If you’re going to start a Twitter war on behalf of your brand, you’d better make sure you have some key weapons in your arsenal: a simple, easy-to-understand story, a fair and just cause, and an army of fans ready to fight for you. Yesterday, Walgreens started a Twitter war with Express Scripts, a prescription drug insurer–around a fairly complicated issue. Did fans show up for the fight? Read →
How can a huge retail chain reach social media consumers in a more ‘local’ way? With the aim of providing consumers with offers and updates from local store locations, Walmart recently launched nearly 3,600 store-specific Facebook pages. Read →
The fashion design house of Oscar de la Renta already has emerged as one of the leaders in social media marketing within the fashion industry and, though best known for $4,000 cocktail dresses, plans to be a leader in social media commerce as well. “We expect Facebook will become a major channel of e-commerce,” says CEO Alex Bolen. Read →
Social media is the fastest-growing source of traffic to online retail sites–but visitors from Facebook or Twitter have a lower conversion rate than those arriving on a shopping site via a search engine, according to a new study released by e-commerce personalization engine RichRelevance. The company analyzed more than 200 million August 2011 shopping sessions on major US retailing sites to understand trends in online shopping behavior, and found that Facebook traffic to online retailers increased 92% from August 2010 to August 2011. Read →
For its light-hearted Tweets over the years, Naked Pizza has always been one of our favorite foodies to follow. The New Orleans-based chain known for its all-natural ingredients has achieved striking results from its social media strategy, including prompting around 8,000 investment inquiries. Read →
Smart marketers know that one of the major advantages of social media in business is its ability to build deep two-way communication. That’s taken to heart at Whole Foods Market, where just 5% of the tweets are promotional and 10% content-based. The rest – a whopping 85% – are responses to customers. Read →
Part 13 of our summary of tweets from #RLTM NY 11 Realtime Conference attendees. These tweets summarize the Case Study titled “The Realtime Small Business: Get Out the Neighborhood,” presented by Daniel Gallant, Executive Director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Read →
After managing its social media presence from its Seattle headquarters, outdoor retailer REI has decided to try a different approach. This week REI is assigning Twitter handles and tweeting duties to local staff in the 53 markets in which it has a presence. That hasn’t been the corporate norm in America up to this point. Most companies seem to prefer tighter control over the corporate brand, building situation rooms, dashboards and SWAT teams at headquarters to take charge of sending and responding to Tweets… Read →
Part 5 of our summary of the #RLTM NY 11 Realtime Conference, based on the best tweets sent by attendees during the conference on June 6. The tweets in this post summarize the panel titled “Right Time, Right Place: Getting Customers to Check In,” with RadioShack Social Media Director Adrian D. Parker, Foursquare Product Manager Siobhan Quinn, The Corcoran Group’s Director of Internet Product & Marketing Matthew Shadbolt. The discussion was moderated by Allen & Gerritsen’s Senior Vice President, Digital Incubator Michael Schneider. Read →
The idea that a mobile phone is used to make phone calls seems almost quaint. Today, smartphones are replacing not just your address book, iPod, videogame console and navigation system–they are crucial shopping tools that help us find the right restaurant, comparison shop and, increasingly, replace our credit cards, too. The worldwide smartphone market grew nearly 20% in the first quarter alone, and developers are rushing to offer brands new realtime options for driving customer engagement and transactions. Some of the latest reports: Read →