Blog Post #2: the Success of Red Bulls Social Media Platforms

The brand I chose to break down regarding their use of social media was Red Bull. I have taken into consideration their presence, following, and overall impact over Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. As well, I have compared them to their top two competitors, Monster Energy and Rockstar Energy.

INSTAGRAM:Red Bulls main Instagram account bodes an impressive 9.8 million followers. In addition to the global account, each country has its own account, with an average of 50100K followers.

Red Bull Canada (@redbullcanada) has 87.7K followers. They also have several accounts catered to specific markets; for example, there is an account for their Formula One racing team, @redbullracing, which has a loft 2.

4 million followers. What are they doing right?The overall quality of the content posted on Red Bulls Instagram is incredibly high.

Video content is produced by professional videographers and is original content owned by the brand. This means that the content is not available anywhere else and is therefore exclusive to those who follow Red Bull. In sponsoring with well-known athletes, they are able to create channels between the accounts of these popular athletes.

For example, Olympic Snowboarder Mark McMorris has an Instagram following of 745K. In posting about and tagging Red Bull, he draws traffic to the Red Bull accounts (both the global and Canadian pages). He is widely associated with the brand and many people who follow McMorris also follow the Red Bull brand.

What could they be doing better? Their following on the global Instagram account is incredible, with almost 10 million followers.In expanding their national market accounts, they need to ask: What compels consumers to follow this one instead of the main one?

What do they receive that is specially catered to their market? Or is it just a less popular version of the global account? Overall, the accounts are engaging considering the size of each market, but in looking to expand their following, the former are things to consider.

How do they stack up against their competitors?Their closest competitor, Monster Energy, has 4.9 million followers on their main account (@monsterenergy), and 242K on their second account (@monsterenergygirls), which focuses on Monsters female brand ambassadors.

Coming in second is Rockstar energy drinks their account, @rockstarenergy, has 997K followers. The Canadian version of this account, @rockstarenergycanada, has just 25.3K followers.

Overall, Red Bull has a much larger reach compared to both Monster and Hype energy drinks. I believe that this is due to Red Bulls quality and variety of content they are involved in many different sports, from common sports (such as hockey and soccer) to more extreme sports (such as cliff diving). This allows them to appeal to a much wider audience.

TWITTER:Red Bulls main account (@redbull) which covers the global market, has 2.08 million followers.Within range but still lower than the Canadian account on Instagram, @redbullcanada has 53.

6K followers on Twitter. In contrast, @redbullracing, which provides updates on their Formula One team, has 2.25 million followers.

What are they doing right?Overall, the quality of their content on Twitter is great. They interact with their associated brands (such as Burton snowboards) as well as their athletes and consumers.

They tweet out content related to the brand and link consumers to their other sites, such as Red Bull TV, for exclusive content. They tweet frequently but not so often that consumers are likely to unfollow due to over-posting.What could they be doing better?

Compared to their following on Instagram, they are lacking in followers on Twitter, with almost 8 million less on this platform. Because of this, they are missing out on engaging in a multi-platform way with a very large portion of their market. In saying this, they need to draw traffic from their more popular platforms and direct them to engage on multiple platforms (such as Twitter).

Although they do engage with their associated companies and sponsored athletes, they could definitely increase the frequency at which they respond to individual consumers. How do they stack up against their competitors?Their main competitor, Monster Energy, has almost 1 million more followers than the main Red Bull account on Twitter.

They do not engage with individual consumers or with their associated brands as Red Bull does, so this puts Red Bull a step ahead despite their lower follower count.FACEBOOK:48.9 million people like their main page, @RedBull on Facebook.

They post high quality content frequently mainly videos and photos and very fews text-only posts.What are they doing right?Overall, they have great numbers on Facebook, spreading their content to a massive audience.

Like their other platforms, their content is engaging and connects the user to Red Bulls other platforms, such as Red Bull TV and their social media. They have created a great brand image for themselves that is consistent with their other platforms.What could they be doing better?

From what I saw on their Facebook page, they do not engage much with their audience (eg. those who comment on the content on their page). Engaging with their audience on all platforms is important in building a relationship with the consumer and creating higher brand equity and awareness.

How do they stack up against their competitors?On Facebook, the Monster Energy page has accumulated a total of 24.6 million likes.

Red Bull has almost twice as many likes on Facebook. I believe this is because Monster appeals to a much smaller demographic, those who are into extreme sports such as dirt biking and monster trucks. In addition, the quality of their content (mainly video) is acceptable but slightly lower quality than Red Bulls video content.

Many posts on their Facebook wall have less than 10 comments, a much lower number than those of Red Bulls Facebook page. Overall ImpressionRed Bulls main target demographic, young adults aged 1824, are incredibly active on social media. In realizing this, they have grown their social media to take advantage of this direct route to this demographic.

To add to what they are doing well, their usernames are consistent across all platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc). This maintains consistency and availability of the brand.Overall, Red Bull has a social media presence that increases their brand equity and brand image.

They are able to connect with a huge number of consumers and potential consumers across all of their platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Each of these platforms allows for successful trans-media campaigns. For example, their Instagram and Twitter content contains links to their other pages, such as their exclusive Red Bull TV streaming service and the Red Bull website, where consumers can find more information on their products, events and athletes