Retailers Forced Into Adopting Social Media Strategy

When you go online to investigate a purchase (over 80% of you do), if you are like most web users, your online shopping activities may not be based completely on social activity. A few leading-edge retailers have begun allowing transactions to occur on sites like Facebook, but social media users do not typically report starting a search for a product on social sites.

However, more than ever before consumers are reporting that they do use social networks and other tools like Twitter to discuss brands and products and to get advice and feedback from friends and family on potential purchase decisions—and retailers, including car dealers have noticed.

According to August 2010 data from Aberdeen Group, more than half of all retailers, including car dealers report being compelled and pushed into using social media because more consumers are using it as a primary shopping vehicle.

The second most commonly reported source of pressure compelling retailers and car dealers into adopting the use of social media marketing campaigns has been the use of social media as a competitive differentiator.

The research continues to show us that Social Networks are a clear winner in the area of attracting retailers’ attention. The top social media tools used by the retailers surveyed by Aberdeen included

1. social networks (85%),
2. microblogging (51%)
3. blogging (43%)

During the first quarter of 2010, the e-tailing group survey of retailers and their marketing executives reports that social networks were the top community or social tool that retailers used or planned to use in the next year:

1. 91% - Facebook fan pages
2. 80% - Twitter
3. 72% - Blogs
4. 71% - Facebook Connect

The e-tailing survey was conducted before Facebook introduced its “like” feature, which has also been widely adopted by retailers including Nissan, Levi’s and Sephora.

But like many marketers in other industries, retailers don’t yet have a clear picture of what social media success will mean. The top key performance indicator respondents to Aberdeen’s survey looked at was the quality of consumer insights they gleaned from social efforts, followed closely by number of repeat visitors and quality of new sales leads.

The report noted that some disagreement on key performance indicators is to be expected, since their usefulness is likely to differ from retailer to retailer. “Retailers would be wise to explore which KPI provides the most value to the retailer, and use accordingly,” the report said.