Social media has become one of the main ways in which companies and customers communicate with each other. One of the reasons is that social media already has an established audience. According to Clement (2020), there are approximately 247 million American social media users as of 2019, which equals 79% of the United States population (n. p). Naturally, many companies would want to adopt these platforms to promote their products and to grow their customer base and following. Hainla (2018) says, "social media now has a global penetration rate of 45%” (n. p). For big technology companies such as Apple, people would generally think that it is actively engaging and promoting sales on social media to its consumers. However, Apple has an unusual approach to social media marketing strategy. The company does not require social media to promote sales, but its social media marketing strategy effectively supports organizational growth.
Apple is not the same as any established company that relies on social media, but Apple does not entirely eschew from social media either. The company has numerous followers on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If people check Apple’s respective social media accounts, the company currently has 12 million Facebook followers, 4.4 million Twitter followers, and 23.6 million Instagram followers as of May 2020. However, on these social media accounts, Apple does not have any information related to its products (Hessler, 2018, n. p). Apple is more active on Instagram than on Facebook and Twitter, mostly because it only wants to exhibit iPhone’s photographers’ work on Instagram (Carman, 2017, n. p). Thus, Apple's unusual approach to engage with its customers on Facebook and Twitter is that it rarely or never posts anything on these platforms. Yet, the company has received regular social media coverage on its products.
Apple is a famous brand even though it is not active on social media. With millennials being the company's target audience, there are 58.5 million millennials on Facebook and 28.9 million millennials on Twitter (Kozlowska, 2018, n. p). The company's social media strategy is, “No overuse; No wastage” (Pratap, 2019, n. p). On Facebook, which also has the largest number of users globally, Apple uses this platform as a touchpoint instead of a marketing tool as most brands do (Pratap, 2019, n. p). Facebook’s popularity offers various advantages, such as advertising, promoting, and even discussions and conversations for companies to engage with their consumers. However, Apple believes that Facebook is overly crowded to advertise because many brands have already established functional social media teams to interact on this platform continuously, so Apple has decided to use its website and blogs more often instead of Facebook (Pratap, 2019, n. p). If people are checking Apple’s official Facebook account, the company has posted only three pictures in 2020 by far. According to Fawzy (2018), Apple has chosen to remain silent on Facebook because it wants the consumers to make the buzz through customer loyalty (n. p). In a way, Apple has disrupted the idea of Facebook marketing by allowing consumers to create rumors and ultimately help the company advertises its products free of charge.
As for Twitter, Apple has the smallest number of followers on this platform, but it has spent a tremendous amount of money to promote tweets from other people even though the company rarely tweets from this platform. Generally, on September 12th of each year, Apple has spent around $200,000 per day and build a custom “like for reminder” for $250,000 for several days on Twitter (Goldschein, 2018, n. p). Apple recognizes that Twitter is where the conversations start even though the company has decided that tweeting does not fit its brand (Goldschein, 2018, n. p). Twitter is useful for breaking news for Apple by creating “like for reminder” because it prompts the consumers in different languages when there is an event happening. Simultaneously, it can also help consumers have more productive conversations about Apple’s products. Again, Apple has made their products more visible without sending a single tweet out to its consumers. Thus, Apple has maximized its value on Twitter without engaging in itself—a brilliant move to promote organizational growth.
Facebook and Twitter are the two social media platforms that Apple has adopted an unusual marketing approach to promoting organizational growth. Even though Apple has rarely posted anything on Facebook and Twitter, its presence remains resilient on both platforms. Many companies believe that they should be more active on social media because of the excellent penetration rate social media offers. However, Apple has disrupted that idea and has continued to promote its growth through consumer engagements without directly engaging in Facebook posting and tweeting in the first place. Even with an unusual approach to social media marketing strategy, Apple has successfully adopted Facebook and Twitter in promoting its products to its consumers.
References
Carman, A. (2017). Apple launches official Instagram account to show off iPhone photographers' work. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/7/16106600/apple-instagram-launch
Clement, J. (2020). U.S. population with a social media profile 2019. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/
Fawzy, E. (2018). 6 reasons why Apple doesn't use social media. Retrieved from https://imfndclub.com/6-reasons-why-apple-doesnt-use-social-media/
Goldschein, E. (2018). How Apple Dominated Twitter Without Tweeting. Retrieved from https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2018/09/how-apple-dominated-twitter-without-tweeting/
Hainla, L. (2020). 21 Social Media Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.dreamgrow.com/21-social-media-marketing-statistics/
Hessler, N. (2018). Apple's totally bizarre social media strategy that makes perfect sense. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@nick_hessler/apples-totally-bizarre-social-media-strategy-that-makes-perfect-sense-a10d050f4d46
Kozlowska, H. (2018). There are twice as many US millennials on Facebook as there are Baby Boomers. Retrieved from https://qz.com/1372063/there-are-twice-as-many-millennials-on-facebook-as-there-are-baby-boomers/
Pratap, A. (2019). Apple Social Media Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from https://notesmatic.com/2018/09/apple-social-media-marketing-strategy/
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