There are many different ways that Microsoft Xbox use social media to promote themselves The Facebook page has fun competitions and fantastic offers, the twitter feed full with the achievements of gamers. Regardless of which social network you take a look at, Xbox excel at marketing themselves on social media.
Below are two examples of how they have made effective use of social networking to make their customers advocates and therefore powerful sales and marketing assets.
Elite Tweet Fleet
The customer driven Xbox Support Elite Tweet Fleet (say that ten times faster) became so successful that it actually holds the Guinness world record for “The most responsive corporate account on Twitter”, responding to an astonishing 5,000 questions in an average of 2 minutes 42 seconds. Not only was this a wonderful achievement for the Tweet Fleet and Microsoft, it also meant that customer satisfaction went through the roof.
However, this was no easy task. Starting off small, monitoring mentions of “Xbox issues” with some simple twitter searching, they began to proactively help customers. Just as Twitter is the fastest and easiest way for angry gamers to tell as many people as humanly possible that they can’t connect to Xbox Live, although I can imagine with more expletives. It’s the most cost effective place to address these issues too, before they ever have a chance to become emails or calls, the Tweet Fleet would intervene.
The response was overwhelming. After gathering information from customer surveys it was found that proactive support was being taken to very kindly, the word spread quickly. Thousands of re-tweets from happy customers and a Guinness world record later and the Elite Tweet Fleet became a renowned service. By simply taking an interest and putting customer needs first, Microsoft gained a loyal fan base and hundreds of thousands of users spreading the word.
Xbox One launch
Then, of course, there was the launch of the next generation Xbox One. Do you remember that? The anticipation, staying up trying to find the best live stream? Just me? Ok… well I remember! And like so many others I was left bemused and well, quite frankly appalled by what I had witnessed. The lack of any useful information, anything I could take away and use to win the argument of Xbox One or PS4.
The information that was released contrasted previous statements. Naturally I took to the Internet to gather information, as did millions, and just like that the Xbox One launch became the talk of the town. Albeit, with a slightly negative tone. However we discussed what we would like to see, and as customers, what would make us choose Xbox One. Before long Twitter and Facebook were full of information Microsoft could use to win the war. It’s hard to say whether this was ever the plan or if it was truly just an awful launch but still, they got what they needed.
In Conclusion
Whether it be through dedicated customer support or baiting Joe Public into providing useful information, Microsoft have certainly played it well. Showing the full extent in which Social Media can be used to aid marketing goals.
By content contributor – Simon Weise
