Halloween is just a few days away and before we know, it will be Thanksgiving and more importantly for business, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (for those not familiar with the term Black Friday, see this).
But on the economic front, all seems to be ‘gloom and doom’ and ‘economic’ forecast for this holiday season seems to be dark, damp and cloudy with possibilities of storms – some severe. Question is can social media help marketers cheer up their holiday sales this season? or specifically, how can social media help boost sales on Thanksgiving weekend, which traditionally is the start of the Christmas shopping season.
Answer is yes, social media can be used very effectively for promoting sale of merchandise this holiday season. For example, how about announcing deals on company’s or store’s Facebook page rather than newspaper advertisements or promotional flyers? And to get the deal, customers will have to “Like” the deal. Better still, a customer can avail of the deal only if few of of his/her Facebook friends buy the product. More the number of Facebook friends who buy a product, higher the discount a customer get. Just imagine the excitement this will generate on Social Media and resultant free publicity.
And most online stores have option of Gift Shipping but what about having similar options on Facebook page of the company or the store, where a customer can select what items he/she want as Christmas Gift and this will be displayed on Customer’s Facebook profile letting friends and family know so that they can buy the desired gifts rather than something that is not going to be used or even worse, is going to be returned to store for refund/exchange – a big problem for retailers.
As I wrote in one of my previous post titled Social CRM: Thinking Outside the “Call Center” Box, we need fresh outside the box thinking to take advantage of unique characteristics of Social Media and Social Networks. Companies must leverage unique characteristics of Social Networks and re-engineer their business processes to derive full benefits from it.
If used properly Social Media can drive sales to such an extent that volume of sale on Social Media Saturday will be far greater than volume of sale on ‘traditional’ Black Friday with promotion only through flyers and advertisements.
What do you think? Do you agree that Social Media can help marketers cheer up their holiday sales this season? Please do share your thoughts. Would love to hear from you:
