COM0015 – Blog #2 – Strong & Weak Organizations

I think you can tell when a brand has a solid social media strategy and when one doesn’t. The look, feel and vibe of the social media is on another level when there is a strategy in place. 

World Curling Federation

The first organization that I think has an amazing social media strategy is the World Curling Federation (WCF). Now, as someone who has freelanced for the federation, I am biased, but hear me out! The WCF’s social media strategy is like a recipe, that gets repeated frequently but with slight tweaks to fit each situation. First, there is a hashtag for every competition so that every post related to an event can be found under the same tag, and so that other social media accounts can engage. Next, there is a countdown to every event, to hype the audience up. Following that, there is ample content published during each competition, including behind-the-scenes, athlete interviews, team takeovers, trivia, games, and even themed posts about things like ‘best team stuffed animal’ or ‘coolest socks worn on the ice’.

This kind of content makes people interested in not only the competitions, but also the curling community in general. During the off-season, the WCF continues to post content despite there being no playing, creating memes, relatable posts, and announcements for the upcoming season to stay relevant in their audience’s feeds. 

Canada Soccer

The second organization that I think does a great job on social media is Canada Soccer. Similar to the World Curling Federation, Canada Soccer posts countdowns, behind the scenes clips, interviews, and player features. Something that Canada Soccer does that is unique is that they feature individual players on a somewhat rotating basis, in short reels and Instagram stories. These are great, because unlike on curling teams where there are only four players, there are over twenty players on a traditional soccer team, making it harder to get to know each player. These reels show the audience the players’ personalities and keep engagement up not only on social media, but between the team and fans in general.

Another thing that Canada Soccer does that I think is genius is that they have an Instagram highlight comprised of wallpapers, so the audience can click through and pick whatever wallpapers they like, screenshot them, and save them to their phones. It’s a clever way to give fans what they like, while continuing to promote the teams. 

Barbays

Now, an organization that I think could improve their social media strategy is Barbays. Barbays is a Canadian hair accessory company, mostly specializing in luxury scrunchies. They are very popular in hair salons because of their look and durability, and as someone who has had a number of scrunchies snap on them, they are the only ones I trust these days. To me, the biggest issue with Barbays’ social media is that when you look at the content, you don’t immediately know that they are marketing scrunchies. In fact, the scrunchies aren’t even clearly visible in a number of the posts. This is a huge problem because how are people supposed to be interested in buying a product they can’t see? Another problem is with Barbays’ Instagram layout. By this I mean the first thing people see when they go to Barbays’ profile. The bio is very short which is good, but it’s not enticing. Additionally, despite having a nice aesthetic for their Instagram highlights, the colour of the highlight covers is very monotone and blends into the white of Instagram’s background, so they disappear from the page rather than capturing the audience’s attention. It’s odd that the page is so monotone, because the scrunchies come in a variety of colours, finishes, patterns and styles, which only exisiting clients would know. 

I think Barbays could quite easily improve their social media by using more colour, making the posts feature the actual product more than the surroundings, and to make the bio more exciting. Even by adding a Canadian flag emoji to the bio would be a visual cue to the audience that they are a proud Canadian brand. To push the envelope further, Barbays could create some quick hair tutorials showing different ways to use the scrunchies to show the audience why they want to become a Barbays client.