Twitter has taken the social media world by storm. Almost every major retailer has a Twitter account. Figure 8-5 shows the Twitter page for Nordstrom. However, much like blogs, merely having an account with thousands upon thousands of followers can be meaningless if you do not have a strategy for how to convert or benefit from this activity.

Twitter allows customers to have an almost direct connection with a company; this helps users’ complaints be heard more effectively, and it enables companies to do some immediate damage control in the event of negative chatter. Twitter is also effective for promoting deals and special incentives.

Nordstrom’s Twitter page
Figure 8-5. Nordstrom’s Twitter page

To measure engagement on Twitter, you should track:

  • The number of Twitter followers

  • The number of retweets your account receives

  • The number of mentions your business receives

The power of selling through the testimony of other customers is unrivaled. Depending on the product, customer reviews can help persuade users to move forward with a purchase. Customer reviews are considered an engagement tool because of their effectiveness in keeping the customer online. Amazon.com is known for its use of customer reviews for the majority of products on the site. As visitors come to your site to see what others have to say about your products, they may opt to purchase the product from you. Now, we cannot all become Amazon.com, but you can help engage your users by providing reviews for most of your products so that users don’t have to search other sites to read reviews.

Too many companies believe that negative reviews are no good, but they are actually helpful in increasing conversion rates. Although negative reviews highlight what is wrong with a product, they also increase visitors’ confidence in how authentic the reviews are. Visitors have more trust in products that have received some negative reviews than they do in products that have received only positive reviews.

Think of the last time you thought about trying a new restaurant. What if, prior to heading out the door, you went online and read reviews for the restaurant. If the restaurant received negative reviews that describe it as a dirty place that serves terrible food, you most likely would not go. However, if the negative reviews describe it as a restaurant with great food but dated décor, they would probably not stop you from eating there.

Negative reviews are also useful for improving whatever product or service you offer. By understanding customers’ pain points with your offering, you can continuously improve and evolve it. Figure 8-6 is an example of how Amazon.com displays negative reviews.

Negative reviews on Amazon.com
Figure 8-6. Negative reviews on Amazon.com

Gathering reviews for the different products on your website will take time. You can start gathering reviews by:

Finally, until you have enough reviews on the site, we recommend not taking up prime real estate on the page with an element that indicates there are no reviews yet (see Figure 8-7).

No reviews yet on a product page
Figure 8-7. No reviews yet on a product page