07 Feb Social Media Marketing Example #8: Home Goods

Posted at 22:15h in Social Media Examples by

Continuing with the series, “26 Social Media Marketing Examples in Detail” we will now look at Home Goods efforts within social media.

What are they doing?

  • Blogging
    • Starting in 2007, Home Goods created a multi-user blog within its main site called Home Goods Open House, to develop a conversation around home decorating. This blog is contributed by a team of five writers who were hand selected from 20,000 volunteers (all of who are Home Goods fanatics). What is interesting, is that these women are creating quality content and are not being paid one cent from Home Goods – instead these bloggers receive exposure on the blog and links to their personal blogs. What this has created is content that is actually engaging, garners double-digit comments, and fosters a sense of organic community. Home Goods is also keeping the door open for others to become considered as featured bloggers, which is a great way for Home Goods to keep growing relationships.

  • Widgets/Applications
    • From my search, Home Goods does not have an application or widget available for its users. I think a widget that could be built off a localized database featuring the “latest finds” could be something that could support the social networking feature of the Home Goods site (see below for more info on this section of the site).
  • Social Networking
    • On the Home Goods blog, is a section titled, “Customer Finds“, which is a unique community where Home Goods customers upload pictures of their latest purchases. The hook? You have to take pictures of your purchases in your own home. In my opinion, this is a great concept that could be taken one step further by allowing viewers to vote their favorite finds.
    • In addition to the “customer finds” section of the site, Home Goods has a personalized login for “Preferred Shoppers”. This area of the site has hand picked content ranging from recipes, to decorating ideas and trends. After browsing this section of the site, I felt as if content was an after-thought and could be improved by adding more regional and/or local information.
    • I was a little surprised when I couldn’t find a fan page on Facebook for Home Goods, but more surprised when I found groups created by fans and employees that only had around 10 members each. Thinking that these groups may be active on sites like Cafe Mom or Gather, I searched these as well, but came up empty handed.
  • Twitter
    • I couldn’t find a Home Goods Twitter page, but I did notice a fair amount of chatter in the “Twittersphere” on the brand itself that it should be monitoring.
  • Video
    • Unfortunately, the Home Goods site didn’t feature videos, and the brand doesn’t currently have a place on You Tube for this type of content to live. After taking a look at the user-generated videos posted to You Tube, it was evident that there was an opportunity for Home Goods to grow in this area. There were ample user-generated videos about how to sell your home, decorating tips, etc. that could be something that the audience of Home Goods could find valuable, or could help participate in.

That’s all the interaction within social media that I could find for this particular brand. Feel free to add any other examples or thoughts in the comments below!