Is social media taking over the way in which reputations and branding companies are built? Every company is striving for new ways to sell products whilst maintaining a good reputation of their brand.
Brands are battling the ever-growing social media platforms each day, trying to keep up with a number of platforms in order to reach as many target audiences as possible. Social media is not only a way of reaching consumers and increasing sales but also a way of identifying themselves as a brand. This might be considered tough with the growth in social media, and the vast amount of different platforms to go to. From Coca-Cola to Etsy, every brand is trying to make themselves known when it comes to social media, some of which know what they are trying to, more than others.
Let’s look at a brand that have social media really figured out, how they use this to engage with their customers and the aspects that really make them successful on social media platforms. Etsy are an online marketplace selling handmade and vintage items – some simple and some more unusual. They use their social media platforms mainly to promote these items and bring them to the attention of the target audiences. Having such a wide range of products, they use numerous social media platforms essentially to meet the endless amounts of target audiences the site attracts. Etsy has created a great social media presence using a wide range of platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Blogging. They focus their social media platforms in different ways of engaging with the audience.
Their largest social platform, being Twitter, with a massive 2 million followers, gives them the opportunity to reach a wide variety of followers and ways to advertise their products. The way in which they do this is simple for customers, with direct links to the products for views to click and buy in a few simple steps. They keep the advertising light and quirky with a small caption to header each link.
They also use Twitter and Facebook to promote their blog posts. This gives their followers regular updates on Etsy news and subjects that will interest them such as Etsy site updates and getting ready for Christmas ideas.
YouTube offers them a chance to give sellers – old or new advice on selling their products and the best way to do this.
Etsy uses Instagram, with its huge 58 followers, to provides images of items that are for sale but it also integrates the audience by asking them questions about the products or their views. Below you can see an example of asking a question that relates back to their current competition to win an Etsy voucher.
We think the key aspect to making social media successful is really engaging with the audience. Etsy have made this work by talking to the audience through all social media sites and show them products, articles and news that will interest the audience, whilst all the time advertising their products. As much as there is a huge variety in the target audience for this online marketplace, the consumers have one interest in common – handmade and vintage products. Etsy have almost everything you could imagine and they use social media to advertise this very well.
