Introduction

Introducing our blog:

Hello and welcome to Blessed Footwear Blog
We are a team of 3 males and 1 female in a Social Media Marketing class providing information about a variety of top footwear brands.

Our goal is to provide as much information as possible for the brands provided so you, our readers can be fully informed!

The brands we will be posting about:

• New Balance
• Converse
• Adidas
• Crocs
• Under Armour
• Puma
• Nike
• Vans
• Crocs

I am Shaun Lasala. I'll be providing information for Under Armour and Puma! I chose these two brands because I find Under Amour's marketing very strong compared to other brands. Puma was also my choice because many people find them as underdogs and I wanted to support this company so consumer believe they are one of the top apparel brands in the world.


Hello Viewers, I'm Taylor and ill be exploring the shoe brands Crocs, and Adidas with you this semester. Adidas is one of my favourite shoe brands when taking into account comfort, style and performance, this is why i chose them. I also chose crocs because i'm interested in learning about the "Fad" that was the croc slip on. Comparing a market heavy hitter, to a Fad oriented slip on shoe company that makes you ask the question: "What are those!?"

Nike & Vans Fan Pages

Fan pages are not associated with the actual companies themselves; instead they are run by fans and users who share pictures and opinions about the products they use or want. Nike Talk is a page that gives you information on new and upcoming nike  products. It also works as a forum where users can enter into back and forth discussion with eachother. 

SneakerTalk is a Vans fan page that has the same idea as Nike Talk. The page allows users to start discussions and forums, post pictures and talk about their favourite Vans styles. Sites like these can be useful if people are  unsure about a purchase, they can read real reviews and find answers to questions they didn’t even think of asking. 

hashtagify.me is a search engine optimization tool designed to help companies choose the right hashtags when posting about their product. It shows the most searched for and similar hashtags for anything you type in. #NIKE is showing 73.3 in popularity which is much better than their usual 52.8, so now would be a good time to use the hashtag. Vans is at 62.8 in popularity. down 26% in popularity for the month but up 19% in popularity for the week. Tweets with #VANS are receiving a little bit more attention this week from last. 

SneakerTalk

NikeTalk

Nike vs. Vans on Facebook

On Facebook, Nike and Vans have very different posting styles. Vans is always promoting upcoming collections and collaborations. The most frequent subject of their postings is their new MTE collection which was created to withstand the elements. They also post about their recent collaboration with The North Face for an upcoming collection. Vans also adds some comedy to their posts by adding funny skateboarding videos and captions. Nike takes a different approach in the sense that most of their posts are shoutouts to athletes and celebrities around the world. Kevin Hart was featured twice on November 5th and 6th for competing in a marathon. Odell Beckham Jr. was featured on November 21st and also back in July for a couple of collaborations he did with the company. Even amateur athletes are made to feel special by being featured on their page. Nike’s posts seem to have a more serious and inspirational vibe to them. They really embrace their slogan (Just Do It) by posting what some would call success stories to show that people can achieve what they want to achieve if they put in the work. There is a big difference in the frequency of posts between the two brands. Vans posts every few days making their 20th post on September 26th whereas Nikes 20th post is June 27th. What’s interesting is that even though Vans posts way more often, they still don’t compare to Nike in terms of engagements. The most popular Vans post has about 2.7 thousand likes (Introducing MTE collection) and the most popular post for Nike has 83 thousand likes (#wantitall campaign). Nike has done a better job at focussing in on their target market and capitalizing it to get the most engagements possible. In terms of engagements, Nike clearly has the more successful page   

Nike's Most Popular Recent Post                 Vans Most Popular Recent Post

Nike vs. Vans on Twitter

At first glance, Nike and Vans’ Twitter pages look very similar in the sense that all of their last 25 tweets have a picture attached to them. Having pictures attached to your tweets adds more engagement and is easier on the eyes. The types of posts both of the brands display align with the content on their Facebook pages. On Twitter, Vans still takes a more comedic approach when delivering a message; often posting funny memes and comparisons. They still post about upcoming collections and collaborations. Their most popular tweets seem to be one that include pictures of the types of shoes they’re talking about. Those tweets seem to have the most likes and retweets. People probably like to display the styles that like. Vans also talks about various surfing and snowboarding competitions that are going on around the world. They keep up with the 50/50 rule by allotting some posts to talk about other companies and events. Vans doesn’t often use hashtags in their tweets, a few that I could find being:

• #VansCustoms
• #HouseOfVans
• #MyVans

Vans uses hashtags solely when they are talking about themselves, not so much when they are collaborating with other companies even though it could generate more interest by doing so. Nike’s Twitter is almost identical to their Facebook. A lot of their tweets seem to be the same as some of the captions on Facebook. The hashtags that Nike uses aligns with a lot of their campaigns as well as celebrity collaborations. For example:

• #iwantitall
• #WinLike82 (reference to Michael Jordan)
• #justdoit
• #NIKExNBA
• #NikeBasketball

 Nike doesn’t seem to put as much time into their social media as Vans does because Vans 25th post is November 24th whereas Nike’s 25th post is June 26th. It’s interesting that Vans obviously puts more of an effort into their social media but Nike still gets better results. Here’s a comparison of the two accounts. Vans tweets more, follows more people and has liked more tweets than Nike but they still aren't able to achieve the same return they do.

Nike's Twitter Analytics

Vans' Twitter Analytics

Nike vs. Vans on Youtube

For the past couple of weeks, Vans has been posting a storytelling series about the highlights of the Triple Crown of Surfing. Each video is a like a diary of the competing surfers. It’s interesting to see the crossovers between social media accounts because the surfing competition was only mentioned a few times on their Twitter page but on Youtube they’ve really been showcasing it as a main event. They have also been posting a video here and there about their upcoming MTE collection. They seem to have a grasp on what kind of posts are for each social media outlet because the MTE collection was showcased more on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Their most successful recent  video was posted 6 days ago and it got 61K views so far. The video is a documentary about a Malaysian skateboarder, basically recounting his  experiences.  On Nike’s Youtube channel, they post a lot of commercials; no longer than 30 seconds. What I found interesting is that Nike also posts a lot of hour long talking sessions that have to do with their products. These videos involve various athletes and social media personalities sitting and casually talking about the product. These longer videos don’t have as many views as their shorter ones, my guess is that a lot of people don’t want to sit and watch an hour long video on Youtube. Nike’s most popular recent video is a 2  minute long video about their Want it All campaign. The video got 7.2 million vides in a month. Even on Youtube, Nike has been able to attain more subscribers than Vans  (697K vs. 307K) which makes it seem that it’s not the content itself that has gotten Nike more popularity on social media, it’s their name and their following. On their About pages, Nike seems to have taken a “less is more” approach by just including a simple quote and hashtag on theirs. Vans has included their whole brand description as well as their collaborations and sponsorships. 

Nike's Most Popular Recent Video

Vans' Most Popular Recent Video