Social Media

Overview

Pros

Direct customer contact: Increase customer services

“Free” – no sign up costs Promotional: Alert consumers about

news, events and sales Key point: Do this WITHOUT sounding like an

infomercial

Cons

“Free” – it is free to sign up but not free to maintain. Must have someone assigned to social media.

Will have a negative impact if your social media page is not maintained. (ex: loss of followers)

Better to NOT have a social media site rather than one that is not updated

Must be engaging – constantly engage followers/fans

Monitor Respond

Social Media Overview

Engage followers Just having “likes” and “followers” isn’t always enough, encourage

fans to start a conversation (ex: Another busy Saturday at the Mall! Who came out to shop today?)

Continue the conversation Make sure to respond to customers and comment on their posts to

continue the conversation

Connect with your Audience: Local Connection Did your city’s hockey team just win the Stanley Cup? Make sure to

note that on your social media page! Connect local news and events to your followers – this shows that your page has a local sensibility and isn’t too “corporate”.

Social Media Overview

Social Media Coordinator The person assigned to updating needs to have a

passion/understanding for social media Have a policy: guidelines on posting

Update Your page should have, at the very least, one

update per day.

80% informational, 20% promotional

Social Media for Simon

Your demo is using social media▪ Facebook’s Statistics:

More than 400 Million Users 50% of users log on every day Average user has 130 friends

SEO Having a social media presence will increase your SEO

People want info about your mall If they choose to be a “fan” they have already taken the first

step in wanting to know more about your mall

Connecting Facebook to Twitter

You are given the option to connect Facebook to Twitter

Pro▪ Updating both simultaneously

Con▪ Not utilizing each site’s functions properly

Recommendation: Connect pages but make sure to occasionally use each site individually

Tools for Monitoring

Twitter: Applications available online such as Tweetdeck allow you to filter and organize your twitter feed, @ replies and DMs.

Facebook: If you are the admin, facebook sends you a weekly report of your stats. You can also check your pages insights as an admin.

Twitter

Hashtags: use # as a prefix to your topic (#RossParkMall)

Using a hashtag is a way to increase your Tweet visibility

Sites like #hashtag.org and Twemes.com are great sources to track popular topics

Login to your Twitter account.

This page shows all of your tweets and the tweets of the people you’re following.

Using Ross Park Mall as an example I’m going to type Ross Park Mall into the search bar on the right and see what kind of hits I get.

Anytime someone Tweets the phrase “Ross Park Mall” or @’s Ross Park Mall it is highlighted on this results page.

Another customer friendly service Twitter has to offer is the ability to reply to specific tweets.

For instance, if a person tweets “I dislike Ross Park Mall.”

Ross Park Mall can click reply and ask why their experience with the Ross Park Mall was unpleasant.

Who’s Doing it Well?

Wet SealTeen Girl Clothing Store

Launched a campaign allowing their fans to design their own ensembles and published the designs to allow the community to review▪ Engaged fans/asked for their opinion▪ Provided social validation of fashion choices

to enhance sales▪ User generated merchandising

Questions?