In February 2009 The North Face had no social media strategy.  They considered their efforts an utter-flop for the brand.  They were communicating every so often with their customers, rarely responding to fans/followers on Facebook and Twitter (8627 Facebook Fans and 1087 Twitter Followers).  In April 2009, Amy Mengel did a great assessment of the brand's social media efforts in her blog post, Social Media Smackdown: Mtn Hardwear vs. The North Face. In just 12 months the company was able to gain a total of 150,000 Facebook Fans and 10,000 Twitter Followers.

What did they do? Small Changes, Big Results

• Hired a content manager
• Changed their Facebook landing page strategy by creating custom pages using FBML blocks
• Encouraged Athletes to post
• 3-5 Twitter posts per day, not repeating Facebook Content
• Created the microsite, NeverStopExploring.com (branded content from brand influencers, athlete contributors)
• Created Community at PlanetExplore.com

Advice from The North Face

To qualify as social media the experience must allow users to share,participate, connect or contribute in a way that facilitates conversation or contributes to shared content.

This interview was conducted as part of a suvery for the Linkshare Conference in February 2010 and was part of Joey Shepp's presentation at the conference.