Last week, I had the opportunity to lead a pre-conference workshop at the Luxury Interactive conference covering social media opportunities for luxury brands. While the list of possibilities is endless, I outlined six areas where luxury companies could quickly and efficiently take their social media strategies to the next level:
1) Facebook’s Open Graph
Facebook’s stated mission is to “make the work more open and connected,” and the tools they have recently provided via their Open Graph have allowed brands, websites, etc. to join Facebook’s social graph. One of the primary and easiest to implement functions is the “Like” button.
One example: Sephora.com offers 13,000 products and 200 brands on their site. By adding a “Like” button to product pages they have been able to quickly and effectively develop a social media strategy for each of their many SKUs.
When a user clicks on the “Like” button, their social network is immediately clued in that the individual is a fan of Viktor&Rolf’s Flowerbomb perfume, for example.
(Sources:Facebook.com, Sephora.com)
2) Let your brand’s personality shine on Twitter
Too many companies, luxury or not, are utilizing Twitter as just another way to spit out their press releases. The great opportunity provided on Twitter, different than any other medium, is the ability to have a two-way conversation with current and prospective customers.
Two brands doing it well right now are luxury retailer, Bergdorf Goodman (@Bergdorfs), and apparel brand, DKNY (@dkny). In both of these examples, each is able to create a unique personality. Bergdorf takes on a young, chatty, fashion-forward persona. DKNY takes on the personality of “DKNY PR Girl” who shares her experience working in the fashion industry while simultaneously giving a behind-the-scenes look at what’s in store for DKNY shoppers.
What is the benefit to companies that take advantage of this opportunity? DKNY PR Girl says it best: “People don’t wake up every day thinking about Donna Karan or DKNY. Now they do – once they check their Twitter feed.”
(Sources: Twitter.com, Stylecaster.com)
3) Use Twitter for customer service
As noted above, Twitter has the unique ability of being able to create a two-way dialogue between brands and consumers. Why not use that as a tool to answer questions and appease complaints? Brands will often find that the average Twitter user isn’t yet expecting this form of customer service and will be happily surprised if they are able to have their question answered without having to send an email or call an 800 number.
Someone who has done this well, and was recently recognized for it on WSJ.com, is Marriott’s World Center in Orlando (@worldcenter). A recent example of their efforts was how they reacted to seeing a tweet from a consumer voicing their disappointment in the view from their room. Marriott, who was rightfully monitoring tweets that included their name, saw this complaint and decided to turn the situation around. At the Marriott location where the unhappy customer was staying, there happened to be a few open rooms and the front desk took the opportunity to “surprise and delight” their customer with an upgrade.
(Sources: WSJ.com)
4) Spread the word via influential bloggers
The role that magazines and newspapers once played in influencing purchases has started to take a back seat to less-known (but often just as influential) blogs. In fact, it seems that blogger outreach has become “the new PR.” Mashable does a great job of condensing all of the many reasons to reach out to bloggers into four key areas:
1. Trust – People trust other consumers (bloggers) more than they trust advertising, or even major media publications.
2. Cost Effective – The cost of reaching out to bloggers is significantly less (and often more effective) than reaching out to magazine editors, and even more significantly affordable than advertising in those same publications.
3. Measurable ROI – If you know what to look for you can start to build in ROI metrics. How many readers have read the posts? How much interaction (comments, re-tweets, etc.) did you receive?
4. Potential to go viral – It’s a lot easier to share a good blog post than it is to share a magazine clipping.
One brand that has had success with blogger outreach is Dior. They were looking to quickly build buzz around an online 10-day charity auction and knew they would need the help of bloggers to spread the word. They targeted the top 100 blogs in their niche and sent bloggers a package of products along with digital assets (video, copy, etc.) which they could make use of in their posts.
The results? Over $40,000 raised, significantly more than they had raised the year before.
(Sources: Mashable.com, Squeaky Wheel Media)
5) Social Shopping
So what does social shopping mean exactly? Well it’s often described as the combination of two popular online activities: social networking + shopping. It can encompass the simple act of sharing a recent purchase with your online network, or refer to sites such as Stylehive and Kaboodle that assist in this shopping discussion.
One of my faves is Polyvore, a site that lets me create collages from real-life merchandise that I can then share with friends. It incorporates elements of a fashion wish-list with the creativity of a blank canvas and infinite colors.
In this example I created a “4th of July” set (as it’s called on Polyvore) and shared it with all of my friends. When someone in my network clicks through to view it, they can then easily link to online shopping destination of a particular item in my collage.
Companies such as Net-a-Porter and Nordstrom have seen the opportunities with Polyvore and encouraged use of their merchandise. Nordstrom, for example, ran a contest around the recent release of Twilight Eclipse, where users had to create a set inspired by the movie. The contest had 5,200 entries and the winning entry was viewed over 7,000 times.
(Sources: Polyvore.com)
6) Location-based Marketing
An area of social media that is getting a lot of attention right now is what’s known as location-based marketing, and it’s really the social media answer for brick-and-mortar businesses. Sites such as Yelp have been around for a while, allowing users to share reviews and tips. But now Yelp, along with more attention-getting newcomers Foursquare and Gowalla, take things to the next level. They allow users to see who has visited a particular establishment and go even further by incorporating game-like elements of rewarding those who “check in” with points and badges.
One brand that has recently made use of Foursquare’s competitive nature is Jimmy Choo. In their @CatchAChoo campaign in honor of their new sneaker launch, they created a hunt around London. Followers would see where the sneakers had checked-in and if they got to the venue in time they would win the Choos. The results clearly showed a successful campaign:
- They had over 4,000 online participants.
- Sales of sneakers in-store increased by 33%
- 1 in 17 London-based Foursquare users were chasing the Choos.
- The campaign increased positive mentions of Jimmy Choo online by 40%
Other brands are quickly following in Jimmy Choo’s footsteps: Louis Vuitton recently launched a Foursquare presence and users who check in to their London store 10 times receive a coveted LV badge.
(Sources: Foursquare.com, Fashionablymarketing.me)
Photo Credits: DKNY PR Girl
