Blackberry Social Media Study
An Evaluation of BlackBerry’s
Social Media Channels
Kevin Smith
Introduction
Blackberry is considered one of the
major smartphone vendors in the world, specializing in secure communications
and mobile productivity. It
revolutionized the mobile industry when it was introduced in 1999 and today,
BlackBerry aims to inspire the success of millions of customers around the
world by continuously pushing the boundaries of mobile experiences. Founded in
1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry operates offices in North
America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
BlackBerry is very active on
social media networks and they are present on all of the most popular social
media networks including:
- Blog – Inside BlackBerry
BlackBerry Logo - YouTube
- Flickr
- Google+
- RSS Feeds
The objective of this post is to
study the social media strategies of BlackBerry and explore their social media
presence by examining their social media channels to see where BlackBerry gets
the most traction.
BlackBerry is very active on its
various social media channels.
Blackberry is most active on its Twitter and Facebook accounts posting
numerous times throughout the day. They
are also very active on their Official Blog – “Inside BlackBerry”,
usually posting at least one blog post every day. BlackBerry is less active on their Instagram
and YouTube accounts where they only post once a week or once every few weeks.
BlackBerry is most effective on social
media on their Twitter and Facebook accounts because they are able to reach a
large target audience as well as encourage communication between the brand and
consumer through their various daily posts.
Because they are the most active on those three sites, posting multiple
times a day, it really encourages engagement and conversation between the brand
and the customer.
BlackBerry usually posts all
sorts of content on their brand and the industry. One consistent message involves mobile
security because of BlackBerry’s reputation and expertise in providing secured
mobile solutions. Recently however, they
have focussed primarily on providing content about their new Android
powered BlackBerry Priv Smartphone.
Whether the content is a device review, some Priv tips, or the
availability of the device, most of the recent content posted by Blackberry
revolves around their newest device.
 |
| BlackBerry Priv Smartphone |
The ultimate purpose of
BlackBerry’s posts are to generate interest in the brand and its product
offerings. Blackberry also posts to
sell, hoping that you will read a review, check out the device, or further
research BlackBerry’s offerings and be interested in trying out the product. Finally, the purpose of BlackBerry’s posts
are to engage consumers.
 |
| BlackBerry Facebook Post - Review of the new Priv smartphone |
 |
| BlackBerry Twitter Post - Priv smartphone launches on Verizon |
BlackBerry also encourages customer
feedback. On Facebook, they have 27,808,385
people who ‘like’ their Facebook page and they insist that people leave a
comment or ask them a question and someone from the BlackBerry community
managers will respond. On Twitter,
BlackBerry has 4.55 million followers on their main Twitter account (they also
have 35 other BlackBerry twitter accounts) and 2854 likes. The company has tweeted 25.9 thousand times
and has shared 1505 photos/videos. Additionally,
on YouTube, BlackBerry has 232,918 subscribers and 100,699,523 views. On their Instagram account they have 189
posts and 116,000 followers. Overall, BlackBerry is successful at encouraging customer interaction through their social media channels.
Conclusion
BlackBerry is on all major social
media channels providing the company an opportunity to reach consumers and
engage with them. The company’s strategy
to focus their attention on three major channels – Twitter, Facebook, and their
official blog ‘Inside BlackBerry’ is a smart and efficient use of resources. BlackBerry is very active on these three
social media channels posting numerous times a day trying to increase awareness
for the company’s brand and products.
They also use these channels to respond to customer questions,
complaints or concerns. Using a more
focussed approach -targeting three popular social media platforms that reach a
large population of consumers - BlackBerry is able to focus their resources in a
more efficient manner on the more popular social media channels.
