Retailing CMOs: 3 Recommendations to Better Incorporate Social Media Into Your Marketing Strategy

Social media has become the place for consumers to find and connect with brands on a personal level. A majority of consumers incorporate some form of social media in their shopping process and a fast growing portion of them are purchasing through social platforms. As a senior marketing leader and social shopper, understanding the trends and bettering my social strategy is critical for continued revenue growth. 

The article, Do Today’s Retailers Still Embrace the ‘Change Markers’ in a Company?, gives perspective on the advancement of social media in the consumer sales process and its role in forming genuine connections with your customer base. Steven Sumner provides compelling statistics to reenforce the growing social shopping trend and the need for marketers to consider social as a key element in their strategy. CMO's can't afford to ignore the importance of social media today and its impact on the shopping process.

                                     Image from Convert With Content. 

Jan Skrabalek's, 4 Impressive Benefits of Social Selling, is an actionable followup to Sumner's article. She defines social selling, sales interactions with customers via social media, and gives four key benefits of continuing to evolve your social media strategy. Consumer engagement through social content is key to gaining social relationships, loyalty, insights and referrals. 

Based on my analysis of these two articles and my experiences at Northwestern Medill IMC I've developed 3 recommendations that you should consider next time you are building your marketing strategy. 

• Elevate Social Presence – Build a social strategy that genuinely engages and educates your audience. 

•  Social Influences Shopping– Social media influences the shopping process when content adds value for your followers.

• Recommendations Rule– Engage followers by asking for feedback and get them talking about you.

Consider bettering your social strategy with these three recommendations to increase engagement and social consideration with your brand’s followers. 

Robyn Petit
I am senior marketing leader in the consumer technology industry pursuing a master's degree at Northwestern University. I have passion for data driven marketing and finding better ways to engage and resonate with consumers. Connect with me on Linkedin and Twitter.

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