A fresh look at social media marketing strategy of Apple
All the large brands are using social media to achieve their business and marketing objectives. One social media account has become a multipurpose solution for many branding and marketing related needs. Businesses are using their social media accounts to connect with their customers, run their campaigns, and discussions. Apple is among the largest tech companies in the world. It is the first one to have surpassed the two trillion dollar market cap. The tech industry is marked by heavy competition. A few things have become crucial for a strong competitive advantage. One of them is brand recognition, which can be achieved through successful marketing. Social media platforms have emerged as a great marketing solution because of their reach and efficiency. Networks like Facebook offer some great advantages, apart from access to a large global audience. These features can be used to build great relationships, as well as excellent and lasting connections. Apple has also used social media to deepen its reach among its customers. Its number of followers on each of these platforms highlights its popularity around the globe.
This is a discussion of how the brand uses social media to connect with its fans and followers and engage them.
Facebook:
Facebook is the leading social network used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives. Its popularity is the highest of all social media platforms, and it also boasts of the largest audience. Apart from that, it offers a great social media experience that brands can use to engage their customers better. You can use it for promotions or even for discussions and conversations with your fans & followers. Several of the large brands have active social media teams to interact with their fans on Facebook continuously. Apple has several accounts on each of these platforms. Its main account has 11 million followers, whereas there is also a support page that has less. An unofficial page named Apple has around 11 million followers too. However, Apple has not used Facebook for active promotions, as most brands do. Its Facebook account is just a touchpoint. That is a surprising fact since Facebook has become the main marketing tool for several businesses. There can be several reasons behind it. When all the birds flock to the same field, it grows a little crowded. Apple uses its own website and blogs more than these social media channels. It exercises more care than others. Facebook exposes your business to a huge crowd of followers. However, if you are not a shrewd marketer, you may also be through some mess. Apple is either shrewd or likes being lazy.
Twitter:
On Twitter too, Apple has several accounts. Each one is dedicated to something different like one for iTunes, one for Apple Music, one for support. Apple’s main official page has not made any tweets and yet it has two million followers. The support page on the other hand tweets to followers on important technical issues. It is for education and awareness. Apple likes keeping its users aware of the latest technical features of Apple products and their use and care. This is a smart use of social media tools for customer service and engagement. Apple Music page has the highest number of followers at 9.8 Million. On the other hand, the iTunes page has around 1.3 million followers. The Apple Music account on Twitter is highly popular which is evident from the high number of followers, likes, and retweets. Apple’s social media activity is higher on Twitter than Facebook. The reason is real-time engagement. In terms of video marketing, Twitter and YouTube are more attractive than Facebook. Apple has used social media mainly to connect with customers. No overuse; no wastage. You won’t see elaborate promotions on its Facebook page except for a few images.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s Twitter account is highly active. He tweets regularly through his Twitter account about Apple products and events and likes to remain in touch with his fans and followers worldwide.
Instagram:
Apple’s Instagram page shows a very high level of engagement. Instagram is an attractive social media network for engaging users. Its many features are suitable for promotions and engagement. Apart from its album, like look and feel, which makes it suitable for promotions, its comments and conversations also make it a great tool for communication. Apple is already a trendy and famous brand. The number of likes on each of its posts on Insta is in the thousands. The number of responses is also very high. This is an excellent level of engagement and shows that Apple is great at churning excitement. The brand’s main Instagram account has around 24.3 Million followers, whereas that of Apple Music has higher than 4.4 million followers. The brand talks very little on these pages, and still, the level of engagement is excellent. Instagram is mainly for sharing multimedia content. In recent years, Apple has increased its use of such content in its marketing campaigns.
YouTube:
On YouTube, too, the brand has used several accounts to reach its customers. However, the good news is that very few brands might have as large a follower base as Apple. Apple’s main account has 13.4 million followers whereas the Apple support account has around 680 K. This is the era of video marketing, and Apple uses videos actively for promotions. This is why YouTube is an essential platform for Apple to engage its followers. It’s also a great platform for running social media campaigns. Several of Apple’s 245 videos have attracted a huge number of visits. Its iPhone X unleash video has received more than 8 million visits in just a month.
Apple’s use of social media is very different from most other brands. It does not use social media for just marketing or promotions or only customer service. Its Facebook account shows no action. However, it uses other social media platforms for customer engagement very well. The brand uses Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube mainly for engaging its users. Apple’s social media strategy looks much different from any other brand. While it has not overlooked the potential of social media altogether, it has utilized these channels with caution. The only major challenge with the use of social media is that you need to be careful. Otherwise, a brand may also end up spoiling its image unintentionally. Many have committed such errors. Apple looks careful but confident and cool. What do you think? Is not Apple’s approach to social media marketing different?
Sources:
Apple social media accounts