There are lots of Instagram profiles. Few stand out.
Welcome back to the next installment of our Social Spotlight Series! We’re continuing to highlight accounts that stand out in our feeds so we can share insights about what makes them successful. Our Social Spotlights focus on Instagram pages that have valuable lessons for marketers, entrepreneurs, influencers, and anyone else who wants to optimize their Instagram.
Today we’re taking a look at one of the biggest companies in the world. Despite becoming a household name over the past ten years, they’re bravely using their social media almost as a meme account. This week, we’re taking a look at the streaming content giant, @netflix.
Featured Profile Overview
Right away, we love the simple and pure copy at the top of Netflix’s profile. We normally find that the fewer words, the better, and Netflix has that storytelling down to an art. It’s a simple directive or call-to-action, and it’s very effective.
Moving on to Stories, Netflix does a great job using its Stories to highlight and share downloadable content. From wallpapers to social content that can be reused, edited, adjusted, and shared, this creates a content loop for users. People know that if they come back they’ll see new posts, but there is also auxiliary and accessory content they can access through Instagram. Netflix is doing a great job training people to come back over and over again.
This content also gives their Instagram account a purpose. Netflix is one of the biggest content creators in the world, so it’s great to see that reflected in their social.
Moving on to the page itself, we see that this doesn’t look like a big corporate page. You can’t tell that this is one of the biggest companies in the world. Instead, it looks more like a meme page as you scroll down. There are a lot of memes, mostly featuring characters from their shows. Netflix does a great job using memes and characters in the show to help people related and engage with the content on a more personal level.
What We Think Is Working
Overall, the Instagram page itself functions as a giant call-to-action. It encourages people to do more than just watch the show but rather thread the reality of these characters and their stories into our stories. This is a powerful way to use the media, and we love to see this brave take on social media from such a major company.
We also like that Netflix is engaging society a little bit through the fitness aspect of their Stories. This workout content seems a little self-aware. Netflix is acknowledging that consuming their product and their content for a long time doesn’t exactly promote a healthy lifestyle. So just like you see beer companies encouraging you to drink responsibly, the Workouts highlight is showing and reminding people to get up and get active in between their Netflix shows. This is a nice attempt, but we do see more missing from the overall engagement in society.
What Could Be Done Better
Stories would be a great spot to highlight some of the things Netflix does for the community. For example, where’s a touching photo of a mother who benefited from a Netflix outreach program? Netflix has spent billions of dollars on content, but people today want more. Younger demographics, people who are most active on Instagram, especially want to see what a brand is doing to make some positive change in the world as opposed to just profiting. Netflix could highlight some of its initiatives to meet this desire.
Another way to create more types of content would be with very simple charts around user analytics. What were the top shows and movies from the past week or month? This would be a solid way to get more posts up as well as drive trending topics. Netflix could showcase their own wins through some template-style posts. Again, we love the bravery of doing a meme account as a major corporation, but it does lack certain other elements we expect from such a large, successful brand.
Analytics / Insights
Netflix has a big follower count, with 25.7 million followers this week. There are a lot of people who saw value in following this account, at least at one point. With such a big following, the single-threaded meme account actually opens Netflix up to some opportunities.
They have a huge, diverse following, but since they’re sticking to the single type of content, they’re probably missing out on a lot of ways to engage all of their users. A more well-rounded approach could still complement the great downloadable content that people love.
Looking at the analytics, we see Netflix is getting really good numbers with 3.5 posts a day. Some of their most active stuff is hitting in the evenings and weekends. There’s lots of content here, so again, this is where we see an opportunity for different types of engagement.
Netflix is a huge brand, but they’re still open to using other brand partnerships to boost their content. This is always a wise move, and we see that one of their most commented posts is featuring Ariana Grande.
Key Takeaways
All in all, the Netflix account is very good. They have some great threads and content templates, but they could fill in with some diversity to the types of content and overall feel.
- They feature amazing original content, which is no surprise from one of today’s most prolific content brands.
- Their Stories add value to people’s lives with additional downloadable, editable content.
- The main feed lacks diverse types of posts that would appeal to their entire audience.
- There’s little social engagement or sense that Netflix gives back to the community.
Tune in next week to see our next installment of the Social Spotlight Series. Join our mailing list to get Goodwin knowledge and insights like this delivered straight to your inbox!