Social Media is incredibly important to the modern day company and to those who need to stay connected with a community. Today’s technology makes it easy to interact with others through platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and more. Building a community with consumers is an important factor in generating sales and product awareness in this age’s society. Companies such as Nike have an opportunity to take advantage of social media to promote and interact with customers. Nike does exactly this; with numerous profiles on all the most popular social media sites, Nike uses the sources for a couple different reasons. They post product information and new releases on their profiles, as well as new commercials, videos made for the social media platforms themselves, and answer and interact with individuals that comment at them.
The capabilities of social media are important and can’t be overlooked. The platform is an opportunity to generate an initial reaction and feedback on a new product launch. The company can post the information and instantly hear the communities’ opinions on the new content simply by checking notifications of users that interact with them. Another incredibly powerful aspect of a social media presence is inside looks and content that make customers feel more connected to the brand. Nike takes advantage of this and posts inspirational and high quality pictures to capture customers attention, give them something cool to look at and subtly establish their brand in the consumers’ head. Even videos are made solely for the social media platform that can once again generate brand awareness and give users something to interact with.
One of the most important aspects of social media is the opportunity to reach out and connect with an individual customer. Twitter is a great example of this. Users post tweets linking Nike’s twitter handle in it incredibly frequently, and Nike has the opportunity to take advantage of this and form a slight relationship with the customer. They choose to tweet back with motivating phrases, powerful statements and push active activities, all detailing the brands motive and what it means to be a part of the brand. This presence adds value to the brand, it displays what the priority behind the products are, such as getting out and running with their running shoes, and gives the user that Nike interacted with a positive feeling that ties in to their decision to buy from the company again.
The brands engagement has made them very relevant on social media. Nike is more than just a product line, they’re a lifestyle choice and this drive behind the company makes them perfect for forming an active social media community. Nike is therefore a powerhouse on social media; their Facebook page has over 24 million people that “Like” and follow the page, and nearly 6 million followers on their Twitter page. These are impressive numbers for the platforms and provide an impressive base to interact with and engage in all the actions they do that I mentioned above.
One of the coolest aspects of Nike’s social media presence is their split accounts. Not only do they just have their one “Nike” company account, they have an account separated for each sport they engage in. As an athletics company, they have a wide variety of products and customers with varying interests. This stands out as the coolest aspect of their social media presence to me, as they have engaging communities subcategorized to appeal to a different sport and therefore a different audience. Each profile has an impressive follower count too, with Nike Basketball nearly hitting 2 million followers on Twitter and even their golf page (which is one of their newest business ventures) sitting at 600,000 twitter followers, doubling their competitor TaylorMade that work solely in the golf business. Nike clearly takes advantage of the social media platforms that serve as highly important to modern day business and brand culture.
Nike is an innovative company and stays up to beat with modern culture. Their engagement in social media and in technology in general proves this. Not only do they have their multitudes of social media communities, they also have a long list of mobile applications; Nike+ Running, Nike+ Training Club, and Nike+ Move are just a few. These are important in once again generating customer engagement with the brand. The more avenues consumers have to submerse themselves in the brand and interact with the company the better. All the benefits remain, increased brand awareness, customer engagement and a community for a distribution channel that all benefit the company a substantial amount. Nike’s strong social media presence makes the relevant on the platform and further strengthens the active lifestyle that their brand boasts.
KyleCosca 