Popular Retailers Failing at Social Media

With consumers seemingly entranced by social media, companies are turning to the channel to engage with their consumers at every turn possible.

Engagement Labs, a data-based communications company, has released its “Retail Index” detailing the top evalue scores, an independent global benchmark for social scoring, among leading retailers.

The Retail Index looked at 80 different major retail brands and scored them on 300 social media metrics. The highest scoring retailers, Champs Sports (96), GameStop(95) and Tiffany & Co. (89) were among the best in class for three key actionable components (social engagement, impact and responsiveness).

One of the ways in which Tiffany’s inspires social engagement is by using a consistent theme throughout their posts, for example, using its signature blue color, which alerts consumers as to who the post is by. According to Engagement Labs CEO, Bryan Segal, another great example of a company inspiring engagement on social media is Champs Sports through its “#TheDrop” campaign. Through this campaign, Champs inspired consumers to engage with their posts by stating the beginning of a factoid about a top athlete and making the consumer click a link to see the rest of the information.

#TheDrop takes a look at the Best Players in the NBA who wear Kobe Bryant’s Sneakers- http://t.co/eyqrxbRj7P pic.twitter.com/figu6OSegl

— Champs Sports (@champssports) December 31, 2014

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Among the lowest scoring retailers were Levi’s (40), Urban Outfitters (38) and Guess (23), well below the industry average of 64.

"Champs Sports' evalue score is a clear indicator of how thematically aligned, consistent content differentiates specialty-sporting goods and shoe retailers from larger multinationals on social media," said Bryan Segal, CEO of Engagement Labs. "For instance, Champs Sports' '#TheDrop' series, offers fun and interesting facts about top athletes and professional sports teams. It's a great way to drive engagement and jump into mainstream, pop culture moments that build trust with consumers using relatable content."