ASOS — The Online Champion?
The Stylish Social Media Role Model
ASOS is considered one of the most successful digital brands as they have built a close-knit community of loyal fashionistas online. With 10.7M followers on Instagram, 6.7M on Facebook, 1M on Pinterest, and a total of a 1M on all their Twitter pages, their social media presence is a winning one. Their success is contingent to their balanced use of social media as a means to increase sales and maintain customer engagement in brand development.
See and Be Seen
ASOS uses a user generated content strategy to amplify customer engagement through the use of the branded hashtag, #AsSeenOnMe. This hashtag is a multi-channel initiative for followers to show off their favourite ASOS outfits with the hopes of being featured on the ASOS Instagram and Facebook. It is a noteworthy example of editorial value — a form of earned media—because through the use of this hashtag, social media users endorse ASOS clothing on a merit basis. Users who use this hashtag are not extrinsically motivated by a paid sponsorship; rather, they promote ASOS products as they are intrinsically motivated by their genuine love for ASOS products.
With 1.3M #AsSeenonMe posts, the hashtag allows more people to notice and engage with ASOS’ vibrant online personality. As well, the utilization of this UGC strategy allows ASOS to paint their feed with unique posts from their customers while securing free advertising. This campaign is also a tactical method of facilitating impulse purchases through a “see it, want it” motivation as the ASOS app is linked in the caption of Instagram photos, thus making the purchase at the fingertips of social media followers.
Equipped with an Online Army of Creatives
Further, ASOS is a fashion leader on social media due to the use of their forward-thinking influencer strategy, known as the ASOS Insiders Program. This isn’t a typical influencer program where money is exchanged for posts. Instead, ASOS breaks the mold of influencer marketing; while some brands are focused on sponsored posts, ASOS hires an army of stylish and international individuals to promote products through their unique and personalized creative vision. This squad of new creatives are predominantly micro-influencers with under 10K followers who post on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Instead of collaborating with macro-influencers like clothing brands such as Lulu’s or FashionNova do, ASOS reaches more segmented audiences from their micro-influencers. A study by SocialPubli demonstrated that micro-influencers generate 7x more engagement than macro-influencers do. Their study found that micro-influencers generate the most brand recognition because their followers are genuinely interested in their content. Hence, they are more likely to actively engage with the posts micro-influencers share.
Instead of building flashy advertisement campaigns like other brands do, ASOS builds a reputation of authenticity as influencers interact with their built-in communities, allowing ASOS to find new niches. ASOS features their insiders through IGTV, Reels, and Live videos. Rather than having an in-your-face-advertising strategy, the array of influencer posts are secret gems. The creative genius of it all is that all insiders have their own individual style, allowing them to put their unique spin on ASOS products. This positions ASOS’ content for inspiration as it conveys that anyone can recreate their own aesthetic with ASOS stock.
Tweeting for Customers
In order to focus on customer care, ASOS manages a separate twitter account, HeretoHelp Twitter Page. This two-way communication model allows social media coordinators to separate customer care queries, including angry customers, from other consumer engagement activity. Their Twitter page follows the social care practices as they communicate in a transparent, timely, and respectful manner in order to effectively address the concerns of their customers. This shows that they are consumer-centric as ASOS has curated a team that is dedicated to addressing customer concerns and questions on a 24/7 basis.
Pinterest: A Visual Shopping Guide
In 2018, ASOS launched a shareable Pinterest board in an effort to help shoppers organize their saved items and wish-list. As there is a shareable feature, users can send their curated boards, gift ideas, and wish lists to their friends. This creates a more collaborative and positive shopping experience as users can gain feedback from their friends, which distinguishes ASOS from other brands; for example, their main competitor, Zara, has not adopted such an innovative strategy. This initiative also benefits customers because Pinterest-style boards allow users to visualize what they can wear with certain clothes and strategically shop by comparing their wish-list to clothes they already have. Overall, this eases a customer’s shopping experience because with over 80,000 products and 850 brands on their website, ASOS’ inventory can be overwhelming.
ASOS Leaves an Eco-Friendly Online Footprint
ASOS continues to make smart and strategic moves to ensure premium visibility. They remain on top of environmental trends by using their platform to share insights on topics that resonate with their audience. With their “ON IT” highlight and hashtag, ASOS continues to build their corporate social philanthropy online. They do not greenwash as they prove their green efforts to customers and educate their followers on fast fashion.
Coming in a Close Second are Zara and Boohoo
Although ASOS excels in much of their social media marketing, their online presence on Facebook and Twitter is plateauing as they focus the majority of their efforts on Instagram. Though ASOS posts engaging and comedic content on their Twitter and Facebook, they don’t take advantage of these platforms to post new product drops like Zara and Boohoo do — some of ASOS’ top tier competitors. Additionally, ASOS does not promote their international campaigns on their Facebook or Twitter like Zara does. In order to grow their customer database on a global scale, they should leverage their Twitter and Facebook pages by promoting more international clothing campaigns through a multi-channel initiative. As well, if ASOS wishes to amplify their online presence beyond Instagram, the ASOS social media team should acquire insiders who have a large following on Twitter and Facebook. Currently, ASOS’ influencer activity is restricted to Instagram as this is where the majority of their insiders focus their efforts.
Nobody’s Perfect but…
… ASOS nears the finish line of becoming the online branding champion. ASOS has mastered the art of organic customer engagement through the use of branded hashtags, insider influencers, and content that resonates with a creative and environmentally active audience. Through their social media initiatives, they have founded a loyal community of advocators who promote and recommend their products. If companies wish to build a community of stylish advocates like ASOS has, ASOS is the perfect role model.