Social Pulse Podcast: Retail Edition

In this engaging panel discussion, we let these retail industry experts give you their best marketing recommendations and predictions for the coming year. You'll leave this session feeling excited and empowered to tackle social media marketing in 2024

During this discussion originally recorded during Social Pulse Summit: Retail Edition, host Mike Allton brought in a variety of experts to weigh in on how the retail industry, and social media specifically, is changing.

Learn more about GUESTS

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/social-media-trends-for-retail-what-you-need-to-know

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A panel of experts discussing various ways for businesses to use generative AI in their daily workflows. AI isn't scary, anyone can do it, and they should walk away with at least one practical action item they can implement today.

During this discussion originally recorded during Social Pulse Summit: Retail Edition, host Mike Allton brought in a variety of experts to weigh in on how AI is improving and impacting retail marketing.

Learn more about our guests:

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/generative-ai-and-its-impact-on-your-role-in-retail-marketing

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Have you ever felt bombarded by advertisements the second you scroll through your social media?

What if instead, you found posts that resonated with your personal experiences, or content that genuinely made you feel connected to a brand? Would you be more inclined to stay loyal to that brand? Today, we're challenging the conventional use of social media as merely a sales tool. Our guest, Caroline Shaheed, an expert in social media strategy for retail, brings us insightful perspectives on how shifting the focus from selling to connecting can transform customer loyalty and brand presence.

Caroline has demonstrated through her work that hard sales tactics on platforms like Instagram and Facebook might not be as effective unless you're on Pinterest, which plays by different rules. But why is Pinterest different? And how does Caroline use this to the advantage of the brands she works with? Listener, you might be surprised to learn the strategic pivots that could also benefit your brand.

Today, Caroline is here to distill her strategies and share why the mantra 'connect first, sell later' could be your key to success. Stay tuned as we dive deeper into this approach, backed by compelling results and transformative insights.

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Caroline Shaheed about:

♉️Understanding the Importance of Connection Over Sales: The audience will learn why building genuine connections with customers on social media is more effective for long-term brand loyalty than direct selling tactics. Caroline will share how brands can achieve this shift in focus and the positive impacts it can have on their overall marketing strategy.

♉️Insights into Platform-Specific Strategies: Caroline will provide insights into why platforms like Pinterest can effectively use direct selling strategies, contrasting this with other social media platforms where engagement and content resonance are crucial. This will help listeners tailor their approaches based on platform-specific nuances.

♉️Leveraging Analytics to Refine Social Strategies: Listeners will gain an understanding of how to use analytics not just to measure outcomes but to inform and drive future content strategies. Caroline will discuss the role of data in crafting content that truly resonates with the target audience, which is key for authentic connection and engagement.

Learn more about Caroline Shaheed

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode



Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/shift-to-connection-basedmarketing

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Social platforms like Facebook and TikTok have created the capability to sell your products right on the platform, empowering your target audience to buy quickly and easily. But keeping large catalogs of products updated, and synced across multiple platforms, can be challenging. Furthermore, the social activity itself can be different when we don’t have to try to drive a customer to a website.

Join us as we discuss these challenges and more with Jenna Galardi, Feedonomics Director of Omnichannel Growth, in this interview recorded during Social Pulse Summit: Retail Edition.

Jenna Galardi has over a decade of experience helping businesses grow online. Whether the business is a startup or a Fortune 100 company, they rely on Jenna’s expertise as a growth accelerator. From award-winning website design and development to inbound marketing tactics of search engine optimization, content creation, pay-per-click, email marketing, social media, and influencer marketing - she loves connecting businesses to the right customers online. In her current role as Director of Omnichannel Growth, she leads the consultation practice and Omnichannel Certified Agency Program at Feedonomics. Focusing on helping merchants strengthen their online presence and adopt social commerce, marketplaces, and product feed optimization solutions to scale their growth

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Jenna Galardi about:

♉️Why syncing product feeds to social media is critical today

♉️How to optimize social shopping across networks

♉️What retail social media managers can look forward to in the future

Learn more about Jenna Galardi

• Connect with Jenna Galardi on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/product-feed-management

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In NLP, we talk about how important it is to build rapport with other people in order to effectively communicate - the more someone else knows, likes and trusts you, the more likely they are to do business with you. And we teach tactics like matching & mirroring, making eye contact, and more, to facilitate rapid rapport building.

When it comes to social media, utilizing those kinds of tactics is challenging - if not impossible - and yet we still need to build relationships with our audience and connect with them, don’t we?

How are we supposed to create connections with people digitally, and how, as social media and community managers, can we ensure these efforts benefit the brand?

That’s what Dana Malstaff is here to help us with.

Dana is the Founder of Boss Mom and creator of Nurture to Convert. She is a mother, author, speaker, podcaster, and movement maker. She believes that too many brilliant moms are struggling to figure out how to grow their business while balancing all that is required to be a good mom, partner, and woman. Dana teaches Nurture Marketing to thousands of Boss Moms so they can authentically get visible and grow their business even with their inconsistent schedules.

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Dana Malstaff about:

♉️The importance of building a Loyalty Engine within your audience

♉️How to market your brand so that your audience feels seen

♉️Why building a movement is so important, and where to start

Learn more about Dana Malstaff

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/connecting-with-your-audience

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pinterest has nearly 500 million users worldwide and generated over $3 billion in revenue in 2023.

Retail social media marketers cannot afford to ignore this platform.

And yet it remains elusive to so many. Between the recommended tall images, to distributing content to boards within an account, aspects of Pinterest remain just different enough that many marketers avoid it in favor of more typical Facebook or even Instagram.

Is that a mistake? How should marketers approach Pinterest and, if it’s a new platform to the organization, where should we begin?

That’s what Alexx Wells is here to help us with.

Alexx is a full-time freelancer with over 800 clients from all around the world. I first met her while partnering with Fiverr on our Agency Summit: Pinterest Edition virtual event, where she was brought in by Fiverr as a shining example of their freelance platform, and the amazing work she does for clients, particularly with Pinterest. She’s completely self-taught and has demonstrated an incredible level of creativity and passion, which we now get to benefit from.

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Alexx Wells about:

♉️How Pinterest is different from other mainstream social networks

♉️Which aspects of Pinterest are particularly well-suited for retail marketing

♉️How social media managers need to approach Pinterest today

Learn more about Alexx Wells

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode



Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/pinterest-for-retail-social-media-marketing-tactics-that-work

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As retailers, we know that segmenting audiences works. We group similar items together in our stores, alongside other items that would be of interest to the same shoppers.

Yet for some reason, when it comes to social media, all too often we think too broadly about our planned activities and strategies.

We assume that everyone on social media, at that very moment, is a potential customer.

Why is audience identification and targeting so important on social media, and how can we get started as social media and community managers?

That’s what Chiara Gianelli is here to help us with.

Chiara launched A Matter of Nourishment with a clear goal: to help people improve their relationship with food. Initially, she focused on educating people with recipes, photos, and useful tips. However, this quickly expanded as she discovered something missing in the food, beverage, and wellness market. Brands were struggling to stand out and compete. Pretty yet soulless visuals weren’t cutting it — they needed to serve a strategic purpose and tell a story. Whether through attention-grabbing visuals or scroll-stopping social media content, Chiara helps brands find their voice, tell their story, and connect with their audience.

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Chiara Gianelli about:

♉️Why audience determination is critical, even on social media

♉️How retail brands can approach social media differently

♉️Why the key steps are for social media & community managers

Learn more about Chiara Gianelli

• Connect with Chiara Gianelli on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode



Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/how-to-identify-and-target-retail-audiences-on-social-media

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With nearly 2 billion users, over half of whom have made an impulse purchase, TikTok is clearly a dominating platform for retail brands. But did you know that studies are showing that TikTok audiences, Gen Z in particular, are increasingly using that platform as a search engine, rather than Google or alternatives?

Have you considered whether or how your content and products might appear in a TikTok search… or not?

How do we make sure it’s our brand and products and solutions that show up when our target audience is searching on TikTok? How do we modify our TikTok strategy to accomplish multiple goals?

That’s what Wave Wyld is here to help us with.

Wave is a TikTok Marketing & Trends Expert. She has helped thousands of creators and business owners grow their TikTok accounts with a “Content First” & “Community Approach” so that they can make more impact and profit. She launched a brand on TikTok as the “Queen of Trend Alerts” which then started the movement of “Trend Alert” style videos that have become a mainstay within the social media industry. Wave participates in creator community programs with TikTok & YouTube, and regularly appears in National Media, top-rated podcasts, and social media summits.

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Wave Wyld about:

♉️What exactly is TikTok SEO?

♉️Why should retail Social Media Managers integrate it into their strategy?

♉️How your TikTok video strategy should be modified

Learn more about Wave Wyld

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode



Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/seo-for-tiktok-how-social-media-managers-can-drive-more-product-views

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Social media marketing has come a long way.

Mixed Reality. Artificial Intelligence. Wearables…. And that’s just the last three months.

For retail marketers, developments like these are not just fads, they’re challenges to be met, understood, and potentially leveraged as opportunities.

But how do you know what new features or apps should be leaned into, and which ones should be ignored? How do you not only keep up with all the developments to Facebook and the rest of Meta’s family of apps, but position yourself to actually come out ahead?

That’s what Mari Smith is here to help us with.

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is widely known as the Premier Facebook Marketing Expert and a top Social Media Thought Leader. Forbes describes Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” IBM named Mari as one of seven women that are shaping digital marketing. She is an in-demand keynote speaker, dynamic live webinar host, savvy corporate social media strategist and trainer, and popular brand ambassador, and someone I’ve personally turned to for years as a voice of reason when it comes to Facebook and Meta.

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Mari Smith about:

♉️ Where Facebook marketing is headed

♉️ What impact Meta AI may have on retail marketing

♉️ How retail social media managers can keep up & get ahead

Learn more about Mari Smith

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/facebook-marketing-for-retail/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For retail brands, it’s not enough to post to social media once a week. In fact, that’s such a ridiculous idea that you probably laughed a little to yourself when I suggested it.

Or you may have cried a little too because it’s true! Retail brands have to be active and publish regularly - at a far higher rate than other industries. And it’s not enough to just spam edited product images, is it? Audiences want to be educated and entertained, which means we have to create a lot of engaging content.

How do we keep feeding the beast of social media while at the same time maintaining high levels of creativity and engagement?

That’s what Julia Wolf is here to help us with by telling her story.

With 7 years of in-house and agency design and social media experience, she has worked to produce creative solutions for a variety of clients ranging from small nonprofits to large Fortune 500 companies. Julia now serves as the Social Media Content Developer at Five Below. Since joining the company in July 2022, she has contributed to the brand's rapid social media growth, creating content for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Social Pulse Podcast host Mike Allton asked Julia Wolf about:

♉️ Why it’s a necessity to create high volumes of content

♉️ The strategies & tactics to help with that much content

♉️ How to still be focused on encouraging engagement

Learn more about Julia Wolf

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/content-for-retail-insights/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse. If you’re interested in being featured on an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.