A student stares down at rows of books, perplexed, eyebrows drawn together as she squints at the shelf tags between the constant stream of other students shuffling by. To her left, another student stands with his friends trying to look up the books he needs online.
Big data has infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives. It determines the advertisements we see, the routes our GPS directs us, the posts we encounter on social media, unusual activity on our credit cards, entertainment recommendations from streaming services and the list could go on. Big data has become big business.
YouTube is huge. As a platform, it has the potential for enormous reach and is one of the most intimidating areas of social media. Videos have a permanency that other platforms lack. The production value of the most popular videos keeps getting better and people want to see regular content. YouTube, as a marketing platform, isn’t for everyone. It requires a level of energy and comfort with the camera that cannot be manufactured. For those who can truly embrace it, it is a game changer.
Esther Rosner, MBS territory manager, began working for the company when it was located at the Paris Road location in Columbia, Missouri. Through the years, she has watched MBS grow and the book industry change. We sat down with Esther at the annual sales force meeting to hear about the evolution of the textbook industry and how stores continue to adapt to the industry changes.
In today’s technology-fueled world customer loyalty isn’t a given. If your store doesn’t have what someone is looking for, they can shop somewhere else with just a cell phone and a few taps on the screen. Customers expect stores to meet their needs without expressing what they want. On the surface, the problem looks impossible. You can’t read your customer’s mind—or can you?
Welcome to part two of our Instagram Plan. Last week we talked about why Instagram is a great addition to your marketing social media platform and what kind of content will attract an audience to your page. It is through this content that you will connect with not only students, but faculty, staff and alumni as well. Becoming an everyday part of their lives gives you the opportunity to turn those connections into sales. This week the focus will be on engaging your campus community and marketing your store events in a way that makes people excited to participate.
Social media marketing offers a variety of platforms to engage with customers, but with that comes a variety of challenges. On Facebook it is hard to be seen, on Twitter you are limited to 140 characters and on Snapchat you only get 10 seconds to make a lasting impression. Instagram is different. Your followers will see your posts, your caption can be as long as you need it to be and the images never go away. This is why Instagram dominates all social media when it comes to interactions per thousand followers.
Need a map? Music? Guided meditation? A budget? To know which bar around you is offering the cheapest drinks? There’s an app for that. Phones have become the unnatural extension of our arms for a good reason: there is a world of information within our grasp. There is an app for almost everything imaginable, but which apps can help a college student manage their busy lives?
Improving the customer experience doesn’t have to include investing money on a store redesign or flashy events. In fact, there is a fairly easy solution. Customers want shopping to be easier. Sometimes, shoppers simply want to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible.
The intricacies of social media can make even the most stalwart of fans sigh. There is an art to figuring out how to craft a social media post that will sound genuine, yet still perform well in the algorithms that determine a post’s reach. Today, we’re going to discuss how to maximize your social media reach and engagement to drive more students into your store and build trust.
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