School’s in Session! Retail Brands and Department Stores Compete for Straight A’s in Social Media

Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, Nordstrom and Kohl’s lead on social media according to Engagement Labs’ eValue rankings.

TORONTO, ON. – August 27, 2015 – This year, it is estimated that U.S. retail sales will increase 4.6% for back-to-school shopping during July and August. To leverage this increase, the retail industry is utilizing social media channels not only to increase brand awareness, but also sales.

Today, technology and data company Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL), creator of eValue Analytics™ and the eValue™ score, released data rankings of the top retail brands and department stores on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Top Ten Retail Brands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Top Ten Department Stores on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

“Many retailers are using their social channels to influence consumer decisions as well as promote new products and engage with their audience,” said Bryan Segal, CEO of Engagement Labs. “The social media space is constantly evolving and the retail industry is taking advantage of this. For example, Facebook and Twitter have enhanced their functionality by creating ‘buy’ buttons, and 'Curalate' has created a ‘Like2Buy’ platform for Instagram. With these new features, retailers are realizing that creating effective social media campaigns can impact sales.”

Hollister Co., the top performing retail brand on Instagram, posts images and creates content that are primarily lifestyle oriented, rather than fashion focused. The Company has created custom hashtags, like #PickYourPerfectPair and #HCoStyle, to encourage their followers to share, which will enable them to reach a larger audience.

On Twitter, Aeropostale was ranked first due to an impressive Engagement subscore of 87, out of a possible 100. The Company had the highest number of retweets, favorites, replies and mentions compared to the other brands in the category.

“When we looked at the retail brands across all channels, we found that the brands are performing better on Instagram than on Facebook and Twitter,” continued Segal. “This is likely due to the visual nature of the platform, the prevalence of a younger female demographic and the simplicity of liking a post by just double tapping the image.”

For the department store rankings, Nordstrom has created a successful social media strategy that led them to be ranked first on both Facebook and Twitter. The key differentiator that increased their eValue score is their active response strategy. On Facebook, the Company responds to user posts and comments quickly with responses that include useful information such as links and photos, as well as detailed replies that tend to generate ongoing conversations. They also take advantage of the live, real-time nature of Twitter to respond to their user’s tweets.

About Engagement Labs

Engagement Labs’ eValue™ Score is the global benchmark for social media scoring. eValue Analytics Pro, an enterprise-grade social media analytics platform, scores brands between 0-100. The eValue suite measures brands’ social media and digital marketing efforts. It’s composed of a series of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), including Engagement, Responsiveness and Impact, which is benchmarked against 100,000+ hand picked and verified brands.

The eValue score is composed of Engagement, Impact and Responsiveness metrics. Engagement is the level of interaction content receives on a specific social network, Impact is the unique reach content receives on a specific social network, and Responsiveness measures how much, how fast and how well a brand responds to actual conversations amongst its users.

Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) offers intelligent social data, analytics and insights for organizations that are actively engaging on social networks. Offered as a SaaS or through an API, the eValue Analytics platform allows brands to measure and maximize the effectiveness of their social media marketing campaigns, as well as measure that of their competitors across major social networks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Additionally, through the Keller Fay Group division of Engagement Labs, brands can also measure the marketing performance of offline word of mouth conversations. Engagement Labs maintains offices in Toronto and New Brunswick, New Jersey. www.engagementlabs.com / www.evaluesuite.com

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Kate Tumino / Kenneth Cousins
KCSA Strategic Communications
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