By Claire Reilly
Many large department stores and retail chains in Australia maintain a strong Facebook presence as a means to increase customer loyalty and brand exposure. From JB Hi-Fi (107,000 fans), Harvey Norman (58,400) and Bing Lee (21,000), to David Jones (110,000) and Myer (76,000) – the big retailers are expanding their influence from the physical world to the online space.
But according to a new report released yesterday, daily deals websites and online retailers are among the top-ranking Australian retailers engaging with consumers on the social media site.
The Australian Facebook Performance Report for January 2012, conducted by Online Circle Social Media, found that the daily deals site CatchOfTheDay.com.au outranked its rivals (including bricks and mortar, clicks and mortar or pure play online retailers) in terms of its exposure to consumer ‘fans’ on Facebook.
Click here to sign up for our FREE daily newsletter
Target ranked in second place with the next highest number of fans (173,702 according to the report) before the online shopping site Deals Direct (152,662). The drop to fourth, fifth and sixth positions was significant with the traditional large format retailers David Jones, Myer and Big W all trailing by more than 50,000 fans.
However, the report also noted that David Jones “saw substantial growth of…new fans over the report period [which] was fuelled by targeted promotions,” while Myer, Big W and Target also saw an increase in fans and consumer engagement.
In outlining the big hitters of the Australian retail industry, the report also offered five “Facebook Tips for Champions” designed to assist businesses and brands in getting the most out of the social media network, whilst also avoiding common pitfalls.
Follow Current.com.au on Twitter
Herewith, an abridged version of the tips for businesses. For the full report, click here.
1. Have a risk plan in place: A risk plan includes, but is not limited to, identifying the most probable threats to your organisation, analysing the related vulnerabilities to those threats, and understanding how you should react in the event the problems arise.
2. Use Facebook Insights [the targeted feedback that Facebook provides on the use of fan pages]: By understanding and analysing trends within your user growth and demographics, consumption of content, and creation of content, you will be better equipped to improve your Facebook fan page.
3. Activate your audience, don’t just collect them: Your Facebook audience is a club, a tribe – not just a list. And you cannot satisfy the intellectual and sociological cravings of a club through one brief cute status update each day. Get creative. Get interesting. Talk about things they won’t find elsewhere.
4. Share of attention not share of market: On Facebook, brands are competing for the same finite, and somewhat rare, commodity – your user’s time and attention. Unless you have secured their share of attention your message will get lost. Make sure you have emotional engagement and, as a consequence, an increase in your fan’s memory retention.
5. One strategy not 100 tactics: One of the most common faults we see with poorly managed Facebook pages…is the spasmodic, simplistic, and/or ad hoc posts that are created. Develop a clear strategy for your Facebook page, review it regularly based on Facebook Insights and manage the page to this strategy with posts that fit rather than being tactical.
UPDATE: Current.com.au was contacted by a spokesperson from Appliances Online, who questioned the methodology of the Australian Facebook Performance Report and noted that Appliances Online has more than 200,000 fans on Facebook.
The category studied above was listed as "Retail – Department Stores" in the report, and seemed to focus on larger retailers that play in a range of categories, rather than electronics or appliances specifically.
The authors also discussed the process of selecting brands in the report, saying "the brands displayed are not a complete list of those incorporated within the study, but are representative of those brands leading the way in each vertical. We expect and welcome suggestions for additional brands for inclusion in future reports."