Sharpie: Social Media Guru
Almost everyone owns a Sharpie. The first thing that comes to mind when you say “marker” is Sharpie, and vice versa. When dealing with a brand that is so trustworthy, you need to represent yourself in a way that fits. Sharpie does this extremely well on their social media channels.
On Instagram, Sharpie shares photos of their products and a ton of User Generated Content. In fact, almost every single one of their posts is User Generated Content. Using this technique helps build their brands image and tone, creating a sense of community for their audience. It allows for conversation and generates network-worthy connections between other artists and their respective accounts. The account is also very responsive on their posts, commented back to their audience when mentioned or if they present a question.
On Facebook, the brand posts duplicate content of their Instagram page. Although some content may be different or additional it is still relatively the same content. They also post less frequently on Facebook compared to Instagram. The Facebook account does have more likes/followers than Instagram, but it receives less engagement. I think this is just solely based on the type of audience they receive on each platform.
On Twitter, Sharpie has a pretty solid standing. A daily post averages about 12 likes, 7 comments, and 3 retweets. Similar to the content they post on their other platforms, Sharpie shares User Generated Content. This tactic clearly works well for them, and their audience responds to it rather positively. When faced with negative tweets, Sharpie is always quick to respond to their unhappy customers. Each response is unique and personal and they always provide their customer service hotline for further assistance. Although Sharpie never publicly fixes the problem over Twitter, their audience can see that they care and want to help. For some viewers this may seem stand-off-ish but I think it’s a good response and provides the right information to get their customer the correct help that they need.
Lastly on Youtube, Sharpie is almost a whole other brand. Instead of sharing just basic product photos and projects, they instead share videos of artist and their work and how they use Sharpie’s to complete it. As you can see from the photo, Sharpie has not posted to YouTube in over 2 years. It’s unfortunate they decided to stray away from this content, as most of it is very intriguing. I would like to see them create this style of content again for maybe Instagram Reels/Stories or a TikTok account.
Overall, I think Sharpie represents their brand respectfully on social media. They have a great customer service strategy by supplying answers in the comments and reacting to their audience’s responses. Their tone is consistent throughout their channels by representing creativity, playfulness, and collaboration. If I were to suggest any changes to their platforms, it would be to generate more videos, or share more User Generated Content form videos. With the popularity of TikTok, videos and quick edits are grabbing more attention than a photo these days. I think if Sharpie uses this idea, they could grow their audience to a whole new demographic.