Social Media Monitoring Part One: Target Corporation

Introduction

On September 11, 2018, Target announced their Fall style campaign, inspired by their "pop-culture status".  As a part of this campaign, Target released several television commercials, adopted the customer-created "Tarzhay" nickname, and started a campaign hashtag.  The commercial below is one example of the campaign ads that target has released.

The accent mark above the Target bulls-eye logo references Target enthusiasts tendency to refer to the company with a faux French accent by pronouncing the store "Tarzhay".  In addition to adopting the Tarzhay nickname, Target introduced a campaign hashtag, #TargetMyWay, in the commercial below, featuring Todrick Hall.

Platforms

Target is active across many mainstream social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.  A huge component of this campaign is Target's emphasis on the #TargetMyWay hashtag and encouraging the groundswell to share their photos and videos of how they Target their way!  Unfortunately, after a few weeks of trying to make #TargetMyWay happen, the buzz mostly fizzled out.  Let's take a closer look at a few of the main platforms Target used to try and promote the campaign and how the groundswell was participating.

Twitter

Target's Twitter profile has 1.93 million followers as of October 18, 2018.  Some Twitter users have adopted #TargetMyWay and use it to tag their tweets.

However, much of the use of #TargetMyWay was actually from Target themselves.  As shown in the tweets below, Target would reply to posts which referenced their brand using the hashtag #TargetMyWay.

I assume that Target's intent in replying with the hashtag was to encourage other users to start using it themselves.  However, this strategy was largely unsuccessful as few users picked up the label to use themselves.  It seems that eventually, Target gave up on trying to get others to use the hashtag and stopped replying with it all together.  Every few days a Twitter user will use #TargetMyWay, but overall the label failed to be picked up by users.  Overall, Target's attempt to encourage Twitter users to adopt the #TargetMyWay hashtag was unsuccessful. 

Instagram

Target operates two separate profiles on Instagram, the main Target profile and the Target Style profile.  Target's Instagram profile has 3.2 million followers while the Target Style profile has 2 million followers as of October 18, 2018.  The descriptions of both profiles encourage users to tag them and use the #TargetMyWay label on photos.

As of October 18, 2018, there were 2,706 Instagram posts that users had tagged #TargetMyWay, and users were continuing to tag posts every day.  While 2,706 is a far cry from the 4.6 million Instagram posts tagged #Target, it is quite an improvement from the fizzle-out of #TargetMyWay on Twitter.

In addition, the hashtag got much more attention from influencers and celebrities on Instagram than it got on Twitter.  A few of the more well-known people who used the hashtag are Baddie Winkle (3.8 million followers), Eugene Lee Yang (1.5 million followers), Jonathan Van Ness (2.7 million followers), and Mindy Kaling (3.5 million followers).  It is possible that since the label was picked up by famous Instagram-ers, the groundswell was more likely to see it in use and use it to label their own photos and videos.  Here is one example of an influencer, Baddie Winkle, using the hashtag on Instagram.

Analytics

Google Trends

First, let's take a look at the 90-day-trends of Target through Google Trends.  As you can see from the graph below, Target's Fall Style campaign, announced on September 11, 2018, did not actually increase the interest in Target.  In fact, interest in Target dropped slightly between September 10, 2018, and September 13, 2018, until interest increased again on September 14, 2018, consistent with the overall trend of the 90-day graph.  According to this graph, the announcement of the Fall Style Campaign, the hashtag, and the nickname did not create a large impact in the groundswell.

90-Day-Trend of Target, taken 10/22/18

The two graphs below compare the interest in Target with a competitor, Walmart, over 12-months and 5-years.

12-month-trend of Target v. Walmart, taken 10/17/18

5-year-trend of Target v. Walmart, taken 10/17/18

As shown in these graphs, Target has never once had a greater interest than Walmart over a five year period.  In addition, the chart below shows that the only state in the U.S. where the searches for Target beat out the searches for Walmart is in Minnesota.

Interest in Target v. Walmart by State, taken 10/17/18

Social Mention

Below are four Social Mention snapshots of the TargetMyWay hashtag.  As you can see from these snapshots, #TargetMyWay did not start with much strength but had a higher passion and reach score.  A higher passion score means it is likely that users will repeatedly use the hashtag while a higher reach means Target had a large range of influence.  In addition, all mentions of #TargetMyWay were either positive or neutral.  This is a good sign because it shows that the groundswell did not commander the hashtag to talk negatively about Target's brand.

#TargetMyWay, taken 10/1/18

#TargetMyWay, taken 9/27/18

#TargetMyWay, taken 10/17/18

#TargetMyWay, taken 10/11/18

However, by October 11, 2018, one month after the fall style campaign was announced, the use of the hashtag had declined.  The hashtag has not recovered from the drastic decrease in interest and Social Mention charts have looked almost identical to the 10/17/18 chart since then.

In comparison, the Social Mention charts below show the number of mentions for Target and "Tarzhay", the nickname they adopted through the campaign.

Target, taken 10/17/18

Tarzhay, taken 10/17/18

Final Thoughts

Target tried to energize the groundswell by interacting with them on Twitter and tagging other Twitter user's tweets with the #TargetMyWay label.  However, this strategy was unsuccessful on Twitter where the hashtag was not picked up by most users.  Target should have identified their audience, where they fall on the Social Technographics Ladder, and their goals for the Fall Style campaign to create a more comprehensive and effective social media marketing strategy for the campaign.  Next week I will go more into detail regarding what Target should have done differently with this campaign and how they can develop stronger social media strategies for future style campaigns.

Thank you for reading!