Social media is clearly challenging for retailers. Part of the problem is that as a touchpoint for engaging with consumers, whether we’re talking Facebook FB -0.94%, Pinterest, or Twitter TWTR -3.70% (the social media big three), social media is a very immature medium.
The other part of the problem is that retailers are overtly promotional. They’re used to driving consumers across a very short gap between the retailer’s call to action and the consumer’s actual action – from “here’s a discount” to “I bought it”.
When you combine retailers’ desires to use every channel to sell more stuff to consumers with a lack of understanding over how to be a brand in social channels (and little to no understanding of how consumers want to engage with brands in social channels), you end up in a place where a company like Walmart can have just shy of 32.7 million fans on Facebook, for example, and yet post things on the company timeline that garner 200 to 500 likes, 30-200 shares, and comments that are just as likely to be complaints about poor service as irrelevant random thoughts, with nary a relevant or positive comment to be seen…
