Comparing Social Media in Business

Social media has become almost a necessity for businesses in today’s world, and with good reason.  Sites such as Facebook and Twitter offer platforms in which businesses can take advantage of free advertising, reach new customers, promote their products, and allow for instant communication between company representatives and customers.  To learn more about how companies use social media, I followed two popular retailers, Eastbay and Nike.com to see how they compared with one another, specifically using Facebook and Twitter.

Both Eastbay and Nike.com use social media as a way to advertise their company and their brand.  They often send advertisements about new products, seasonal gear, or pictures and videos promoting their brand.  The advertisements themselves are similar, featuring either the product as the focus of the ad, or featuring sports athletes.  Advertising in this manner is often used on Facebook and Twitter.  Both are free, have the potential to reach thousands, or even millions of people, and can get the word out to customers the moment something is available.

Both companies also engage with customers directly using Facebook and Twitter.  Customers can send messages regarding new products, availability, and order issues, and can get a response in an instant.  Both Nike.com and Eastbay use this heavily, having company representatives on hand to respond to inquiries.  From a customer standpoint, this is perhaps the largest benefit of all from social media.

There were only a few differences I found between the two companies’ use of social media.  Nike.com has a much larger fan base, having 3.8 million followers on Twitter.  They also appear to be more active, having over 239,000 tweets sent out, though they only follow 187 people.  Eastbay has 335,000 followers, has sent 62,000 tweets, but follows many more people, at 5,655.  Despite Nike.com being the much larger company, I found Eastbay’s social media approach to be the better of the two.

Looking at each company’s website, Eastbay does a much better job of promoting its social media presence.  Nike.com has small links to their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.  Eastbay.com has large, obvious links to these same sites, but also include Vine, G+, and Pinterest.  It’s obvious that they want to reach their customers by as many means as they can.  In addition to social media, Eastbay also includes options to sign up for email and text notifications, or live chat with a representative.

Nike.com social media icons.

Eastbay.com social media icons

Social media has indeed been a game changer for the way companies advertise and interact with customers, and the influence is still growing.  I doubt this method of customer interaction is going to go away anytime soon.

Eastbay:   facebook.com/Eastbay               @Eastbay

Nike.com: facebook.com/NikeStoreNow     @nikestore