As part of Delineo’s ‘Are you being found online?’ online marketing report, we’re focusing on the social media case studies from five companies in five different industries. The purpose of this research is to establish:
- How active these companies are in the social arena
- The success of various companies in engaging with their online audience
- How responsive various companies are in dealing with negative feedback
Introduction
Founded in Bury in 1981, JD sports is one of the leading sports-fashion retailers in the country. The company, which had a revenue of £769.8 million in 2010, operates out of 500 stores across the United Kingdom.
JD Sports online
JD Sports operates on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The company’s Twitter account, JD Sports Fashion boasts 6,310 followers, while its Facebook page is home to 289,365 fans. The company has uploaded 148 clips onto its YouTube channel and its total video offering on the site has resulted in 587,350 views.
Social media activity
The chart below displays the type of Twitter activity from JD Sports on this particular social network. On average, the account posted 14 tweets per day during the research period, devoting 3.7% of their updates to interacting with other users on the social network.
Content on the JD Sports Twitter profile is focused on promotion. The account frequently promotes competitions and discounts, offering users the chance to win tickets to see rugby games, win personal training sessions and claim official merchandise from the store. Indeed, during the research period, the account uses the phrase ‘win’ on 12 occasions. The hasthtag ‘#competition’ appears on four different Twitter updates.
The JD Sports Twitter account also posts updates relating to sporting events, asking users for their opinion on the current news in football, rugby and tennis.
During the research period, JD Sports posted 53 updates on its Facebook page. The majority of these updates had a celebrity slant – posting photographs of famous icons wearing clothing available from the store. There are also a variety of promotional updates offering discounts on certain products, as well as several competitions for users to enter (via the JD Sports website).
Facebook updates from JD Sports over the research period
Elsewhere on Facebook, the page also has a YouTube tab, although this features a selection of pop music videos, rather than any content from the JD Sports channel.
On YouTube, the company offers a number of promotional videos, including advertisements, as well as hosting a variety of competitions, most recently, the chance for viewers to become the future face of JD Sports advertising. The company has also uploaded a range of advertisements from the product companies it stocks in its store. The two most popular videos on the channel are adverts produced by Nike. These clips have resulted in 227,503 video views.
Interaction with other users
The majority of user interaction comes from the Twitter platform. Over the 30-day research period, the official company Twitter account was mentioned 610 times by users. 275 of these mentions came on November 4th in response to a competition which gave an individual the chance to win a JD Sports Duffle Bag.
There were 2,592 references to JD Sports on Twitter, which did not include the Twitter username.
During the research period, 328 comments were posted on the JD Sports Facebook page, with 1,434 likes being awarded by users. 274 people posted comments on the wall, while a core group of 30 fans were responsible for 18.9 per cent of all the user-generated content posted onto the page.
The most popular Facebook posts by JD Sports were related to music news and celebrity style. The most popular promotional post was related to the release of a new Nike trainer. This gained 52 likes from the audience.
Sentiment from users
The sentiment towards JD online is weighted towards the negative. The chart below displays the different weight of negative and positive conversations on Twitter. This graphic outlines the split of negative and positive comments from Twitter users who mention the JD Sports Twitter account and those who just reference the brand.
61.5 per cent of comments on JD Sports’ Facebook page are neutral, while 30.9% are deemed to be of a positive nature. Only 7.7% are classified as negative. JD Sports prevents users from creating their own updates on the channel, offering an explanation for the disparity between negative comments on the two social media channels.
Conclusions
As one of the UK’s largest fashion retailers, JD Sports has a firm footing in the social media universe with a strong brand awareness and an engaged community on both Facebook and Twitter. The number of comments on the Facebook page and the large quantity of Twitter mentions demonstrates an active online fan base. It is obvious that the company offers well-targeted content designed to appeal to its audience. It also utilises the brand power of its stocked products to gain more fans and interactions.
However, at times, JD Sports does not take advantage of this audience. The company fails to respond to the overall majority of comments on Twitter and actively prevents users from posting their own comments on the Facebook page by removing the option for fans to create new discussion topics.
The company could also benefit from a greater brand awareness on Twitter. The high number of references to JD Sports via Twitter which do not reference the company’s username suggests that the organisation could do more to advertise its presence on this particular social network.
If you would like to understand your brand’s social media performance please contact us on 0161 839 6289 or send us an email.