âł 5 minute read.
Most brands are frantically creating content or jumping on the latest trends in an attempt to stay relevant to its social media fans and customers.
Not Apple.
As previously blogged back in August, it was no surprise to see that Apple sticking to its marketing approach – which was to do nothing on social media.
This prompted me to dig a little deeper into this brand’s social media strategy.
There were no exceptions for the recent (Tuesday, September 15th) #AppleEvent where the company unveiled its new Apple Watches and iPads. Apple did nothing on social media – apart from update its cover photo on Facebook and Twitter. Thatâs it. No fancy product shots, no live-streams, no artsy videos of the latest products/services. Nope, just an abstract looking cover photo.
Apple boasts around 17 million+ fans and followers across Facebook and Twitter, but the two platforms have hardly posted any shareable content between them. It really does make the brand look arrogant and too lazy to even engage or entertain its millions of fans who empty out their pockets for the latest Apple products.
Why?
Answer: Apple doesnât need the extra exposure.
Most brands use social media to increase their exposure and brand awareness. The truth is, Apple doesnât need to do that; love them or hate them, everyone knows who Apple is. In fact, they create so much hype with their launch events that people will literally camp outside of their stores.
Despite not having a daily/weekly content schedule, users have still flocked to the latest ‘cover update’ posts to try and spark some kind of engagement from the brand – only to be met with radio silence.
Cristina was so angry that she felt the need to copy and paste her message 3+ times! Good luck with getting a response girl.
This was one of the last (RARE) posts where Apple actually bothered to write out and publish an actual post and video. Instead of âsellingâ the Mac as a must-have product, they promoted an aspirational lifestyle that someone (you) could have with a Mac.
Twitter:
Apple is known to use Twitter for its launch events by incorporating a customised hashtag. This year, it used the #AppleEvent hashtag which provided users with a tiny moment of glee as the ‘heart’ icon animated when clicked on.
The biggest advantage to Apple not using Facebook and Twitter is the lack of negative comments from users clogging their feeds. Users are still able to tweet at Apple but nobody besides that userâs followers are going to see it. This approach could only last for so long. Everyone knows that you can not escape the customer service element if you’re placed on social media. Cue the arrival of Apple Support.
YouTube:
They have 12m+ followers on YouTube and they have not given any of them the courtesy of commenting on any of its videos. Given that comments are closed on YouTube, it would seem that they try to keep their communication lines as far as possible from public view, which could be exploited by trolls.
Apple’s account is more like a movement and a creative community. The Instagram stream does not showcase pics prompting users to: âBuy the new iPhone Xâ but instead shows pictures that come directly from an iPhone – just like the approach on Facebook with the ‘this is what you can achieve‘ sentiment. It looks like Apple has positioned its strategy to a spot where all of its content is user-generated and shot from an iPhone itself.
@DigitalVinGill 