Last year many brands were saying “they would wait and see” about playing in social spaces. This year the waiting’s over and now they’re saying “We have to play”! So the question is “how can you play and win”?
First you have to recognize that hard selling and advertising aren’t working like they once did. All of us are learning and shopping differently so your brand’s marketing strategy has to reflect this. Your brand has to go where the people are and the people are in social spaces. About 75% of U.S. Internet users, use social networks and blogs. And 16 percent of these users are more likely to buy from brands they see or discover in social spaces according to a May 2009 report by Knowledge Networks, a marketing consultancy.
Next you have to build a social strategy that integrates with your marketing strategy. Anyone can pull off tactics like running a Twitter account or setting up a Facebook page and lots of brands are doing just this. But a winning social strategy is just part of the bigger marketing picture.
Second Time Around, a 21 store chain of contemporary, designer, consignment clothing & furniture stores gets the big picture. They wanted to create regional awareness of their Boston store through word of mouth and beyond that national awareness for their 20 other stores. So they hosted a party called ShopUp in their Boston store. It was an evening of shopping, eating, and schmoozing built around a crowd-sourced fashion show. Shoppers were given 20% off during the event, and 10% off coupons for future shopping. They were also encouraged to bring in designer clothes to consign that evening.
From Second Time Around
Here’s what they did:
- Pre-event they ran a contest through Twitter, where followers nominated the models for the in-store fashion show.
- The hashtag #ShopUp was used to track conversations taking place around nominations and the event.
- People then voted to select the final four models for the show.
- News about the event was posted on Facebook.
- Guests voted for the best outfit worn by a model during the show via Twitter and the model with the most votes won her outfit.
- The event was shared outside of Boston by streaming live video through UStream, Twittering during the event (using TweetDeck and CoTweet), sending TwitPics during the event, compiling a video of the entire evening on YouTube, and uploading photos on Flickr.
- A post-event survey was sent via BostonTweetUp twtpoll to determine the number of new customers and other information.
Results:
- About 75 people attended the event
- Sales were positively impacted
- 50 percent of attendees were new customers
They played. They won. You can too!
Must Love Boutiques 