Brandwatch Report/ an Analysisofretail Brandsthrough Retail Report the Lensofsocialmedia/2015
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Brandwatch Report/ Retail Report: An analysis of retail brands through the lens of social media/ 2015 / 2015 Report/ Retail Report Brandwatch Report Retail Report/ 2015 Why read this? Contents Retail businesses, exceptionally vulnerable to shifts A Primer on Retail in public preferences, face the important challenge of Retail Industry Social Performance nurturing strong online communities. Acknowledging the Facebook Channel Insights the following report examines the performance, capabilities Twitter Channel Insights and social media applications of leading retailers. Twitter Customer Service Experiment “ The possibilities for effectively engaging consumers are limited only / 2015 by imagination, and each advance in new technology brings excitement Social Presence and anticipation of a brighter future for the retail industry. ” / 2015 / 2015 Argos: A Digital Rollout Mark Larson KPMG US and Global Sector Leader, Retail Social Media Use-Cases Report/ Retail Report Thank You 2 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Retail Report A Primer on the Retail Industry Today’s consumers are greatly empowered. Technology has propagated a vast amount of information as well as the means to easily access it. Through online websites, reviews, blogs and social platforms, savvy consumers can derive an informed perception of any product, business or idea well before they commit to it. For brands, maintaining a holistic awareness of the online The following report examines the social media performance landscape and being properly equipped to react against or capitalize on shifting opinions is paramount. This is shortcomings and use-cases. The aim is for retail brands perhaps truest for the retail industry, where social favor to gain insight on their own performance as well as on toward a brand’s identity can have dramatic effects on some of the ways social listening can promote their a business’ success. businesses’ operations. Indeed, 71% of leading retail executives cite social media 1. For brands / 2015 social capital can directly contribute to increases in revenue. As such, having the tools to track, understand and foster a strong online community is highly valuable. Report/ Retail Report 3 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo 1 2013 Retail Industry Outlook Survey, KPMG Retail Report Facebook Channel Insights/ Overview Examining the activity of leading retail businesses’ Indeed, the volume of conversation Facebook channels2 reveals an industry that performs generated from only 663 brand posts reveals that many consumers are remarkably well at generating conversations and passionate about these retail brands interest among its relatively active social community. and are genuinely affected by the brand’s online voice. ONE WEEK OF LEADING RETAILERS’ FACEBOOK CHANNELS “ Giving customers control over the conversation and readily encouraging, engaging with 60 Brands and rewarding the sharing of consumer-generated content 663 will help build a loyal brand Posts in following. This will also provide 7 days retailers and brands with a better / 2015 understanding of their core shopper 904,793 98,488 base from which more tailored Content Likes Comments experiences can be developed. ” Clare Nutter Associate Analyst at Planet Retail In one week, the 60 retail brands garnered 904,793 content likes and 98,488 comments following only 663 brand posts. Report/ Retail Report 2 US brands selected based on the National Retail Federation’s 2014 4 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Top 100 Retailers list Retail Report Facebook Channel Insights/ Retailer Communication AN AVERAGE DAY FOR LEADING RETAILERS FACEBOOK CHANNEL Interestingly, while UK brands post ALL BRANDS more content to their Facebook wall, US BRANDS UK BRANDS US brands comment more often. Still, in general these leading retailers experience a strong response to their 1.15 1. 5 8 2.03 Facebook content. Posts Posts Posts One successful engagement technique 27.98 23.51 that many retail brands are not Comments 25.82 Comments capitalizing on is the check-in feature Comments on Facebook. Of the 60 brands examined, only 26 allow users to check-in to their stores on Facebook. Those 26 brands each receive an average of 6,493 check-ins per day. 2,154 15 5 / 2015 Content Content Likes Shares On a typical day, these retailers publish an average of 1.58 posts and 25.82 comments. In turn, they receive an average of 2,154 likes and 155 shares per day. Report/ Retail Report 5 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Retail Report Facebook Channel Insights/ Consumer Communication AN AVERAGE DAY FOR LEADING RETAILERS’ FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS These results suggest that brands are not adequately listening and responding to their audience. Consumers post over 15 times more ALL CONSUMERS than brands do and have over 9 times US CONSUMERS UK CONSUMERS as many comments. That means that around 89% of consumers’ comments are left unanswered. 30.71 24.26 17.36 Posts Posts Posts “ If your customers are in a particular 231.82 237.35 space then it makes perfect sense to Comments 234.50 Comments be there too, and build relationships Comments with them in a way that no other channel can. Because if you don’t build those relationships with them / 2015 - someone else will. ” Charlotte Bleasdale Social Media Manager at JD Williams On average, the 60 leading retailers analyzed receive 24.26 posts and 234.50 comments from their followers each day. Report/ Retail Report 6 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Retail Report Facebook Channel Insights/ The Retailer’s Voice While the majority of retailer posts are photos, Similarly, videos garner more shares on average, image links actually perform better. than photos and considerably more comments than any other type of post. Brands can interpret this to % 3 mean that while videos generate more conversation on their Facebook page content, linked images are the % 7 Photos Image Links most successful at spreading sharable information. 1,765 Likes 2,667 Likes % 119 C o m m e n t s 125 Comments Status updates are unsurprisingly 18 104 Shares 484 Shares AN AVERAGE DAY the least effective way of generating FOR RETAIL BRAND conversation. Brands, identifying FACEBOOK CONTENT Video Status 1,065 Likes 309 Likes resonate with their audience, can 319 Comments 51 Comments % promote their online presence by / 2015 71 431 Shares 8 Shares tailoring their content based on its performance. / 2015 Report/ Retail Report 7 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Retail Report Twitter Channel Insights/ Overview The activity of these retailers’ Twitter channels are again These brands are successfully indicative of the strong social influence that large retail drawing a high volume of conversation, with some leading brands have online. brands attracting upwards of 11,000 AN AVERAGE DAY FOR RETAIL BRANDS’ TWITTER CHANNELS @Brandmentions per day. Even a well staffed community management team may struggle categorizing, triaging and appropriately responding 114 . 3 0 to that level of conversation. 821.42 Audience Replies @Brandmentions However, a response rate of 4.9% 63.32 indicates that many of these brands Audience Retweets are not adequately equipped to handle the incoming chatter. 5.73 40.26 Timeline Brand Replies / 2015 Tweets On a typical day these retail brands receive 821.42 direct mentions. Brands publish a daily average of 40.26 replies and 5.73 timeline tweets. Of their published content, their audience typically replies 114.30 times and retweets 63.32 times per day. Report/ Retail Report 8 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo Retail Report Twitter Channel Insights/ The Retailer’s Voice The success of a retailer’s post is not only dependent on Unsurprisingly, the majority of brand the content but also on the time and day it’s published. -consumer social interactions occur throughout the working week. Inbound @mentions are highest on Tuesdays, Audience Avg. Post RT per Replies per tapering off throughout the week and @Brand per Brand Brand Post Brand Post bottoming out on Sunday. Similarly, 3 Monday 56470 5.57 11. 0 9 21.86 the average number of posts are greatest on Thursday and lowest Tuesday 62029 6.66 11. 4 4 18 .75 on Saturday and Sunday. Wednesday 61322 6.19 17.4 9 21.91 However, the current research Thursday 58191 6.67 10. 3 4 19.71 suggests that Wednesday is actually Friday 52706 5.90 9.92 19 . 2 2 the highest performing day in terms Saturday 54422 4.31 8.53 22.75 of both retweets and replies per brand Sunday 40549 4.88 8.04 15.9 9 post. A socially intelligent brand will be conscious of how different times / 2015 affect the performance of posts BEST DAY WORST DAY • • among their target audience. Report/ Retail Report 9 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo 3 Twitter posts do not include replies. Retail Report Twitter Experiment/ Synopsis To evaluate the effectiveness of retail brands’ Twitter customer service teams, Brandwatch measured how of these leading retail brands’ social customer service teams to identify, retail brands react to different types of tweets online. prioritize and adequately respond to incoming tweets. “ Be where your core customers are Neutral Direct Negative most and remember to not just post Mention Query Complaint on social media, but also to respond. Customers are quick to post on social (ie. Yeah I’m gonna (ie. @BRAND what (ie. BRAND has the media when they need customer care, need to visit should I look worst customer @BRAND today) for this Winter?) service always) so be sure to react to it and follow up right away. Don’t neglect social media or your customers will in turn neglect you. ” / 2015 Nicole Leinback-Reyhle Founder & Publisher at Retail Minded Tweets were designed to test brands’ responses to two types of @mentions Additionally, brands’ responses to online complaints4 that did not directly @mention a brand were evaluated Report/ Retail Report 4 For ethical reasons, we did not tweet negative comments 10 Book a demo with us brandwatch.com/demo toward any retail brands in this experiment.