5 Twitter Tips for Retailers

Twitter is an essential tool for a retailer’s toolbox in the
new age of communication. This social media platform where messages are limited
to 140 characters, moves at the speed of light and reaches more than 200
million active users. Well thought out social media strategy and a savvy social
team can pay major dividends for a retailer looking to increase brand
awareness, get customers into the store and improve customer service.

Define what you want to accomplish
Skipping this initial step is equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot
before a race. Strategy is important, and unless you have unlimited budget,
time and indifferent stakeholders, you should clearly define what you want
success to look like on Twitter. Are you trying to increase awareness about the
new product? Improve customer support? Generate buzz around your brand? A good
strategy outlines your initial goals and includes a way to measure them. As
time passes, your Twitter growth and technology changes, so your strategy and
goals should too. Your social media strategy, and consequently your Twitter
strategy, must be an extension of your business strategy.

General Uses of Twitter for Retail Brands
The very basic set up for your Twitter strategy could be raising awareness
about your brand. Topics may include company news, products, company culture
and general engagement with the followers of your brand. Some examples of this
are Old Navy and Converse. However, make sure you don’t always talk only about
yourself. 

Customer Service
Twitter is a great secondary channel for customer service if you’re willing to
invest the time and resources into it. Due to its transparent nature, keep in
mind that everyone will see your wins and losses, so be careful as to what you
say. Some examples of excellent customer service is UPS’ support channel which is 100% dedicated
to customer support.

Deals and Coupons
One of the ways to make your customers feel special is to introduce exclusive
deals and contests for your followers. You will ultimately gain more followers
and a deeper sense of loyalty within your existing base. A 10% discount could
be given during a day or a period in time to anyone who mentions that they saw
that deal on Twitter. Home Depot has a Twitter channel dedicated to
deals, and so does Sears.

What not to do
While doing research for this article I stumbled upon Walmart’s twitter feed
and caught one of their hiccups. There is no reason big brand name retailers
shouldn’t have somebody who knows how to use their social media tools. In the
screen shot below, taken on 4/30/2013, Wallmart gets called out by a follower
for not knowing how to properly use Twitter to respond to their customers.

When it comes to social media, remember that it’s a
double-edged sword, because of the high level of transparency and the speed at
which the messages spread. Delight a customer and they may sing praises about
your brand through the internet, tick them off and they could seriously damage
your brand through bad reviews and word of mouth. Regardless of the channel you
are communicating on, your focus should always be the customer. As it happens,
your customers are on Twitter, so it’s time to speak their language.

Dmitri Pivtorak, Yaffe Social Media Team

 

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