An interesting case for study: Gucci
Gucci has long been one of the worlds leading luxury fashion brands, with a reputation for creativity. While the brand has a strong presence across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, their largest audience is on Facebook, with over 15 million fans and growing.
Gucci is a very interesting case for analysis, because they dont really sell products that are available for all audiences, in fact, their products are inaccessible for most of the people, but that doesnt keep them for engaging with large audiences and building a solid reputation, even among people who are never going to buy something from them.
Lets take a look at the tactics Gucci uses to grow its audience base and build loyalty on Facebook.
How to Create the Perfect Post on Any Network
Posting Regularly: Gucci posts on Facebook regularly, which helps keep the brand top-of-mind for fans and also helps generate constant engagement. Gucci received over 109K Likes (Page Likes and Post Likes), 2.4K comments, and over 7K shares between 9/1/16-9/30/16, all with only 79 posts. That adds up to over 1.5K engagement per post.
Posting Relevant Content: Gucci understands that most of their fans do not get a chance to see behind-the-scenes happenings or high-profile events at Fashion Week. Thats why the brand posts well-crafted images and videos to draw customers into their world, encouraging a more substantial attachment and leading to a high amount of engagement.
Using New Features: Gucci has been using Facebook Live, which is an incredible feature for generating engagement and forging more intimate and immediate relationships with your audience. Gucci has used Facebook Live for quite a few events. The second-most engaging post in this data period was Guccis video post, a short recorded video of their Facebook Live session:
Especially worth noting here: the day Gucci shared the event on Facebook (Sept 19th), they saw the highest growth in the number of followers during this data period.
Apart from generating over 120K in total engagement, Gucci has seen a 0.5% increase in the number of followers from the initial period (beginning of the month). While this number looks small, given the huge followers base Gucci has, it translates to over 73K in follower growth, which is substantial and indicates a healthy and growing community for Gucci on that platform
Representing Celebrity Partnerships: Partnering with celebrities, especially for a luxury brand like Gucci, is nothing new. Its a great way to build brand equity and amplify brand reach. Guccis post about their new perfume, Gucci Guilty, starred Jared Leto and was one of the most engaging posts in this data period. With this kind of partnership Gucci is making their own kind of influencer marketing, its actually a good example on how to do that correctly.
Sure, most of us cant talk with Jared Leto for a campaign, however we can talk with our niches influencers for doing similar campaigns.
Writing Thoughtful Copy: When it comes to luxury branding, messaging is key. Good messaging helps consumers understand products better. Gucci writes unique, succinct copy for its Facebook posts, which helps them stand out. Guccis copy for their Fall/Winter 2016 sandals is short and creative, highlighting the most important aspects of the sandal. This was the third-most engaging post in September:
With over 1.7 billion people logging in each day, Facebook provides a unique opportunity for marketers who want to promote brand discovery, enhance brand awareness, and encourage community engagement. All of these factors contribute to keeping brands top-of-mind on Facebook.
A good team: Guccis facebook is amazing, sure, but it has an even more amazing teams of marketers behind, and that is one of the most valuable lessons we can learn from them: the importance of organizing a good team for your marketing.
Either you are a big company, or a small and local business, having a good team for your social media marketing is essential, social media has so many roles and responsibilities now a days that having a single person managing everything can be quite a mess, thats why hiring a team, or at least two people, is a good idea, is the best way of ensuring all the plan will be done.
Designing a good content calendar: Guccis content is not published just according the teams mood, they surely have a very exhaustive calendar, where they plan all the content with weeks or even months of anticipation, that allow them to know everything they have to do each day, and make sure that nothing is left behind or is forgotten.
Not many marketers and community managers out there are using content calendar for their strategies, and I believe thats something that need to change, a good calendar is fundamental in any strategy know a days. If you are still not using one, search one in Pinterest, you can find a lot of calendars ideas and examples out there!.
Keeping a good storytelling: I started my post saying that Gucci example was very interesting because they could keep a big audience, even if their product were accesible only to a fraction of that audience, I believe one of the reasons they can do this is storytelling.
Gucci has a very solid story telling, that appeal to all audiences and attracts them, even people who know that they will never buy Gucci follows them, because they like the content and they like the story that content says.
Gucci is one of the most interesting examples I came across about a successful social media strategy, but I know that is not the only one, a lot of brands are investing a lot of money, time and resources to improve their social media and appeal to large audiences, but I dont think you necessarily need to be as big as Gucci for having good social media, you just need to be creative, organized, and willing to work on a team. Thats everything you need, there is no magic formula about it.
Gucci is a very interesting case for analysis, because they dont really sell products that are available for all audiences, in fact, their products are inaccessible for most of the people, but that doesnt keep them for engaging with large audiences and building a solid reputation, even among people who are never going to buy something from them.
Lets take a look at the tactics Gucci uses to grow its audience base and build loyalty on Facebook.
How to Create the Perfect Post on Any Network
Posting Regularly: Gucci posts on Facebook regularly, which helps keep the brand top-of-mind for fans and also helps generate constant engagement. Gucci received over 109K Likes (Page Likes and Post Likes), 2.4K comments, and over 7K shares between 9/1/16-9/30/16, all with only 79 posts. That adds up to over 1.5K engagement per post.
Posting Relevant Content: Gucci understands that most of their fans do not get a chance to see behind-the-scenes happenings or high-profile events at Fashion Week. Thats why the brand posts well-crafted images and videos to draw customers into their world, encouraging a more substantial attachment and leading to a high amount of engagement.
Using New Features: Gucci has been using Facebook Live, which is an incredible feature for generating engagement and forging more intimate and immediate relationships with your audience. Gucci has used Facebook Live for quite a few events. The second-most engaging post in this data period was Guccis video post, a short recorded video of their Facebook Live session:
Especially worth noting here: the day Gucci shared the event on Facebook (Sept 19th), they saw the highest growth in the number of followers during this data period.
Apart from generating over 120K in total engagement, Gucci has seen a 0.5% increase in the number of followers from the initial period (beginning of the month). While this number looks small, given the huge followers base Gucci has, it translates to over 73K in follower growth, which is substantial and indicates a healthy and growing community for Gucci on that platform
Representing Celebrity Partnerships: Partnering with celebrities, especially for a luxury brand like Gucci, is nothing new. Its a great way to build brand equity and amplify brand reach. Guccis post about their new perfume, Gucci Guilty, starred Jared Leto and was one of the most engaging posts in this data period. With this kind of partnership Gucci is making their own kind of influencer marketing, its actually a good example on how to do that correctly.
Sure, most of us cant talk with Jared Leto for a campaign, however we can talk with our niches influencers for doing similar campaigns.
Writing Thoughtful Copy: When it comes to luxury branding, messaging is key. Good messaging helps consumers understand products better. Gucci writes unique, succinct copy for its Facebook posts, which helps them stand out. Guccis copy for their Fall/Winter 2016 sandals is short and creative, highlighting the most important aspects of the sandal. This was the third-most engaging post in September:
With over 1.7 billion people logging in each day, Facebook provides a unique opportunity for marketers who want to promote brand discovery, enhance brand awareness, and encourage community engagement. All of these factors contribute to keeping brands top-of-mind on Facebook.
A good team: Guccis facebook is amazing, sure, but it has an even more amazing teams of marketers behind, and that is one of the most valuable lessons we can learn from them: the importance of organizing a good team for your marketing.
Either you are a big company, or a small and local business, having a good team for your social media marketing is essential, social media has so many roles and responsibilities now a days that having a single person managing everything can be quite a mess, thats why hiring a team, or at least two people, is a good idea, is the best way of ensuring all the plan will be done.
Designing a good content calendar: Guccis content is not published just according the teams mood, they surely have a very exhaustive calendar, where they plan all the content with weeks or even months of anticipation, that allow them to know everything they have to do each day, and make sure that nothing is left behind or is forgotten.
Not many marketers and community managers out there are using content calendar for their strategies, and I believe thats something that need to change, a good calendar is fundamental in any strategy know a days. If you are still not using one, search one in Pinterest, you can find a lot of calendars ideas and examples out there!.
Keeping a good storytelling: I started my post saying that Gucci example was very interesting because they could keep a big audience, even if their product were accesible only to a fraction of that audience, I believe one of the reasons they can do this is storytelling.
Gucci has a very solid story telling, that appeal to all audiences and attracts them, even people who know that they will never buy Gucci follows them, because they like the content and they like the story that content says.
Gucci is one of the most interesting examples I came across about a successful social media strategy, but I know that is not the only one, a lot of brands are investing a lot of money, time and resources to improve their social media and appeal to large audiences, but I dont think you necessarily need to be as big as Gucci for having good social media, you just need to be creative, organized, and willing to work on a team. Thats everything you need, there is no magic formula about it.