Sticking with concept of brand outreach though blogs I recently visited the Nikeblog website. Immediately I noticed a clean cut homepage with a classic black, white, and red background. Visually the blog is easy for audiences to digest and blog posts are short and to the point. Categories on the page include Classic Kicks, Drop Dates, Kicks, Uniforms, and Sports. Sub-categories on the page includes Ads, Apparel, Air Jordans, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, NFL, and Nike Sportswear. The homepage has a column of recent posts that highlight, new shoe releases, limited addition shoe giveaways, new videos/ads, and upcoming apparel. The Nikeblog has a Facebook page and a Twitter account which are both shown in the right-hand column of the homepage.
The Classic Kicks category of the blog opens up to all thing related to purchasing and winning Nike kicks. The company averages daily posts on recent releases on Nike kicks that include, old, new, and limited edition releases. As previously mentioned, the descriptions of the shoes are brief and to-the-point. These descriptions also include links to purchase. The Drop Dates category of the blog includes all upcoming new release information and updates shoe-fanatics on when to expect specific shoes. This category isn’t repetitive and offers a new collection of shoes to the blog audience with specific shoe release details. The rest of the page is pretty straight forward. For instance the sub-category called “Lebron James” is focused on Lebron James shoe deatils, pictures, and brief descriptions. The basic functions of the blog are met, which serves to inform audiences about all things Nike shoes and apparel.
The Nikeblog continues engaging their online audience via Nikeblog specific Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Nikeblog twitter account has 14, 837 tweets, 18, 289 followers and follows 99. Their tweets include links to page blog posts on upcoming shoe releases, many @reply’s, and sports conversations. Although, I didn’t notice any retweets within last weeks worth of tweets, the account is actively replying to their twitter followers by answering potentially risky questions. I noticed that when a twitter follower tweeted a complaint about the ads on the Nikeblog page the company account tweeted back showing sympathy and addressing the problem. In my opinion, this was a perfect way to connect with audiences and show that while blogs are not always perfect, constructive complaints allow brands to effective fix site problems. I also noticed @Nikeblog tweets multiple times a day, linking all blog posts, as well, many conversations about ongoing sports games, and shoe releases dates. The Nikeblog Facebook account specifically updates on new blog posts. A direct account to their blog page and another great way to pull in their Facebook dominate audience.
After analyzing the connections on the Nikeblog I have come to the Nike excels in certain connections with the audience they cater towards. The clean page layout and straight forward categories serves their shoe-fanatic community perfectly. Nike lovers have access to all the necessary information needed to decide on making a purchase. And since Nike has so many options (apparel, shoes) they have found a great way to categorize their items so audiences are not confused on where to search. The twitter account they handle handles more of the interaction between the company blog and audiences. With their active Twitter, Facebook, and blog the company is efficiently informing and engaging audience. While, I am not the Nike shoe fanatic as the target-market, I do enjoy the effort the brand has put into connecting with their online community.
