TJ Maxx: Social Media Monitoring Report 1

TJ Maxx Rant (YouTube)

When it comes to TJ Maxx there’s no lack of customer enthusiasm. But brand passion can easily go both ways. Take this rant from YouTube vlogger, MyStudioPhix, as an example. In the video, she shares her frustration as a loyal TJ Maxx shopper, who is told she can only receive a discount by signing up for the company credit card she already has. Less than a week later, she posts a follow up video explaining how her local store remedied the situation. The two videos only received about 100 combined views, but MyStudioPhix has posted a total of 60 videos in the past 15 months and she’s got a consistent following. Other TJ Maxx shoppers are definitely watching and they’re seeing social media documentation of the company’s good customer service.

About the Company

TJ Maxx is the United States’ largest off-price retailer with merchandise costing 20-60% less than other department stores.  Its target consumer, also known as a maxxinista, is a middle to upper-middle income woman, who is fashion savvy and value conscious.  I’m monitoring TJ Maxx social media with the help of Social Mention, Ice Rocket and Addictomatic.

Social Media

In terms of TJ Maxx’s own social media initiatives there’s definitely room for improvement.  But the company does well, considering it doesn’t even have a full retail website.   While many of its competitors allow customers to browse and purchase more items than are available in their stores, TJ Maxx only has a few photos of seasonal trends.  On February 22, CEO Carol Meyrowitz announced plans to change that.

Read more:  TJX Chief Revives Failed E-Commerce Effort  

Facebook

The TJ Maxx Facebook page has 827,080 likes and 27,243 people talking about it. That’s a lot less than its department store competitors Macy’s and Kohl’s, whose Facebook pages have over 4 and 6 million likes respectively. Still, TJ Maxx makes the most of its presence with engaging daily posts and regular responses to fans' comments and questions. I think the company will be able to make more connections with its future online retail effort by posting with links back to specific products.

Twitter

TJ Maxx's Twitter account has 39,188 followers.  That's about 12 thousand more than Kohl's, but TJ Maxx tweets only half as much. The company is encouraging more followers to tweet with its #maxxfinds competition - offering a $1,000 gift card for the best entry.

YouTube & Blogs

TJ Maxx could greatly improve its social media presence by adding more content to its YouTube channel.  Currently the company has 157 subscribers, but only four videos available.  I know there were past videos that have been deleted, which is fine, but I think it comes across as sporadic.

TJ Maxx doesn't have a company blog but it made a really smart move incorporating fashion blogger Lindsey Calla in recent TV commercials.  The company added this video to the YouTube channel last month.  It offers a glimpse of spring trends and viewers know they can go to Calla's blog to learn more, since she regularly talks about TJ Maxx.  By doing this the company is saving money that it would have spent on an internal blogger and making an important connection to social media.

Social Mention statistics from 2/13/12 - 3/13/12

Strength, Passion, Reach and Sentiment



Strongest sentiment on 3/10/12: 12:1

According to Social Mention, TJ Maxx is definitely being talked about.  In fact, the company's strength grew the most towards the end of February - around the time the online retailing announcement was made.  From what I saw, most of the discussion is on Facebook and Twitter, which makes sense, because that's where TJ Maxx has an official social media presence.  Passion about the company was strongest in early February, but it declined as reach started to increase.  That means the company has more unique authors but not as many repeat mentions.  Sentiment for TJ Mass is consistently positive, with my customers using social media to brag about their purchases.  The company averaged 8:1 positive to negative sentiment for the month.

Suggestions

As I mentioned before, TJ Maxx customers are very enthusiatic about the brand.  The company does a good job engaging this enthusiasm but I think it could make more connections by posting more frequently on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  I really like the #maxxfinds competition, but it would be great if they added other incentives.  A fan of the day or week could be prominently featured with a picture of the great outfit he or she bought at TJ Maxx or maybe a positive story from a recent shopping trip.  As for Twitter, it could be a buyer or a blogger like Lindsey Calla doing a live chat once in a while.  The same could work for YouTube, though it would be nice to see an incorporation of fan videos as well.