What Brand Followers Want from Social Media

Everyone, including Retailers, wants to find a way to use social media to "connect" with their consumer. Of course this is a euphemism for finding a way to sell them more stuff. There is, however, something wrong with that. Social media is not about "selling". It really is about connecting. And Retail brands truly do have legitimacy in connecting to consumers. Amongst others, letting consumers know what's new, what's different, what's unique.....and doing it an a way that's relevant to the consumer....that's a legitimate use of social media. And, if done properly, will help consumers make better shopping decisions.

A December 2009 survey by MarketingSherpa shows that in a virtual tie, "Learn about new products/services/features" was just as important as "Learn about specials, sales, etc". Yet a quick spot check of retail brand sites on social networking portals reveals a lot of the "specials and sales" stuff and not so much on the "new" front.

One critical area for opportunity is on Facebook. Facebook is now the number two video streamer in the world, behind only YouTube. What better way is there to communicate about what's new than via video? Yet it's not done. Why? Because retailers do not yet grasp that video programming is as relevant and important a part of the Shopping 2.0 paradigm as direct mail and newspaper inserts have been to Shopping 1.0. Ironically, the same MarketingSherpa survey shows that "Entertainment - funny or insightful" is the next most relevant reason to follow a brand.

What an amazingly powerful tool it would be to create a message delivery that combined "learn about what's new" with "entertainment - funny or insightful". To do this, retail brands need to look beyond their core competency and seek those who are creating businesses to meet this specific need. Such as Future Merchants, which with it's Solutions™ programming, has created a video programming model that accomplishes the objective of "learn" and "entertain" AND through the RetailTV® platform, has a technology which makes it possible to distribute these brand messages throughout the social media landscape WHILE making them immediately shoppable. Imagine that!