GoPros Usage of Social Media

GoPro Social Media

The Gopro camera is an action-oriented personal camera that can be mounted virtually anywhere and record spectacular action sequences with stillness and clarity never before possible through the use of handheld equipment. Gopro's use of social media -- particularly Youtube, where user videos are uploaded and shared with millions of viewers -- is a great way for the company to market itself to consumers, who are a given numerous examples of just what they could do and capture with their own Gopro mounted camera.

GoPro has branded itself as the camera for all things extreme: its tag at the end of its online videos is "Be a Hero" -- and is displayed at the end of videos such as that of the man training a pelican to hunt fish and to fly. The camera company is appealing to individualistic people looking to do something different, something exciting, something off the beaten path -- something that matters both to themselves and to the world. People can capture moments in their lives -- such as splashing with their kids in the waves at the beach -- or sledding down a hill -- with unbelievable lucidity made possible by Gopro technology. Gopro is so innovative, its cameras were used to make the world's first ever first-person point-of-view full-length action film -- Hardcore Henry -- which dared to reinvent the action film genre and won raves for its unique visual approach to cinema (Bishop, 2016). Gopro is thus situated on the cutting edge of camera technology and encourages users to post via Instagram, Facebook and Youtube all the great footage they are able to capture.

GoPro thus emphasizes "the feedback loop between adventure, social media, and the gadgets themselves" by showing that amazing pictures and video can be taken using Gopro cameras (Burney, 2015). Using Instagram, Gopro was able to draw massive attention to its brand. In 2014, for example, the company increased its Instagram content output by nearly 100%, posting more than 40 pictures and nearly 20 videos per month at the end of the year (Burney, 2015). Those posts translate into consumer engagement, as the consumer feels it is part of a special activity and that Gopro is more than just a manufacturer -- it is also a promoter of the lifestyle and content that users want to see actively supported via social media. By promoting the sharing of content, Gopro essentially gets consumers to act as marketers for the company -- and consumers in exchange receive the benefit of being able to share unique and visually stunning footage on a platform seen all over the world by like-minded individuals. Gopro's usage of Instagram serves as a networking tool in which consumer and manufacturer are aligned in a single mission to deliver awesome content and the technological means by which that content can be captured. Thus, as Burney (2015) notes, "high-quality user-generated content is the key to" Gopro's successful use of Instagram. The added element of competition that Gopro utilizes -- contests for Photo of the Day or Video of the Day -- help to promote even more engagement with users.

GoPro's presence on Youtube is equally impressive, with over 1500 videos on its Gopro channel -- some of which have over 5,000,000 views. "Gopro HERO5 + Karma: The Launch in 4K" is one such video and features astonishing video footage from picturesque places around the world. The footage is sent to music and the experience wathing it is incredibly visceral and thrilling: scenes from being up close at a rock concert to snowboarding down mountainside to walking through a prairie -- every image is captured with crystal clear beauty.

GoPro is on Twitter, Tumblr, Linked-in and Pinterest as well -- but its main content and brand drivers are Youtube and Instagram because these are the places that really receive the most amount of engagement from consumers. Instagram and Youtube are the most utilized because these platforms allow Gopro to show what it does best: capture great experiences with astonishing visual technology that both inspires others to want to do the same and creates a genuine feeling of being there. In this way, the brand differentiates itself from its competitors: it harnesses the power of social media to drive home the fact that its cameras have the unique ability to bring unique experiences to everyone around the world so that hundreds of thousands of people can share in them. When it comes to color displays and action-oriented content, Gopro shows with thousands of videos and pictures why it is better than the competition.

If I were the company's social media consultant, I would improve the company's social media presence and customer engagement by taking a page out of Red Bull's marketing play book and sponsoring unique events that can be identified solely with the company. Events like Bull Stratos can receive Gopro translations and the events can all be captured with Gopro cameras which can then be shared and the best footage awarded a prize. This would help to further customer engagement and push Gopro to the forefront of the action-oriented business, such as X-Treme sports and other venues where the company could really benefit from more exposure (Locke, 2000). As Weldon and Eadie (2009) point out, the new media of today has displaced the old. It must be utilized to draw people together, and Gopro can do that even more effectively than it already is by sponsoring world-class events that attract users seeking to share their ability to generate great footage for the world to see.

References

Bishop, B. (2016). The making of Hardcore Henry, the craziest first-person action

movie you'll ever see. The Verge. Retrieved from http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/16/11248318/hardcore-henry-gopro-movie-director-interview-sxsw-2016

Burney, K. (2015). Why you should envy the Gopro Instagram strategy (and how you can emulate it). Trackmaven. Retrieved from http://trackmaven.com/blog/2015/01/why-you-should-envy-and-emulate-gopros-instagram-strategy/

Locke, E. et al. (2000). A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance. NJ:

Weldon, M., Eadie, W. (2009). 21st Century Communication: A Reference Handbook.

Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

Prentice-Hall.