Nike and social media

Brands like Nike are using all the tools offered by the various social media platforms. Here’s how they are tackling it.

The social media platforms marketers have access to these days are filled with opportunity. It has its challenges, the tools we have at our disposal are wide and large but when used properly, they can greatly help a brand make a connection with its audience.

Hence the case of Nike, pulled from a BrandTotal study on fashion brands.

As reported over at CMO Council, Nike seems to be using the various opportunities social media brings to its own advantage.

The report itself, and the article by Tom Kaneshige explains how Nike is using organic posts, in combination with dark ads, but also how they are using purpose-driven brand initiatives to create an even better connection with their audience.

What are dark posts?

Dark posts are brand publications on a page that are published as ads. These posts are not visible when visiting the page itself, they do no appear in the page’s public feed. Since they are ads, they allow the brand to target audiences much more precisely and direct messages to specific segments of people.

What is interesting is that even though dark posts are most often used for more conversion-oriented messaging, BrandTotal suspects that Nike is using it to better control potential negative sentiment from some posts through precise targeting.

At the time I am writing this, Nike is running over 3,100 differents ads and dark posts globally at the same time on Facebook.

When you combine organic, purpose-driven messaging, with dark posts, you can get a high-performance strategy that not only converts better, but also creates a stronger connection with your audience.

Are you leveraging the tools at your disposal on social media? If you would like to discuss this further, don’t hesitate to contact me or the team.