Social media is becoming an ever more important element in retail. Recent research by the IAB has shown that a staggering 90% of us recommend a brand after interacting on social media, and in their case studies, each £ invested in social returned at over 3:1.
And social media is taking more of a physical presence in bricks & mortar retail, too. Last year we saw coat hangers that registered the number of ‘Likes’ a product had received online, and this week a new retro-style Facebook ‘Like’ counter called Fliike was launched, which brings a sense of real time social feedback, in store.
But we were particularly interested to see retailer Nordstrom recently take a lead in leveraging its social community. The brand has built up a healthy 4.5m followers on Pinterest, and it’s starting to develop its investment. In various stores, they will be adding a physical red tag to the items showing as most popular on Pinterest. There’s even some suggestion that Nordstrom will use the data to start making merchandising decisions. In this context, it’s clear that developing communities on social media, by whichever means, adds to the data story of a brand – something doors further down the line…
