“Tweetailers” and Social Media Retailers

Posted on 20. Jul, 2010 by Jon Bird in Bird’s Eye View, Digital & Interactive, Retail Trends

There’s a mobile Korean Taco truck in Los Angeles called “Kogi”, which has based its business model on being one of the world’s first “tweetailers”. It’s a very simple recipe. Make great tacos, put your restaurant on the road, and then promote your next location via Twitter. When a tweet goes out, a crowd of up to 250 turn up at the advertised address to enjoy Kogi’s “BBQ-to-go”. And then 20 minutes later the whole show moves on.

At the other end of the business spectrum, this month US coffee giant Starbucks became the first consumer brand to attract over 10 million Facebook fans. (They also have almost a million followers on Twitter.) The Facebook milestone has occurred at a time when Starbucks is enjoying renewed success after several years in the doldrums. Coincidence? Maybe, but I think they’re onto something big.

As the old song lyric goes; “there’s something happening here…what it is aint exactly clear.” What is clear is that social media is an increasingly powerful force and it is also incredibly democratic. Whether you are a single-store retailer or a massive chain, social media is a way to connect with your customers like never before.

Starbucks in particular is a great social media success story. When sales started coming off the boil in the late noughties, Starbucks created a website called “My Starbucks Idea” (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com). Here they invited customers and staff alike to contribute comments and thoughts on how to improve the business. The concept was like a huge automated suggestion box, broken down into Product Ideas, Experience Ideas and Involvement Ideas. What’s more revolutionary is that Starbucks actually took notice of the ideas which were posted. An “Ideas In Action” tab on the website tracked (and still tracks) the progress of initiatives put forward.

The groundswell from “My Starbucks Idea” has carried over onto sites like Facebook and Twitter. Starbucks now sees social media as critical to their business, and evidence of a fundamental shift in marketing communications. As CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz told CNN Money.com recently; “Traditional marketing is changing dramatically. You can’t tell people anymore. You can’t push people. You’ve got to go engage them in a conversation. And they have to trust the source.”

How can you learn from Starbucks in leveraging the power of social media for your retail business? Firstly, Starbucks works hard at it. It’s not enough just to have a presence on Facebook or Twitter. You have to make a serious commitment, monitor the sites daily, respond to requests quickly and generally be there for your fans. Secondly, Starbucks doesn’t just use Facebook and Twitter as vehicles to “push offers”. They are creative with their promotions, and they give back to their customers. One of Starbucks’ most memorable social media promotions was a “free ice cream” Facebook App, which allowed users to send friends (or themselves) a coupon for a sample pack of a new signature frozen dessert.

Progressive Australian retailers are also starting to experiment with social media. Dymocks (an IdeaWorks client), has recently had success with a social media promotion called “Tweet-a-review” where they invited consumers to post a book review in 140 characters or less. The promotion not only resulted in a 350% increase in Facebook fans, but a significant rise in traffic to the Dymocks website, and subsequently, a lift in sales.

So what’s stopping you? Social media is another way to engage customers. And engaged customers show up in sales at the cash register.

Jon Bird is CEO of specialist retail marketing agency IdeaWorks (www.ideaworks.com.au). Email jon.bird@ideaworks.com.au . Or connect with Jon on social media website LinkedIn ( http://au.linkedin.com/pub/jon-bird/18/b4/a78 ).

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