Cabela's is Connecting with their Customers

I thought about this topic quite a bit, and came to the conclusion that even though I feel that there is a great opportunity for companies to engage their customers via social media and faceBook, I did not have a favorite company on Facebook.

In the past I had used Facebook to do some informal market research about how consumers used products. Some of the products that I managed were sold through Cabela’s. I started following them on Facebook and found that their customer base was very active on the FB page. There were hundreds of pictures of people participating in the activities they love. Their page is active with people posting about hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities. Cabela’s  has cultivated a strong social network that gets people talking and inspiring each other which has to be good for business.

As I thought about their site and activity I decided to do a quick comparison to some other retailers. I chose their strongest competitor, one that overlaps and 2 other major North American retailers, 1 specialty fashion and 1 mass retailer. I tried to see of a correlation could be drawn between number of locations and followers and then also added in the number of employees. My thoughts are that the more consumer facing touch points should help generate a stronger following. This did not hold true. Below are my findings in the end I think it comes down to the fact that Cabela’s  has placed and emphasis on social media and has developed this as a key component in their overall marketing strategy.

Retailer	#stores	#Employees	#of FB Followers	Followers per employee	Followers per location
Cabelas	35	13,700	1,476,176	108	42,176
Bass Pro	58	16,000	1,493,513	93	25,750
Nordstrom	213	52,000	1,283,404	25	6,025
Target	1,767	355,000	8,538,284	24	4,832
REI	110	9,137	376,421	41	3,422
			Average	58	16,441