Social Media on Black Friday: How Small Retailers Can Beat The Big Guys
National retailers are putting major reinforcements into their social media pages to attract swarms of Facebook and Twitter followers in advance of Black Friday.
Lowe’s, thanks in part to an early November Black Friday tease on its Facebook page, saw its following more than double in the last couple of months, says Ronald Ladouceur, EVP and executive creative director at marketing agency Media Logic in Albany, N.Y. Walmart, which has north of 2.3 million Facebook fans, received approximately 100,000 new followers in a day when it introduced a Groupon-like discount feature for fans of its Facebook page, says Stephen Mader, senior analyst at Kantar Retail's office in Cambridge, Mass. and a social media instructor on behalf of the consultancy.
By building up their bases, retailers will be able to use Facebook and Twitter to promote deals, ignite word of mouth and address customer service issues on Black Friday and beyond. But despite the big guys' exceptional resources, Mader says small retailers actually have the flexibility to use social media in better ways that can help the consumer--and their own Black Friday sales.
"I would say the bulk of [social media's] benefit can be for small players, one or two stores, maybe a regional chain," Mader says. "[Small retailers] may not have the resources to do a national TV campaign or circulars for Black Friday, but they can use Twitter to put out deals."
The major retailers, by comparison, are so big their Twitter and Facebook messages on Black Friday can't be very advanced in terms of one to one dialogue, he says. "For example, I don't know if Target will have the ability to have every single Target store have its own Twitter feed where they can tweet how many people are in line."
"If you are a small chain of five or six stores, I think there's a potential higher degree of interactivity via Facebook and Twitter on Black Friday," he continues. "For smaller retailers there's an ability for them to describe specific in-store activities or in-store conditions [on Facebook and Twitter]." For instance, they can communicate which stores still have hot items in stock, extremely pertinent information for any consumer fighting to get a must-have gift on the stressful shopping day.
Mader and other retail marketing experts discuss their anticipation for retailers using more social media marketing on Black Friday and how they can make their Twitter and Facebook communications effective in this week's edition of Marketing News Exclusives, Marketing News' e-newsletter. You may access the article here beginning Nov. 18.
And for more data regarding retailers use of social media, click here to read Media Logic's new report, and click here for illuminating survey findings presented by the National Retail Federation's digital retail division Shop.org.
