THE HOLIDAYS


Tap the App


Smartphone technology has changed everything, and it’s no longer a guaran- teed sale once you get a customer in the door. According to a recent Motorola Solutions study, a total of 63 percent of shoppers surveyed with smartphones said they had downloaded some type of shopping app. There are more than 500,000 apps


The Big Time: 5 Online Tactics to Stay Relevant Through the Black Friday/Holiday Shopping “Noise”


Reaching out to customers is a click away with social media sites. By Jamie Sorcher


For smaller, independent retailers without the coin to play in the big media pond, there is still a way to be competitive — and it doesn’t cost anything. If you haven’t engaged yet with social media, there has never been a better time to get acquainted with it. Many are convinced it is the way of the future even though this is still frontier territory for many business owners. Just a glance at the numbers reveals how compelling this new form of marketing can be for anyone who wants to promote products or services — and has limited funds to do so.


F 28 Mobile Electronics Survival Guide 2012


or big-box stores and larger chains that tend to have huge advertising budgets, it’s a fairly manageable task to get the word out about sales and promotions, and therefore, get lots of customers to walk through the door.


The big giant out there, of course, is Facebook. It isn’t with- out its controversies, but this social networking site is widely used. According to various reports, Facebook is expected to have 1 billion active users by August 2012, which represents 14 percent of the world’s population. At press time, Facebook had 845 million active users. Retailers can set up a page on Facebook that their customers can “Like.” Once your business has fans that “like” your page, you can post notifications about upcoming sales, community events your store will be participating at, and post pictures of installations (which always tend to get feedback and comments). Twitter, which is quickly gaining in popularity, at press time was on track for 500 million total users by the end of March,


available for the iPhone these days (of which about 90,000 apps are op- timized for the iPad). In the Android market, which is quickly catching up, there are close to 400,000 apps. Lifestyle, news, weather, gaming and shopping are just some of the many categories in which apps are available for download. With a tough economy and cost- conscious consumers, shopping apps are becoming more of a factor in retail sales. Consumers are seeking peer reviews — those who like certain prod- ucts and advise where to get the best customer service — as well as com- parison shopping. So how can retailers respond? One


way is to offer an integrated shopping experience. If you have a website, then don’t make your e-commerce and brick- and-mortar stores separate entities. Allow your customers to search for an item online, and then pick it up in the store. If a purchase made online isn’t what they wanted, make exchanges easy in-store. Rewarding your customers for social shopping is another way for retailers to be competitive. Offer customers bonus- es for “checking in” to your retail store or for posting a positive review of a prod- uct or installation on Facebook or Twitter, for example. Finally, you can build mobile loyalty


by rewarding customers for mobile-on- ly deals. By giving them insider alerts and exclusive coupons, you can turn your shoppers into loyal social fans.


with a projected 250 million active users by year’s end. Retailers can use Twitter to promote a recent blog or use it to send people to the store’s website. It’s a great way for retailers to connect with customers who are also on Twitter. Once a customer is following you, they will get your tweets on new products, promotions, or even the link to your monthly newsletter. Then there is Foursquare, where retailers can create Foursquare Brands that allow them to create pages that users can then follow. Users might receive tips, info on discounts, or accumulate points toward purchases when they “check in” to your location. Another potential resource is LinkedIn where you can expand your networks, grow your business, gain publicity and do market research. You can start and manage a group or fan page for your business. It’s also a great place to request recommenda- tions from satisfied customers that you can post on your business profile. You also can post discounts and package deals here as well. According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, small business own-


ers are seeing significant results from using social media. Over the last three years, the report shows that social media has gone from an uncertain strategy (2009), to a permanent fixture (2010) to a primary tool (2011). Of course, one of the easiest ways to promote your business and gain loyal custom-


ers is with good, old-fashioned world of mouth. It is the oldest, and one of the most powerful, forms of marketing. But having a social media strategy can have many positive results and be a comple- ment to your entire marketing package. According to Desiree Bennett Forsyth, principal of Density Media, a marketing and consulting agency based in Los Angeles, there are sev- eral things you can do to build brand awareness and boost sales through social media:


1


PUBLISH A BLOG. It not only gives you original content to use throughout social media, but it establishes you as an industry thought leader. Make sure the content is written for your customers, not for yourself. It is useful to blog


Ready, Set, Social Facebook: Release of statistics by DoubleClick showed Facebook reached 1 tril-


lion page views in June 2011, making it the most visited website in the world. However, Google and some other websites were not included. According to the Nielsen Media Research study, released in December 2011, Facebook is the sec- ond-most accessed website in the country. Foursquare: Users “check in” to a venue that is possible via GPS on their phones. Each “check in” can get you a discount — even it it’s just 10 percent — at a store, for instance. Users accumulate points and badges. As of June 2011, the company claimed to have 10 million registered users and was on track to pass 750 million “check ins” by that month’s end. Foursquare averages about 3 million “check ins” per day. In August 2011, President Obama joined Foursquare. Twitter: This social networking service and micro-blogging site lets you send and read posts that are no longer than 140 characters, known as “tweets.” It has been called the SMS of the Internet. Tweets are publicly visible, and you may subscribe to other users’ tweets that is known as “following.” Users also can group posts together by topic with hashtags, a word or phrase that is preceded by # sign. LinkedIn: This cannot and should not replace real networking, but this site is a solid business-related social networking site. The site had more than 135 million registered users as of November 2011. As of December 2011, professionals were signing up at a rate faster than two new members per second.


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