By now, most brands have figured out the easiest way to dive into the minds of their consumers is to head to social media. Some of our favorite brands are among us on social media sites promoting their products, including streaming services. In my Social Media in Communication course we were assigned a group project to audit a brand on social media. Two groups chose to audit streaming services social media accounts so naturally we’ve decided to see which brand is tackling social media better. In this post, I will be comparing the Instagram and Twitter and Instagram practices of Netflix and Disney+.
Both Netflix and Disney+ have a firm enough grasp of meme culture to utilise it to their advantage. During my audit, I noticed that Netflix posted meme style posts on their Instagram account to highlight their original content. One example being the Netflix original series, You. The second season of the show was released December 26th 2019 and before people had a chance to finish the season the memes were running wild. Netflix themselves retweeted the popular memes on their Twitter account and created their own memes to highlight their original content on their Instagram page. Using this innate knowledge of meme culture and how it rules social media, the brand was able to promote their original content in a way that is not abrasive to social media users.
Similarly Disney+ uses meme culture to its advantage. Disney+ has a bigger brand reputation than Netflix, simply because they have been delivering family entertainment on a global scale for generations. This transcends the reputation Netflix has built for itself as a titan in the streaming industry over the past decade. Nonetheless, Disney is not very well seasoned when it comes to social media or streaming. This evens the playing field a little bit when comparing the two streaming streaming platforms on social media.
My classmate Ana discusses exactly how Disney+ tackles social media in her blog. If you’re interested in more details about how Disney+ is doing on Instagram, I strongly suggest that you check out her blog.
Although both brands seem to be up to the challenge of navigating social media, they could b e bringing a lot more to the table. One of the best ways to show you’re followers that you care, especially for brands, is to engage with them on social media. According to another classmate of mine, Gabby, Disney+ responds to almost none of 5,000 tweets from their followers. Ana thinks the reason for this could be that Disney+ has a customer service account that users can send any issues to and get a quick response. Disregarding the customer service page, it is still very important that you are responding and engaging your followers on the primary brand account.
Netflix on the other hand, could benefit from beefing up engagement on all platforms. On Instagram, they mostly respond to positive comments or other accounts with a large following, including celebrities and other brands. Boosting engagement could be the key to building more trust with their users. Either way they are not taking advantage of the direct line of communication to their users on either platform.
Out of the two, it is pretty difficult to decide who is really doing better on social media. Between the reputations and both brands being relatively new to social media I have had a really tough time settling on one brand over the other. After weighing everything out, I’ve decided that Netflix is doing a better job. They are posting several times a day and delivering exclusive content that viewers are eager to see. While they could be doing a better job engaging their followers, they are making strides in the meme department.
What do you think? I know it’s hard to make this decision without bias, let me know which side you picked in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
Shelby's Social Media Blog 