Why Your Business Should Follow Brooks Brothers’ Lead
Mashable ran an article called “Brooks Brothers Plays It Cool on Social Media,” which was kind of a misleading title. Brooks Brothers is really playing it smart in social media, and here’s what you can learn from them.
Ken Seiff, an executive vice president at Brooks Brothers, said:
“Our recent investments in social, mobile and the iPad have really been focused on improving the quality of the content and presentation and not necessarily expanding the scale.”
Smart!
3 Smart Tips Your Business Should Follow
1. Improve the consumer experience on your website – test and personalize.
You’re driving your customers from social media sites and elsewhere to your website, so the number one concern should be the experience your visitors have once they get there. When Brooks Brothers sorted products on one category page of their e-commerce site by customer review rating instead of by best-selling status, they saw nine percent lift in conversions directly attributable to that change, per Seiff. Now, they’re about to personalize the experience even further, so you can be sure they’ll see another lift if they do it right.
2. Focus on the quality of content and presentation.
Look at Brooks Brothers blog. It takes about one second to see that they know what they’re doing. The blog site has a fantastic look that suits both their audience and their brand. According to agency hzdg, the blog is a huge hit and had 1.5 million visits on one day alone. Look at all the categories of information they include there– it’s like a modern-day encyclopedia for men.
3. Slow and steady wins the race.
Social media channels pop up all the time, and businesses get jumpy, thinking they have to be everywhere and everything to everyone all at once. Don’t concern yourself with Likes and followers – at least not the totals anyway. Anyone can be popular for a moment, the real trick is keeping fans around and interested.
As of June 27, 2012, here’s what those common statistics look like for Brooks Brothers and the competition:
Brooks Brothers
- 97,021 Facebook Likes
- 21,648 Twitter followers
Ralph Lauren
- 5,037,565 Facebook Likes
- 5,143 Twitter followers of @RalphLauren (new account not verified yet)
- 61,041 Twitter followers of @RugbyRL
Tommy Hilfiger
- 3,526,584 Facebook Likes
- 72,124 Twitter followers
Brooks Brothers may have fewer followers than competing brands Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, but it seems like they are much stronger in engagement.
In both cases, Brooks Brothers noticed people talking about them online and rewarded the two people spontaneously. Not only that, but the gifts were sent with handwritten notes – handwritten notes! Who does that anymore? I’ll tell you who- people who care.
A fellow marketer friend of mine recently said, “Smart business practices take time, thoughtfulness and strategy.” Brooks Brothers seems to embody just that.
The reason they excel in social media is because they excel at customer service. They listen to their customers and take time to get to know them. To be good at engaging with your audience, you have to care and you have to be human and sincere.
