How does a large corporate stay grounded and connected to its most important assets, the customers?
For hundreds of years, advertising has been a one-way street, brands spoke directly to customers who could only listen. It wasn’t until the introduction of social media approximately 20 years ago that the conversation between brands and customers became a two-way street. Instead of brands shouting their messages, they now have to listen to their customers and respond. Today, not only do brands get to hear firsthand what people are saying, but they can use this conversation to improve their business. In addition, this back and forth conversation helps build brand communities where people with common interests can connect and grow together.
“Companies that can foster communication, not only between an organization and consumer but also between consumer and consumer, will reap the greatest benefits of the most connected world we’ve ever had.”
-Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Social Media
By engaging with customers and responding to comments, brands have the opportunity to build trust and a loyal customer network. Two brands, Asics and Threadless, have created thriving online communities in their own unique ways.
The Asics Running Community
Known for their running sneakers, Asics decided to build online tools to enhance their customers’ love of the sport. They have a strong community presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube; and they have added an app called Runkeeper for their running community. The Runkeeper app is the gateway to all things Asics. It offers users the ability to track their runs, listen to coach-guided workouts, and share their progress. The app also helps build the offline community by supporting running groups and creating virtual challenges like Asics World Ekiden, a relay race for groups of six running friends to compete. Overall, it’s a handy tool for runners and Asics to keep their followers engaged.
However, the Asics Runkeeper app is only the beginning of the Asics community. When users post their running statistics, routes, or flush-faced selfies, Asics is always in on the conversation. For example, Asics writes positive comments when people post what they’re proud of. Asics also responds to all negative comments and helps with technical issues by looping in their support team. Sometimes there are even funny posts by Asics like the example below.
The primary two-way conversation for Asics is on Twitter, while most user-generated content can be found on Instagram with the hashtag #TrainWithRunkeeper or #SoundMindSoundBody. To help keep the running community engaged, Asics posts helpful articles such as “How sleep can make you a better runner” or question posts like: “How are your new year’s goals going? What’s keeping you motivated?”
Influencers & Charities
In addition to praising and helping its community members, Asics celebrates people doing good things in their neighborhoods. They’ve created a second hashtag called #LiveUplifted and a special section on their YouTube channel to highlight these people. One influencer highlighted was Lance Woods, who founded a running group in Detroit called WeRun313. The group works to bring people together and offer support in a city many have abandoned.
Asics also works with Major Kim, the founder of Ainsley’s Angels. Although Kim’s daughter was born with a rare disease that prevented her from ever walking, he soon discovered that she loved being pushed in a chair while he ran. As a result, Kim created a group, Ainsley’s Angels, that brings runners and riders together. Click here to see the Live Uplifted videos of WeRun313 and Ainsley’s Angels.
Through partnerships with influencers, creating running challenges, and providing helpful resources, Asics can grow their online and offline community members. On Instagram, they have 968k followers, on Twitter: 96.8K followers, Facebook has 4.4M followers, and YouTube has 18.3k subscribers. Asics Runkeeper also has 53.3k Instagram followers and 78.4k Twitter followers.
Asics Social Media Guidelines
Asics does publish guidelines for the Runkeeper community contributors, and they have separate in-depth Employee Social Media Guidelines available to view.
Asics is continually engaging with its community; some of its latest efforts include Plogging (picking up garbage while running), Zappos sponsored Fun Run, Virtual 5k with World Athletes, and pop-up stores. Asics has genuinely built a thriving running community online and offline.
Threadless, A Community for Artists
A second brand with a robust online community is Threadless. On the surface, Threadless is a platform for artists to sell their work by printing it on various items such as t-shirts, skateboards, beach towels, etc., but it is so much more. Threadless knows the key to its success is from the success of its artists, so the company works to help the artist contributors grow and thrive.
First, Threadless offers its artists an online shop to help establish them as their independent businesses. Then, Threadless promotes the artists on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr by showing off their latest designs or retweeting the artists’ posts. Additionally, Threadless will highlight new product offerings, sales, or cheeky memes to keep its audience engaged and smiling.
When users post a complaint, Threadless replies with an apology and offers a suggestion for resolving the problem or asks for the user to send a DM. Threadless also replies to positive comments and questions in a friendly, quirky tone, which adds to the brand’s playful nature.
Artist Engagement
To encourage artists to engage with one another, Threadless offers contests for new design submissions. Each contest has its own unique theme to help inspire the artists, and then the community members can comment and rate the designs. The highest scoring design wins money, but more importantly, all of the contributing artists have a new design to sell in their “Artist Shop” (the eCommerce site Threadless artists create for themselves).
Threadless also creates YouTube videos to help educate the artists on the basics of running an online business. Each video is simple and easy for anyone to understand, and it includes topics like “Double Your Earnings” and “Owning Your Audience.” The Threadless YouTube channel is another way Threadless is working to uplift the artists and help them towards prosperity.
Influencers & Charities
Like Asics, Threadless looks to influencers who work to better society to help spread the brand’s word and gain new members. For example, Threadless highlights Erin Noon, a woman working to normalize disabilities and promote inclusion. Threadless is also working with Black_Girls_Skate, a charity organization with the mission to increase safety for “people who identify as Women, Non-binary, Trans and Black, African or Of Color.”
Threadless Social Media Guidelines
Overall, Threadless has a strong community following with 1.3M Facebook followers, 156.4k Pinterest followers, 16.3k YouTube subscribers, 405k Instagram followers, and 592.4k Twitter followers. To help keep all the Threadless communities safe and welcoming, “Community Safety & Anti-Hate Policies” are published on their site. Some of the key points mentioned are not to bully or foster a negative attitude. The policies also emphasize that Threadless is diverse and includes a community working to “celebrate all bodies.”
Wrapping Up
When brands provide helpful tools, open dialog, and value outside of what they are selling, they build trust and loyalty with their audience. Customers will support brands who listen to them by continuing to shop with them and spreading positive word-of-mouth advertising. A strong community online and offline creates both a profitable brand and happy customers.
References
Kerpen, Dave; Greenbaum, Michelle; Berk, Rob. (2019) Likeable Social Media, Third Edition: How To Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, & Be Generally Amazing On All Social Networks That Matter. McGraw Hill LLC. Kindle Edition.
Advertising. Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/advertising
