Making Friends

March 25, 2014

Winning over shoppers through the social web requires careful attention to all the best time-honored retail strategies, with recognition that discussions and connections are simply moving at new speed. The Integer Group, the firm handling this new study of the social web for the Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council, offers up some key suggestions in the newest section of this report.

Give shoppers a reason to like your brand on the social web. If you want to make connections in big numbers you need to provide benefits like special discounts or other promotions. And remember to make your web presence is interesting. There is a reason that pop stars have millions of followers and most stores do not.
Be subtle with your marketing. Remember, this is about community and you want to be a trusted friend in places like Facebook. Market too hard and your connections may turn you off.
Allow easy sharing of deals and information. It’s all about networking and you want your shopper friends to share the benefits they get with others to drive even more attention to you on the social web and at your stores.
Recognize that shoppers like coupons and discount sites, so figure out how to engage in a productive way. Remember, your competition can be using sites like Groupon to build traffic and you need to keep a careful eye on all these activities.
Don’t stop what you are doing. Your information and your page needs to be refreshed constantly so shoppers have a reason to come back time and again.

These insights and more can be found in the third section of this new study, easily downloaded at www.ccrrc.org. Just look for it in the section marked “North America.”

Michael Sansolo

Research Director

Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council of North America