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What are industry leading brands doing on social that is new and different? Brands like Taco Bell, Netflix, Spotify, GoPro and I also need to include Chegg
Hello! Thanks for your question about leading industry brands and what they are doing different on social media platforms. The most useful sources I found to answer your question are the websites for business today and social media today. The short version is that leading industry brands are expanding their services beyond the product to encompass the entire brand experience. And this is a strategy that works well with young audiences. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
NETFLIX
In 2012, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, increased the price of the company's stock from $70.45 to $81.72 with a simple Facebook message that congratulated his team. The accidental combination of transparency and social media power went down well with the public; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), noted that Hastings released information that rose the stock price, without providing hard data. From that day, Netflix has released its quarterly financial results, and other companies have followed to reap the benefits of transparency.
Netflix continues to demonstrate its ability to listen to its audience and respond accordingly. In the past, it noticed the complaints on Twitter about people falling asleep and waking up two episodes later and implemented Netflix Socks, which paused the show when the wearer fell asleep. This technlogy went on to win awards, and it further rose the price of Netflix's stock.
Another strength of Netflix is that it is a strong believer of it's product and is able to influence people with its enthusiasm. Their engineers are big fans of entertainment.
In Facebook, Netflix uses geo-targeting to show relevant material for each region of the world. Netflix has also shown skill in its social media humour. It has a unique voice that is full of wit, humor, and casual language. Netflix also answers to their Facebook fans' comments on a regular basis.
TACO BELL
In recent years, Taco Bell went from a struggling business to a social media star. It has redirected its business to provide an experience rather than just a product, and this is something that resonates with millennials. Studies show that in Twitter, people expect a company to respond within an hour, and this company responds almost immediately.
Taco Bell demonstrates that it is human too. It interacts with its customers through channels like the #TacoEmojiEngine, and their messages to customers are always tailored and never robot-like. As part of their marketing strategy, they release new products in unexpected ways, and this keeps customers curious. For example, they used a six second Vine video to introduce their new Doritos Locos Tacos.
To launch its app, Taco Bell created a campaign of shutting down all of its succesful media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Snapchat, Instagram, Google+, and their website. They kept only a single post in each of these channels, promoting the hashtag #onlyintheapp and a link for the users to download the app. The "Blackout" campaign urged its followers to reconnect with Taco Bell on their new app that offered a purchasing option for orders. At the time, Taco Bell's Facebook page had 10,637,246 likes, its Instagram account had 4.8 million followers, and its Twitter account had 1.4 million followers.
In the first 24 hours of the app, 75% of all stores had processed a mobile order. In two days the app was downloaded more than 300,000 times. And it rose to the top spot in the iTunes Store for the Food & Beverage category.
SPOTIFY
Spotify was founded in 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden and later moved its operations to London. Following great success in Europe, it launched in the US in 2011. As part of its marketing plan to launch in the US, Spotify used scarce invitations. It partnered with a rating site called Klout to give out 100,000 invites. Users on Klout would receive an invite only if their Klout score was high. Klout score is a direct measure of a person's influence within Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. This plan guaranteed that only Klout users who were influencers on social media would get an invitation. Interest for these invitations was so high that Klout crashed due to an overload of users.
Spotify has been able to gain users rapidly because of its connection to socia media sites. Today a Facebook account is needed to register, unless the user joined before 2011. Spotify uses Facebook to enhance their user experience. Both Facebook and Twitter allow the company to promote new artists and music. Spotify also uses these channels to drive users to their premium services. On Facebook they have more than 2.4 million "likes." They post on average once a day. On Twitter they have 264,000 followers, and they tweet on average four times a day.
GO PRO
Go Pro released a campaign where professional athletes did stunt-work while recording their adventure with the company's small wearable camera. Then Go Pro uploaded the footage on their social media channels. Amateurs and fans were able to upload their footage as well. In this manner, the company grew organically by allowing its fans and users to market for them. Go Pro understands the feedback cycle between adventure, social media, and their gadgets. It curates the footage received from users on Instagram through their Photo of the Day and Video of the Day contests. In this way it guarantees high quality material for its audience. Go Pro states that it does not use social media to sell their product but to promote a lifestyle of adventure.
In 2014, Go Pro increased its output of content on Instagram by 71%, and as the volume of content increased so did its engagement.
CHEGG
Chegg is book vendor that focuses on children and academics. It promotes its business of books by incorporating services like Chegg tutors and Chegg music. With these two services Chegg is using social media channels to grow; books alone would not have managed to reach out to as many people. What makes Chegg unique is the ability to access students directly through textbook orders, allowing Chegg to market their contest Chegg Music 101 through inserts placed in their iconic orange textbook boxes (that are mailed to students at the beginning of the each semester).
Chegg Music 101 is a month-long competition where students can win the chance to see their favorite artist perform at their school.
The Chegg 101 music experience consists of three stages. First, the contestants register on a landing page. Second, students nation-wide connect on the day of the event through on-site social activation. Third, the live event takes place, and this is followed by a Q&A with the artist.
The competition helps support music education, and it gives artist visibility. In turn, these artist attract new crowds to this company's service. Chegg Music 101 uses marketing channels such as textbook boxes, email marketing, organic and paid social media marketing, on-site marketing, and Pandora ads.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, leading industry brands are expanding their services beyond the product to encompass the entire brand experience. And this is a strategy that works well with young audiences. Thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!