Social media engagement done right can be tricky, but Walmart’s recent Facebook failure has reminded us of some of the major pitfalls of a large organization. For some larger organizations the issue is finding an individual store’s niche within the local community. Yet for some big companies, it’s finding how to balance a corporate mentality with no localbility in their stores to social media.
The purpose of any business outreach is to drive consumer action, but steps like engagement, awareness and reputation take place before any action is even thought about in the mind of a consumer. Social media by definition generates awareness and sustains engagement - probably the most important aspects of a organization’s reputation. However, generating engagement with your consumers has to be earned. Your company has to have the appropriate look and presence, so that users will want to communicate and feel like their efforts to connect matter. If these things are missing, consumers will not feel it worth their while to engage, thus you’re business’s reputation will diminish or remain stagnant.
This is where Walmart failed, they made their local Facebook pages look too generic and stiff. Naturally, users felt it not worth their while to engage. As a result all action-based efforts the store was trying to drive probably failed. What Walmart failed to realize was that this type of engagement probably should have never been in their social media strategy to begin with.
Users who desire to connect with local businesses on social media do it because they feel they and the company are stakeholders in the community. This could mean a store hosting exclusive local sales or sponsoring a local baseball team they watch. But big companies that have identical stores and don’t perform community outreach in the first place, shouldn’t try to reach out locally on social media. Marketers need to evaluate what social media strategy best fits the company and engage users on social media accordingly.
Ultimately, we can not stress enough how important it is to engage with your online audience. It’s also vital to make them feel connected and special to your organization, whether that’s using localbility or corporate initiatives, if you want to drive them to action.
We have the tools and knowledge to make your organization’s social media experience successful and drive consumer action! Contact us to discuss our service or strategies! We’d love to hear from you!
