A new survey corroborates what PR pros have heard for years, but not necessarily heeded: Social media platforms require constant attention.
If you want to reap the benefits of social media, you have to feed the maw. Constantly. Sprinkling your social channels with a little bit of content every now and again and expecting pixie dust in return doesn’t make for a very effective social media strategy. Take the retail industry. Despite the growth of social activity in the sector, many large retailers have lost significant share of voice compared with 2013, according to an exclusive study conducted by social media analytics company Shareablee.
“It seems many big box retailers have taken a dangerous step back from the [ Facebook] in 2014, with brands such as QVC, Walmart and Kmart posting 78 percent, 77 percent and 61 percent less content, respectively, on Facebook compared with the same period last year,” said Tania Yuki, CEO of Shareablee. “Unfortunately, this strategy goes against the benefits that some brands, such as Nordstrom, Macy’s and Amazon, are reaping with an always-on strategy across social media.”
And when it comes to social media engagement among individual retail brands, bigger is not necessarily better.
Despite the size of its fan base, Nordstrom outpaced the biggest retailer in the world, Walmart, to secure the largest engaged audience in 2014, Yuki said. This was largely due to the brand’s robust activity on photo-sharing network Instagram, lending more credence to the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words (and, depending on how active your Instagram account, a potential boon to the top and bottom lines).
Yuki added: “However, while Nordstrom was able to capture the largest share of the social shopper’s attention,Macy’s and Kohl’s were more effective in driving interactions with each post.”
Source: Shareablee
This article originally appeared in the January 5, 2015 issue of PR News. Read more subscriber-only content by becoming a PR News subscriber today.