Despite their often massive fan bases and nationally recognized names, major brands have struggled to create vibrant, engaged audiences in social for years. If the recent numbers on Walmart’s local approach to social are any indicator (and I think they are), the secret may lie in taking a few notes from the little guys. Namely, going back to the basics of what makes some local businesses so successful in social in the first place.
Having spent some time at one of the world’s largest local search and review sites, I know first hand the incredible power of a local approach to building a brand’s social network. There’s a lot of power in being part of the local community and speaking to customers in ways that build trust and loyalty.
But for large brands, evidence suggests that fragmenting a social presence into local pages isn’t very effective.
Generally, the brands that are the most effective are those that stay relevant with frequent (but not too frequent) updates about interesting things and who demonstrate concern and interest in the opinions of their customers.
Back in 2011, Walmart launched 3,500 Facebook fan pages for its local stores across the US. Ostensibly, the goal was to personalize the retail juggernaut, grow its fan base and give life to a more active, engaged local community in social with the brand at the center. I assume they were hoping to make their local pages the hub of their brand’s social presence and draw traffic away from the main brand page.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work. According to a new Recommend.ly study just released, the main fan page accumulated over 10 million fans between October 2011 and August 2012. In the same time period, the local pages only gained about 2 million combined (that works out to about 570 fans per page).
The study goes on to compare these results with those of nearly 2,000 small businesses (without a corporate anchor), and the results are interesting. For instance,
- Walmart’s local pages struggled to cross the 1,000-fan mark across the board, with only 4% of them exceeding that number over the year.
- In the same time frame, over 22% of the small business group crossed that threshold, many by a wide margin.
Comparing Walmart’s management of their main brand page vs. the local pages is insightful too. There seem to be at least three best practices that emerge.
Response time
Fans generally connect to brands in social for customer service issues and quick questions that require a speedy response. Walmart’s main page did a great job of handling these, but the local pages lagged behind considerably. On its main Facebook page, Walmart responded to their fans more than 22% of the time, which is relatively high by industry standards (especially for megabrands like this). In contrast, 85% of their local pages never responded to their fans at all.
Quicker responses are something that smaller, local businesses consider a basic practice. While big brands may have a higher volume of comments to respond to, the effort pays dividends. A high level of responsiveness generally leads to more loyalty and engagement. The proof lies in the success of Walmart’s main page, and the relative failings of their local pages in overall engagements and fan base growth.
Post Frequency
To stay relevant on a fan’s Facebook feed, brands need to post frequently – but not too frequently. It’s admittedly confusing, and sadly there’s no magic number of daily posts that will work for everyone, but with Walmart’s local pages posting around 1.25 times a day (versus their main page with over 5 daily updates), it’s fair to assume that more than one post a day is a good idea. It’s even recommended by Facebook.
Engaging Content
The content matters too. Statistically, visual content brings the highest engagement rates (also confirmed by Facebook). Walmart has clearly hit this mark both locally and nationally (around 80-90% of content posted is video or photo), but there are plenty of brands out there that don’t. Memes, surveys, and basic text posts don’t traditionally result in the kinds of numbers marketers want to see, so sticking to visuals should yield a better response.
These three rules have something in common – they take work and dedication. As many brands with distributed social strategies have found, justifying and supporting local professionals who can handle the management and creativity required to do social right can be difficult.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the largest and most well-known brands in the country and it’s my opinion that creating local pages for every retail location just isn’t a winning strategy. With that said, I do believe that managing brand fan pages with the mindset of a local business owner, fostering a great community filled with fans that interact, share, and engage is an absolute recipe for success.
With the social network being an ever-evolving place for brands to connect with customers, we’re still learning what the most effective strategies are. We’ve got to change with the marketplace. At the same time, it’s clear that the brands that are most successful in engaging with their fans in a more personal way will see the greatest results.