To prepare for my job interview, I did some research for the company Target. One of the interesting things that I read about this company is the excellent social media presence among retailer in U.S. According to the study by L.E.K. Consulting, 8.5% of the 2,000 U.S. consumers surveyed said Target has the best social media presence, followed by Amazon.com Inc. (8.0%), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (5.4%), Best Buy Co. (4.0%) and Macy’s Inc. (4.0%).

Social media just like an ecosystem with a variety of users who have different motivations. Understanding what customers want is not easy. The biggest challenge for these retailers to succeed is how to align its social media offerings with its customers’ interests. Consumers like to be engaged whether on a social network like Facebook or Twitter or on the more social aspects such as the customer review pages on a retailer’s website. 51% of respondents said that they appreciated Target, which asks shoppers to Like its posts and post their own personal photos and stories.

The most socially adept retailers do share a few basic ideas about how their social media operations Feature of large amounts of user content, such as reviews and product images; offer exclusive deals; and quickly respond to users’ comments and needs seem to be some of the things that ensure what a retailer is doing is interesting to users.

What interested me the most is the different approach on Facebook page for Target and Wal-Mart. While Target set up a discussion board on its Facebook page, Wal-Mart, instead, restrict comments and feedback on its Facebook page to “Wall Posts”. This limits the interaction between users. Furthermore, the target market for Wal-Mart is mainly the older people. I am curious if the approach of publishing content in such a media that the users are younger would help attracting their general target audience.

I think…not every social marketing strategy is successful to every nature of the business, just like the example of Wal-Mart.