Your team should be influencers. If I had a brick and mortar retail store, I’d have associates sell online through their social platform of choice instead of in a store. 

Benefit of Individual Social Accounts

Each team member would have individual accounts to use for business purposes only. Why individual accounts vs single branded account? Because people buy from people they trust. Why shouldn’t your team be the ones building those relationships with customers and fans?

“The key is to create experiences they want to talk about. Depending on your company’s social media policies, you may want to create a best practices document to discuss how to share company moments.” 

Are your employees brand ambassadors

Their accounts would be used for building relationships with customers, share their behind-the-scenes view of the brand, and their unique styling or tips to sell products or services. Plus individual accounts allow for creativity, autonomy, and increased learning through shared practices amongst the team.

“And why do u think I keep saying @onepeloton should be launching supps/shakes/bars.  Their instructors are the ultimate influencer.  Customers would move so quickly to buy…” – @babakazad

“We had to cancel all photo shoots for new launches, so we reached out to our friends and community to give us a hand. Each person chose their favourite pieces and was given complete freedom with how they wanted to portray them,” says Paloma Wool’s Latorre. – VogueBusiness

Collecting Leads

Each social account would have a URL pointing to a landing page personalized to the team member. Any email opt-ins would be tagged for personalized segments. This allows team members to send out campaigns to followers. All contact information would still be housed in a central database whether it is a CRM (customer relationship manager) or ESP. (email service provider).  

Measuring Performance

Associate performance would be measured by website visits, opt-ins, and sales conversions, etc. Associates would also be cross-trained to assist with customer service. This helps with increased AOV (average order value) and repeat purchases. 

Additional Benefit

The retail store would be downsized to use as a showroom by appt, office, and/or warehouse as needed. Thus reducing overhead expenses.

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Your Turn

What opportunities or challenges do you see with this idea?