In today’s world, every business seems to be on at least one form of social media. In fact, nowadays it has become the norm for a business to have a social media account. Social media is where many people go to gain information about business or news in general. Statistics show that about 2/3 of Americans get their news from social media. It seems like a surreal number considering how many news stations there are that people could go to for news.
Generally, it is understood that some businesses are better at using social media than other businesses. One business in particular that is a leader when it comes to the effective use of social media is Google. It is possible Google has become so good at understanding how to effectively use social media because they a large internet service provider; their whole business started online. Google has also bought a couple social media platforms, like YouTube, so surely, they have some understanding of what it means to use social media effectively or else that part of the company would have fallen apart.
When it comes to Instagram, Google is very effective at using it as a marketing tool. One noticeable thing Google does is collaborate with other creators or social media influencers that use Instagram. Google will reach out to users and ask them to come up with a creative way they can assist in the marketing of Google. For example, Google collaborated with an Instagram account (@mister_krisp) who has hundreds of posts where they make cool designs with cereal and melted marshmallows (popularly known as rice krispies). @mister_krisp decided to make the Google logo. This was effective because Google reached out to a smaller account that interacts with its followers, effectively reaching 60,000 people who have some form of a relationship with @mister_krisp. It is a way for Google to interact with thousands of people without actually having to do it themselves. It is a smart marketing method that Google effectively takes advantage of.
With the use of Instagram and other creators on Instagram, Google is able to post original content that is appealing and eye-catching for the viewers. An original series that Google promotes is for them to find different ways to show off their “G” logo, which they call the “SuperG”. Typically, Google will look for other creators on Instagram, like @mister_krisp, to find a creative way to represent the “SuperG”. Along with this, Google has released a smartphone called the Pixel and activity shares the photos people take on the phone. Google likes to show of those creators who use the Pixel phone to produce photos, and Google has even gone so far as to make a hashtag out of it. In fact, those who use the pixel to take photos, Google refers to as “TeamPixel”. By Google showcasing the photos of others who use the Pixel phone, it makes others want to buy the Pixel and create photos themselves in hopes of being featured. It also shows the quality of the images on the phone (which is what the Pixel phone is known for). Through the use of social media, Google has managed to get people to come up with original content for them through the use of the Pixel phone, they don’t have to lift a finger.
The posts on Google’s Instagram accounts are all different and creative in their own way. Within their Instagram posts, they have incorporated amusement, inspiration, critical perspective, and information. Amusement by the different styles of posts and the types of posts (the different ways they display the Google logo); inspiration by the jaw-dropping images that are inspirational themselves; critical perspective by raising awareness for certain topics of interests, like international children’s book day; information by sharing stories about people and where they come from or even information about the company and the different things they offer. Google has some of the most effective posts as they include key elements to consider when posting on social media.
Google also effectively uses the social media platform Twitter. Google uses the Twitter platform to give constant updates about information regarding Google. For example, recently they just announced that they have reached their 2017 goal of purchasing enough renewable energy to fully match their electricity use. Whereas Instagram is where the post more of the creative content, Twitter is the main platform they use in order to share information about the business. Using the Twitter platform, they effectively use the key element of utility as the information they tweet is useful for those who follow the company or want an easy stay updated with the currents of Google.
Google has also relegalized they can use their mass social media following to do some good. Google uses their social media accounts to raise awareness for certain topics they feel as though need to be examined and are worthy of support. Social media is becoming an increasingly popular way to raise awareness on topics like gender equality, Google recognizes this and has jumped on the bandwagon. They understand they can sway their social media followers to help out with the issues they feel need to be supported.
While examining Google, one thing to look at is the frequency of the posts. When running a social media account for a company it is important to post frequently, whether they are creative posts or informational posts. It is important because it will keep the engaging followers engaged and it will update everyone who follows the company with the most current information about them. Google seems to post something at least once every day, maybe not on every platform, but at least once a day on at least one platform. Linked to the frequency of posts it is important to examine if the company tries to engage with its followers. In the case of Google, after going through some of their posts on different social media accounts, it does not look like they engage with their audience through the use of the comment section. It is understandable that a company with that many followers would find it hard to reply to all of the comments, but it does not seem like they make the effort to reply to any. For example, a company like Tesla or SpaceX has relatively the same number of followers as Google, however, the CEO of both, Elon Musk, is able to reply to some of the comments or tweets that are related to his businesses. In this sense, Google needs to improve its engagement with their social media followers.
Google purchased a large video streaming service known as YouTube a while back and now uses the social media platform to produce videos of their own. Videos are one of the most effective ways to get information across as our primary sense is vision. Because of this, it is important to make sure the videos are of good quality, both in terms of the content within the video and the actual graphics quality of the video. Most of the videos posted are advertisements about their products or information about certain issues that should be brought to people attention. When people think of advertisements they automatically assume the ad will be boring, however, Google has found a way to make the videos both visually appealing and informational.
Although Google does not directly use this as a form of social media for their company, Google has developed a way for people to get paid for their use of social media. Google has a program called AdSense that allows for publishers to post ads on other content creators posts. Of course, this is all done with both parties’ permission. Google’s program has allowed for people to do things like post YouTube video’s as a full-time job. In this sense, Google has allowed people to do social media as their full-time job opening up a bunch of possibilities for creators. Alongside AdSense, Google has developed a way for people to get statistics about virtually anything they want. On the home page of Google Analytics, there is a quote that says, “Google’s analytics products helped us improve engagement by 33% and click-throughs by 21% for content promotions on our homepage.” Based on the quote, it is obvious that Google Analytics has helped the company out in terms of social media and its engagement and content promotions.
Overall, Google effectively uses social media. Google uses some of the key elements (utility, amusement, information, critical perspective, and inspiration) in order to make sure their content is appealing to the audience, engaging, and provides a clear point of view. Google is successful at using social media in order to promote their business and to keep people up to date with things that are occurring within the business. Google is obviously doing something right with their social media accounts and they have several million followers on each individual platform. That is not something that is easily achievable no matter who or what you are.
