Engagement Drives Social Media Success for Plato`s Closet

Engagement Drives Social Media
Success for Plato’s Closet
Audience engagement is key to successful social media marketing.
Franchise businesses are uniquely positioned to develop
active social media communities because of the
combination of local store relationships and national
brand recognition.
Engage121 Social Media Assistant Program
SMA participants are guaranteed:
17 Plato’s Closet locations (resale buyers and sellers of
teen/young adult fashion) have used Engage121’s SMA
program to become social media hangouts for local
customers passionate about name brand clothing AND
bargains. Their experience is described below.
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3-5 posts per week with relevant
and interesting content
One targeted coupon, promotion or
contest each month
Comprehensive reputation
monitoring across social media and
consumer review sites
Engage121’s Social Media Assistant program (SMA)
focuses on sales, social media growth, customer engagement and reputation monitoring. After only two
months, these Plato’s locations are beginning to enjoy a repeatable cycle of generating growth that fuels
engagement and attracts store visitors.
Generate Growth – Fuel Engagement – Attract Store Visitors:
Plato’s Closet’s Repeatable Cycle
SMA Increased Stores’ Total Audience by Over Thirty Percent in
Two Months
Each of the 17 pilot stores have enjoyed substantial audience
growth during the SMA pilot. In fact, the pilot stores’ total social
media followers have grown by well over 30% since joining SMA
two months ago. The control outlets (using the Engage121
software, but without Engage121 SMA team support) also
performed impressively, growing 16% in the same time period.
What accounts for the difference in growth between these two groups of stores? Interesting content
and responsive engagement focused on customers’ passions. The SMA program employs social media to
provide constant updates and timely responses on fashion and bargain-related topics to develop and
maintain a vibrant community.
SMA posts attract an audience with a dependable foundation of content based on customer interests.
Because of the content’s appeal, the audience is more attentive (and in fact is present!) when local
merchandise, updates or promotions are posted by the stores themselves.
Content
Because Plato’s Closet is a lifestyle-focused brand, their customers respond
enthusiastically to content about common interests. SMAs target
Plato’s demographic with lifestyle-based articles ranging from
fashion to celebrity gossip to beauty and healthy living tips.
Mixed in with these lifestyle articles are offers, promotions and
marketing messages furthering the store’s business interests.
But, attracting an audience isn’t enough, Engagement results
from attracting the RIGHT audience and posting content that
pique their interests.
Shared passion for fashion is the epicenter of Plato’s online
presence. Engage121 responds to this passion at the local level
through each store’s social media pages, and where franchise
owners will enjoy local results that lead to new and repeat
customers.
SMA customers enjoy an overwhelming advantage
in Interactions Per Post…
Interactions per Post
Local Franchise w/o SMA
Local Franchise w/ SMA
14.12
36.51
The Key Metric: Interactions Per Post
Interactions per post (IPPs) are the most reliable
Engagement metric. IPPs measure each post’s
accumulation of clicks, shares, likes, favorites and retweets.
Plato’s Closet SMA pilot members earned an impressive
36.51 interactions per post in January, with 20,408 total
interactions. That's over 40 interactions per store each
day. The 76 franchises using Engage121 software without
an SMA also did well, with 14.12 interactions per post and
17,000 total interactions.
But, while only 7% of all outlets we’re tracking use
SMA, SMA clients acquired a staggering 51.3% of all
interactions. This is especially impressive when considering
these stores are only responsible for 22% of all the total
posts. The numbers are clear, Plato’s Closet locations
using SMA do substantially more with less!
Store Traffic
Social Media Assistants focus the engaged customers’ attention and
excitement towards specific marketing goals. Engage121 and participating
Plato’s Closet franchises have created a powerful lead-nurturing
infrastructure for:
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Collecting email
addresses for lead
generation
Driving in-store traffic
with online only
coupons
Expanding social reach
with like/share contests
Plato’s Closet’s repeatable
cycle creates a process of
success where there is no
defined end point, and even in-store sales become a tool for increased engagement, as illustrated in
the tweet above.
Social Media Assistants turn the audience’s passion for fashion into action.
The Plato’s Closet SMA Program has been so successful locally that parent company Winmark is
expanding the Program enterprise-wide, promising a “rising-tides-lifts-all-ships” affect for the entire
franchise system. As with the pilot stores, this should create a repeatable cycle of growth, engagement
and in-store traffic.
Reputation Management
Customers are just as passionate about buying clothes as they are
about selling clothes back to Plato’s Closet, which leaves lots of
opportunities for hurt feelings. Hurt feelings frequently occur
when stores choose not to purchase clothes for resale.
Engage121’s Social Media Assistants continuously monitor all
major review sites to ensure that store owners are quickly aware
of negative or problematic reviews. And, while negative reviews
may be one downside of running a business, positive reviews are
the reward for nurturing constant social media growth and
engagement.
In Plato’s repeatable cycle, reviews play a strong role in both the engagement and growth categories.
User-generated content, such as reviews, are the pinnacle of engagement as customers become
active ambassadors for the store. Additionally, personal reviews
and recommendations are among the most effective tools for generating
new customers and audience growth.
Plato’s repeatable cycle creates ideal conditions for fostering positive reviews
while SMAs vigorously monitor sites for negative feedback and quickly alert clients to help mitigate any
damage.
The idea is to stop seeing comments like this on Yelp:
And start seeing comments like this:
Summary – Faster growth with more interactions
The pilot results are clear, Plato’s Closet locations with Social Media Assistants see faster community
growth and greater engagement within existing communities. As each store becomes a local social
media destination for their subject matter, regular monitoring of review sites remains a priority so
that the community and local owner remain focused on the repeatable cycle that leads to sales
growth.
Ready to create your repeatable cycle of
growth, engagement and in-store traffic?