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3 Ways Netflix is Absolutely Thriving on Instagram

I recently audited Netflix’s Instagram page. The online streaming titan’s presence on the popular social media platform proves that offering a large variety of entertainment isn’t the only thing they’re good at. Here are three amazing things they are doing on Instagram that you can do too!

Engaging Content

In addition to keeping us updated on upcoming Netflix releases for the shows and movies we love, Netflix takes advantage of the direct contact with their users by posting engaging content. Whether it’s interviews with the cast of your favorite Netflix originals, memes inspired by original content, or a shout out to the o.t.p. (one true pairing) you can’t live without, Netflix delivers fresh content everyday!

According to Natasa Djukanovic from socialmediaexaminer.com, one way to humanize an Instagram business account is to give your account copy personality. Creating a strong persona and voice for your business account makes it more inviting and even in some cases, more relatable.

Consistent Posting Schedule

Another way to keep your loyal audience happy is to create a posting schedule and stick to it. Once you show your audience that you are consistent they’ll begin to look forward to your content. During my audit I noticed that Netflix posts several times a day usually between 2-5 times. Creating a schedule will not only help you keep track of how often you are posting but it lets your audience know how dedicated you are to delivering content on a consistent basis.

Maintaining Engagement

Another way to sweep the competition on Instagram is maintain engagement. In other words, keep up communication with your audience. One great way to do this is to encourage comments and feedback in the captions of your posts. Ask your audience to leave you their thoughts and questions in the comments. Then when the responses come pouring in, be sure to respond! Netflix did a great job of responding to the comments left under they’re daily posts. It can be easy to lose sight of at times but your audience turns to your account for various things. In the case of Netflix, its Entertainment, and in order to keep them engaged it’s important to check in with them. Generating engagement can also help you create better content. If you get feedback directly from the audience, you’ll be able to ensure that you are always delivering content that your audience will love.

What do you think? Are you already using any of these tips for your business profiles or individual profiles? If so, let me know how they have been working for you! Also if you have any other tips that have worked for either your business profile or your personal profile please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Netflix and Chill or Disney+ and De-Stress?

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!

How You Can be More Consistent Across All Social Media Platforms

In my last post, I told you how Netflix is killing it on Instagram and engaging their audience. In this post I am going to take a look at how Netflix is utilising their Twitter profile. I was impressed with Netflix’s ability to roll with the punches on Twitter, but there are a couple of things Netflix could be doing better to achieve similar results to their Instagram page.

Make a Good First Impression

On most platforms, your bio is the first opportunity you have to make a good impression. Across all of it’s platforms, Netflix is not fully embracing the opportunity to make a good first impression. Although Netflix is a well known streaming site, they are not well known for their social media accounts. Using the bio to make a first impression could create a concrete personality beyond the original content they create and deliver on their streaming site.

One thing I noticed about Netflix’s bios across all of their platforms is that they are all very short and sweet. Generally, their bios are one to two sentences that tie in references from the Netflix original content or the content they offer on their streaming site. Netflix also changes their bio a lot, especially on Twitter. Hannah discovered that they were changing their bio as often as once everyday. As I mentioned in my last blog post, one thing you can do is create a personality for your business profile. The perfect place to introduce that personality is in the bio of your profile. My classmate, Hannah Jordan, goes more in depth about the poor practices Netflix applies to their Twitter bio specifically, if you’re interested definitely check out her blog!

Share More Exclusive Content

On Instagram Netflix posts exclusive content every other day, if not daily. They frequently share extended trailers for upcoming original content, behind the scenes video, tours of the sets of your favorite shows, and interviews with the casts of upcoming Netflix originals. This is the content that the audience wants, it is exclusive content that can only be delivered by Netflix. Not everyone utilises Instagram, it is important to be consistent across all platforms. If you make an announcement on one platform you should make that same announcement on your other social platforms. Same goes for exclusive content, while you don’t have to post the same exact content across all of your platforms but you should at least share the same amount of exclusive content across all of your platforms.

Maybe you share a few experimental posts and see how they do on each platform. Perhaps cast interviews generate more engagement when you post them as an Instagram story, maybe trailers generate more buzz when you post an extended version on Twitter. You’ll never know until you try it out, so spread the love!

Keep Up With Your Followers

It is important to make sure that you are active and timely when responding to your followers. After conducting my audit, I found that Netflix would respond to the first few comments on their posts. I assume that someone was watching the post as it gained traction for the first hour or two, but due to the magnitude of followers they have it is very practical and understandable that they do not respond to every comment left one every post. That would be too much to keep up with. Usually if celebrities or any one involved with the content they’re posting about comments on the post they will respond. They also usually respond to the occasional excited fan or loyal viewer.

After reviewing my classmate Hannah’s audit she conducted on Netflix’s Twitter page, it is apparent that Netflix could be taking advantage of having a direct line of communication to their followers. They should be responding to a lot more comments per post. As I mentioned earlier, Twitter can be brutal. Whether you’re a verified celebrity with millions of followers, a micro influencer, a regular Twitter user, or a well known streaming site. People are not afraid to tell you how they really feel on Twitter. In today’s world it can be a bit daunting to respond, celebrities and brands alike are constantly being “cancelled” on Twitter and nobody wants a Twitter war on their hands. But regardless of the threat of being cancelled is not an excuse to leave your followers high and dry. Respond to some of them, even the negative comments are an opportunity to offer a solution.

What Have We Learned?

I think it’s safe to say that we can all learn a lot from Twitter. Number one, don’t tweet anything you are ready to defend at the drop of a hat because chances are if you tweet something, there’s someone out there that will disagree with it. Maybe even years from now, so stay ready with your defense. All jokes aside, it can be easy to just focus on the platform that is generating the most buzz for your brand, but no one ever said social media was easy. It is imperative to put in the work and prioritize consistency across all of your social media platforms.

Thanks again for reading my blog! How do you feel about brand interaction on social media? What would you like to see from the brands that you’re so loyal too? Share your thoughts in the comments below!