end of
the day they just won’t work in the social space. Instead of getting frustrated with these,
we need be able to take an objective view to discuss what works, what doesn’t work and
where to go from there. If you want to see this in action, just take a look at the search
engine results for “What is Social Media ROI?”. Just a few examples of articles discussing
this topic are: Social Media ROI for Idiots , 2011 Trending Topic: Social Media ROI , How to
Measure Social Media ROI.

Believe in the Integrity of the Data

Data doesn’t lie, but it can be misinterpreted. Make sure that no matter what you’re doing,
you are letting the data speak for itself. Draw insights from your data but don’t force the
data to say anything that isn’t there. Sometimes as much as we want 1+1 to equal 3, it just
isn’t meant to be.

Reporting
Keep in mind that at some point in your social media journey you may need to create a
report that shows how your efforts are doing. Don’t look at this as a daunting task, instead
think of something in life that we are all very familiar with and able to read, a report card.

From kindergarten to high school and beyond, we’re all very used to seeing our semester
grades in an easy to read standard format. Whether it be the letter scale of A – F, a percent
out of a hundred or a GPA, each of us could probably take someone else’s report card and
understand whether they were doing well or need some work. Here’s what this can teach
you about your own reporting.

Grading Scale
The point of a grading scale is to be able to compare your marks semester over semester,
year after year. It also enables anyone familiar with the scales to jump right in and
understand. This touches on the idea of standardization we’ve been talking about. We don’t



have across the board standards in the social media industry yet, but you can still have a
system that everyone internally is comfortable with so no matter who you hand the report
to, they will be able to understand.

Labels
You would hate to confuse your English grade with your Math, which is why report cards
have the great advantage of having very clear labels. These are essential to a good report.
From the proper date, to time period, to the labeling of information, these are all a must to
make sure nothing in your report is misunderstood.

Easy to Read
Short and sweet (or sour as the case may be) is why parents love the one page format of a
report card. In 5 minutes they know exactly what’s going on with the most important parts
of their children’s lives. Here’s an inside secret, executives feel the same way about their
retail brands. Give them a report that’s short and hopefully sweet and they’ll love the 5
minute read they get.

The Shifts
Most report cards will show you how much you’ve improved or slipped, semester to
semester. This is one of the most effective things to show on a report because these shifts
are the bread & butter to seeing if you are meeting your objectives.

Teacher’s Comments
“Johnny is progressing at an expected pace, but needs to pay more attention in class.”
Even though some of us might have cringed seeing paragraphs of writing on our report
cards, teacher’s comments were really analysis points highlighting what’s working and
what’s not. Therefore, including comments like these on your reports will help to draw
attention to what’s working and what’s not.

Pass or Fail
A part of the report most of us jumped right to the bottom to see: the pass or fail. This
gave us a clear answer as to whether or not all the grades, notes and shifts meant we were
moving on or giving it another go. Incorporating a clear manner to say whether or not your
efforts and results line up with your business objectives is key to any report so that not only
are you giving the “why,” but also the next steps, whether they are to move on to the next
grade or take a step back and try it all over again.

Now that you have the knowledge to navigate the aisles of the social web, let’s look at
other retailers that have taken that path and succeeded in their social endeavors.



Chapter 8
WHAT ARE THE KEY SOCIAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES
FOR RETAILERS?

Hopefully the previous chapters have helped fill your cart with lots of
helpful ideas on how you can leverage social media. We’re almost ready
to hit the check-out, so we want to help organize some of the very
thoughts we hope you’re now thinking. We gave you a lot of material,
but let’s check off our list to make sure you have everything you need to
deliver a new or renewed strategy.

If you are already active in the social web, or are at least taking a peek at what your
competitors are up to, likely you have noticed that no two retailers have identical seeming
social media strategies. While the selection is endless, the last thing we want to leave you
feeling is overwhelmed.

Let’s look at the key uses of social media for retail brands like yours.

• Customer service: directly responding to customer’s questions, complaints and
inquiries via social media.
• Crisis management: having your finger on the pulse of a crisis just as it unfolds or
directly after it occurs and being able to respond, diffuse and assist quickly.
• Campaign or promotion management: the use of social media channels to spread
word about a contest/sale/exciting change that you want your community to hear
about and participate in discussion about
• Shopper loyalty: keeping your customers engaged and interested in the community
you create and making it difficult for them to ever want to fall out of love with your
retail brand.
• Keeping tabs on the competition: understanding the successes and failures of rival
retailers, and using this intel to earn more loyalty points for your retail brand.

Remember that deciding on a social media strategy that fits your retail brand is a process,
not an impulse buy. Just as your customers try on more than one pair of jeans before
making a purchasing decision, a great social media strategy should be implemented one
thoughtful step at a time. Don’t feel as though you should dive in and attempt to hit all of
the aforementioned use cases, and instead identify your top priority and begin there. One
thing at a time. Always.

It’s time to check out and put some of what we’ve covered today to good use. We hope
you enjoyed coming with us on this excursion and that you’re on your way to finding the
best fit for your social media strategy when it comes to your brand. We can’t wait to hear
what exciting things are in store for you and your customers.



White Paper
HOW RETAILERS CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING TO
TRACK INDUSTRY CONVERSATIONS
Dear Radian6,

As a retailer, we monitor social media conversations around our brand and engage with our
customers on a regular basis. Now we’re looking to expand our efforts into the broader
conversation around the retail industry, especially with the holiday season in full swing. Do
you have any pointers for us?

Dear User,

With Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday behind us, we’ve already
seen how retailers and consumers are using social media to discuss, influence, and
determine purchasing decisions. There is valuable insight to be gained by listening to these
conversations that can benefit your retail brand, including:

• Identifying points of need among consumers
• Seeing which retail brands are getting the most mentions
• Determining your industry influencers
Let’s look at the social media conversation around Small Business Saturday to illustrate the
above points.

Find the Right Words

Here’s a quick peek at the keywords I chose to include in my topic profile:



Since we are looking at a very specific topic, I included “Small Business Saturday” as
well as several hashtags being used around the event. However, if you are looking at
more general conversations, you can use proximity to refine your results. For example,
let’s say you want to narrow in on retail conversations around Christmas. While including
“Christmas” on its own might pull in hundreds of thousands of mentions unrelated to the
retail industry, adding additional keywords such as “shopping” and using the proximity
feature will allow you to pull more relevant mentions.

Pinpoint Point of Need Conversations

Consumers are constantly turning to their social networks for opinions and
recommendations when it comes time to make purchasing decisions, but they won’t
always reach out to brands directly, especially if they’re not even aware of you. Stay one
step ahead by proactively searching for point of need conversations to engage in.

To find these conversations around Small Business Saturday, at the widget level, let’s enter
some phrases that consumers might use when looking for recommendations.

By opening up a River of News from the Topic Trends, we can identify consumers who are
looking for specific items and suggestions on what stores they should shop at, or sharing
their plans around Small Business Saturday. These are perfect opportunities for retail brands
like yours to engage in a helpful and friendly tone. You already know that these consumers
are excited about Small Business Saturday, so use that as a jumping off point. “We’re
excited about Small Business Saturday too! Have fun today!” would be a great way to start
a conversation.



Find Your Competitors

Monitoring industry conversation is the perfect way to see which retail brands are getting
the most mentions and give you a better idea of your competitors. In the case of Small
Business Saturday, where people are aiming to shop local, incorporating location keywords
at the widget level, such as city names or states, will give you more relevant results. For
example, let’s put in “shopping” and “Chicago” to find conversations specific to that city
around consumers’ shopping plans on Small Business Saturday.

By opening up a River of News, we can see which Chicago retailers are getting mentioned.

Radian6 insights can also give you valuable information on which retail brands appear most
frequently in industry conversations on Micromedia. By looking at the most mentioned
usernames around Small Business Saturday, we see that Etsy received a significant number
of mentions. Kramerbooks also appears as a result of President Obama’s well-publicized
visit to the Washington, D.C. bookstore.



Identify Industry Influencers

Just as your retail brand has
influencers, there are also people that
influence the industry conversation.
We already covered the Usernames
Mentioned insight above, which is
a great way to identify Micromedia
influencers. You can also look at
Retweeted Usernames to see
which Twitter users have the most
amplification. Here, we have the most
retweeted usernames around Small
Business Saturday.

Finally, you can use the Influencer
Widget to identify influencers by
media type. Since most of the
conversation around Small Business
Saturday occurred on Micromedia,
let’s view the influencers for that
media type specifically. Whether you
want to engage with these users or
just listen to what they have to say,
your brand will benefit from knowing
who is directing the conversation.

These are just a few of the ways you can broaden your listening scope to find opportunities
for engagement and identify competitors and influencers in the retail industry. For the
retailers out there, what are some other ways you are monitoring industry conversations?
Did you focus your listening efforts on conversations around Black Friday, Small Business
Saturday, and Cyber Monday? Why or why not?



Case Study
GNC: BUILDING HEALTHIER ONLINE COMMUNITIES
The Challenge

GNC is the world’s largest vitamin & supplement retailer, devoted exclusively to helping its
customers live healthy and meet their fitness goals. They understand that their customers
are looking to them for the most recent scientific research and new product developments.
GNC knew that many of their customers and consumers in general were using social media
to get answers to their health and wellness questions, make product recommendations and
share their experiences.

“Social media has given consumers the power to get answers and recommendations
long before they step foot in the store to make a purchase,” explains Chris James, GNC’s
Director of Social Media. Customers no longer have to come into the physical store to get
information and answers to their questions. GNC knew that conversations were happening
online and they wanted to find a way to bring these people together and help them find the
right information at the right time.

The Approach

GNC has started creating an online community where consumers can get answers, share
feedback and receive encouragement on their journey to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Using
the Radian6 platform, the team at GNC listens for questions or concerns that relate to
the products GNC carries or people who are chatting online about looking for help to start
a health and wellness plan. The team engages with people who have questions about
products they should be using, or which brand to try. GNC will even offer customers who
are having issues with a product the chance to try a similar product or receive store credit or
a gift card) to try something else if they choose. GNC wants to ensure customers who have
had a challenging experience give them a second or third look before they approach the
conversation. Listening for that point-of-need is critical for customer retention.

The Results

GNC has built a strong and healthy online gain presence. They have allowed consumers
to gain access to resources and experts, without ever leaving their computer. It has also
allowed GNC to connect with their customers who take to social media to share their
inspirational stories. “It is truly amazing to have customers thank us for helping them lose
150 pounds,” says James, “I think it’s amazing that we have a chance to connect with out
customers on this level, that we are a part of helping them change their lives for the better,
and that we can share in the journey with them.



Thanks to their ability to connect with their audience, GNC has created a community of
people who are not only interested in their products, but also invested in a lifetime of better
health and wellness. And that makes it a big win for everyone.

Find us on the web: www.radian6.com
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/radian6
Read the Blog: www.radian6.com/blog

Author: Zoe Geddes-Zoltess
Editor: Amanda Nelson
Designers: Lise Hansen, Lindsay Vautour


Social Media Strategy for the Retail Industry

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