ASOS have had phenomenal success since their launch in 2001, their marketing is generally great, and it comes as no surprise that their social media strategy is so successful.
Let's break down what they do on each platform:
Asos on Facebook:
With over 3 million fans, they're not the most popular clothes fashion account (Topshop just pip them as we write, with around 500,000 more), but their force on social media is definitely noteworthy. Their Facebook follows a fairly consistent pattern of about three posts a day - largely relating to their sales and offers, and pretty much always through an image.
Typically, Asos will gather a few hundred likes per post; and they manage to respond to a lot of their comments (mainly questions - but sometimes other things - and they often like to ask questions in return).
There are also a lot of images of celebrities and their looks, and they manage to successfully inject a bit of creativity, humour and personality into their posts.
Asos on Twitter:
ASOS have created three separate accounts for their customer care (@ASOS_HeretoHelp), general account (@ASOS), and their Green Room (@ASOS_GreenRoom) which is a clever way to separate any negative tweets from angry customers, whilst boosting their own mileage with regard to ecological initiatives.
Their main account is very active, with lots of posts about products and company updates; and they reply to many of their @asos tweets - an excellent example of how to build strong online relationships with your target market and customers.
All of their accounts have a fairly personable approach, with colloquial terms such as 'babes' being used, with a suitable professionalism in their Here to Help account.
What is also interesting to note, their Here to help account is slightly understated style wise in comparison to the other two- possibly this is part of being fitting with their more professional approach, and emphasis purely on problem solving.
Asos on Pinterest:
All boards and images are linked back to the ASOS site, which is expected to help improve their website traffic.
ASOS should be able to make a positive impression on Pinterest as their images are such a high quality. Plus, with their wide array of stock and different product ranges they have a lot of scope for a lot of boards - not to mention the large appeal of their products, for both genders and a large age range.
Asos on Google +
https://plus.google.com/+ASOS
ASOS are one of few brands to be actively using Google+ - they post unique content to this portal, and have built up around 1.4 million followers here.
They are the most popular UK business on the network, proving that whatever they're doing is at least attracting interest.
When browsing their Google+ activity, we find that they have a mixture of sales pitches, product news and amusing links about assumingly relative media-related posts, such as references to popular film and television:
Another advantage of being ahead of the game is the fact they they have the power to build up a presence ahead of competitors.
No-one knows for sure, but it seems inevitable that Google+ is going to keep growing; and Asos have now positioned themselves ahead of many competitors.
Asos also use Google+ to give company updates on internships, offers and competitions - whilst still promoting their products.
As they solely sell online, it's important that their online activity is positive and on-trend.
Conclusion:
ASOS appear to be speaking to their customers in a consistently personal and playful tone, in keeping with their website and brand ethos.
But they also use each social platform to it's strength, from investing time into replying to consumers on Twitter and Facebook to making joke boards on Pinterest, all mixed in with their regular promotions.
No channel is too saturated with a constant hard sell.
Obviously, not all companies have the same resources as Asos, but smaller companies could learn a lot from their specific activity on chosen platforms of interest and their truly social online activity.
If you’re a smaller business trying to figure out the best platform to put your resources into, the way to do it is through trial and error. Experiment with the platforms and with your content. From there, you should be able to gauge which platform is creating the best engagement and which ones are worth your effort. You could also look for resources on the specific platforms for more information. We put an article together drilling into Instagram further here. Also, ensure that you review what your competition is doing and which platforms they are using.
