Steve Richards,
Managing Director,
Yomego
Nintendo
Nintendo’s prominent position in the SMR League Table helps to prove that all social media strategies don’t have to revolve around the 'F' word (Facebook). Despite being highly engaged in social media, Nintendo don’t actively manage an official brand presence (a Nintendo Wii page exists, but it’s inactive).
So how have Nintendo outperformed the likes of Sony, Coca-Cola and Adidas in our list?
Firstly, Nintendo has played to its strengths. Their products are very visual so, as you might expect, the company’s focus for social is YouTube. Quality content is segmented via sub-branded channels and regularly updated. The most popular, 'Experience Wii', has achieved over 8m views and has 33k subscribers. Nintendo also uses Twitter (@nintendoamerica has 50k followers) which is principally used as a news and views channel.
In common with our overall SMR champ, eBay, Nintendo attracts very little negative sentiment leaving resource free to deliver attractive content rather than fight fires. Just goes to show that an effective performance in social media is virtually impossible if a brand’s products don’t deliver.
Nintendo’s success can also be attributable to the prevalence and positivity of blog references. It’s obviously part of Nintendo’s engagement strategy and building strong relationships with key influencers in social channels is really paying off. This delivers a dual benefit; driving widespread advocacy in the good times, and building a bank of goodwill if anything goes awry.
Nintendo for #1 in next year’s SMR league table? I wouldn’t bet against it.
NMA Opinion
Nintendo, like many other games companies, already has an engaged community of fans. It comes with the territory. However, in all honesty, it’s the unofficial forums and sites that create most noise. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it means the company can (as it has done) plough more money into broadcast advertising and celebrity endorsement. In terms of social interaction online, there’s nothing that stands out as particularly impressive and there’s much more that could be done. But while your fans are doing the hard work for you, why try to fix something that isn’t broken?