OLS and Social Media: How YOU Doin'?

OnlineShoes.com is a Seattle-based etailer that sells shoes, bags, apparel, etc. In terms of social media presence, they are active on Facebook, with frequent posts and deals that friends/fans/likers can take advantage of. They’re also on Twitter, where the company monitors conversations and identifies opportunities to connect directly with social medialites. The company’s handle has over 2,000 followers, and seems to feature a good mix of direct interactions with individuals, sales/promotion-focused tweets, and fun topics to give the feed additional personality.

OnlineShoes (OLS) also has a YouTube page, LinkedIn presence, and company blog. The YouTube page seems to focus primarily on descriptive product videos, with a blend of OnlineShoes-created content and videos from product vendors. The company blog features posts from a mix of individual employees, guest bloggers, and anonymous corporate authors. It centers around four topic areas that help users more quickly find the type of content they’re interested in: Lifestyle, Walking, Running, and Outdoor.

Overall, OLS uses social media efforts to increase interaction with customers and prospects, monitor relevant conversations in the blogosphere/Twittersphere/etc., and provide useful information for their targets. In addition to product info, the company provides style tips and extends giveaways or select deals to their social media base—helping create a better sense of community for friends/followers/fans and enhancing customers’ overall interaction with the brand. The site’s product pages also include reviews, so visitors can read about customers’ experiences and recent purchasers can share their feedback.

So…are they using social media to its fullest advantage? With respect to the question, the extreme verbiage seems to load it. In my opinion, every company can do MORE with social media. Time and resources being finite, perhaps we recast the question as: Are they doing a good job leveraging social media? Given the information above and my experience with the brand, the answer is a definite Yes.