Netflix Social Media Marketing

5 Social Media Marketing Lessons From Netflix

Opinion: It isn’t the streaming industry leader by accident

Netflix’s success despite its price hike, VPN ban and other controversies is interesting for two key reasons:

Over 30 million Netflix users access the service with a VPN or other location-masking technology.
Since instituting the ban and price hike, despite the backlash and controversy, Netflix has added over 40 million new users.

Netflix seems to be doing something right...

What is its secret? Besides the fact that it has a unique, in-demand product, Netflix’s success also lies in the fact that it is a marketing genius, and its social media efforts aren’t taking a backseat in its marketing strategy.

Below are five key social media marketing lessons we can learn from Netflix:

Good social strategy won’t help a subpar product - Netflix spent about $6 billion on content in 2017, $1.5 billion more than Amazon, and in 2018, it will spend about $8 billion on new content.

Don’t be afraid to be authentic – Know your audience, and if they want casual rather than formal, why not?

Make social listening a core part of your social strategy – When Netflix users complained about falling asleep mid-way through a series binge, Netflix created Netflix Socks – they paused the show when the smart socks detected the user had dozed off. Proving that not only do they listen, they act. Genius…

Numbers matter, but there’s more to it than that – Focus on quality rather than quantity, tweets. Not just for numbers but engage through creativity and understand your audience.

Encourage sharing your content – make it easy for your audience to share with friends on social media. Make it fun, easy, and grow your audience exponentially.

Netflix does a lot of things right, and it isn’t the streaming industry leader by accident. It has a solid marketing strategy, and there’s so much that businesses of all sizes can learn from its approach to social media.

Source: John Stevens, Adweek, July 2018