Business Social Media Accounts - How Advertising is Changing

Social media is not just a plaything. The way information spreads across it, and how content can be created and served for it, makes it a fitting platform for advertising and other business presence. And with most social media sites being free, even small business can have an advantage if they have a strong strategy. On both the business and consumer side, businesses can provide information about themselves, their products and/or services, and information relevant to their brand and field.

To give an example of such presence, I will take a look at Speedway's and BP's presence on both Twitter and FaceBook, and how they accentuate their public image, garner attention, and interact with their followers.

For starters, both of them present their posts in a way representative of the business's image.

Speedway is often seen as friendly and casual. Their social media accounts have many fun and colorful posts, with polls, [Inter]nation x Day celebrations, games, and comedic advertisement videos and animations. They almost always incorporate images, videos, and/or emoji into posts, making them more eyecatching and more likely to be interacted with.

An example of Speedway's Twitter posting games for interactivity, and using bright, bold color in their multimedia.

BP has more of an image of professionalism. Their posts and Retweets with business information and ecological news reflect it well. They have also dabbled in game and quiz posts to generate interactivity. Though the aesthetic of those posts matches the brand, the content seems juvenile in comparison to their informative posts.

BP presents a realistic look into their industry, and inform their followers with relevant news posts.

Secondly, both brands have different means of generating attention. A method that's common to both of them is crossposting, or copying their posts to all of their social media accounts. This ensures that followers on different platforms receive similar information and experiences.

As mentioned earlier, Speedway's games and polls are an easy way to attract attention, with their followers rushing to be first to answer, reply, or give their opinion. Their ads are also meant to be entertaining enough that followers would like to show them to their friends.

One of Speedway's animated advertisements. The attractive and simple artstyle and animation is meant to be worth showing one's followers.

Oftentimes, BP's social media accounts reposts the same content, to be sure followers see it even if they don't read their entire feed. A follower is most likely to be interested in the account to be "in the know" about the brand and state of the industry, so making sure the information is seen by all of their followers is most important to BP.

A Tweet presented twice in the same day. Although not pictured, they also have the same video attached.

Lastly, Speedway and BP have different approaches to replying to and interacting with their followers.

Speedway's replies are friendly, helpful, and sometimes silly or cheery, keeping with their public image. It humanizes the brand and makes them an entertaining and worthwhile addition to one's feed.

Some of Speedway's replies to a poll about customers' favorite Speedy Freeze flavors. Note how excited both the comments and replies are!

In contrast, BP's replies are more cold, indicating automation or canned replies. More often than not, they are to advertise job vacancies (pictured below), or to provide customer support. However, because of the brand's more professional tone, this is not much of a disadvantage to them. Few followers have reason to reply to their posted articles, much less expect reciprocity for them.

One of the few instances of BP replying to followers.

If businesses use social media well, their customers will become more interested in and enthused about them. It feels less like advertising to customers, and allows them to both willingly listen and be heard. Social media provides many tools that greatly change how brands and businesses can present themselves. All that's required is to know how to wield those tools.