Blog
October 10, 2021
Popular consumer brands are going public, either directly or through Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs).
Companies from BarkBox to Bird, and Nextdoor to NerdWallet are listing on the stock exchange, coming off successive and successful periods of growth – much of which has been driven by social media.
In this blog post, we’ve focused on companies that either listed in 2021, or are going to do so in the coming months. We want to know what they do, how they do it, and what organizations like yours can learn from these juggernauts.
Many of these companies have literally grown their businesses on social media, and most of them rely on paid social campaigns to ensure their ongoing advancement. If there are companies out there that are worth learning from when it comes to social media strategy, they’re probably on this list.
There are multiple learnings to take from the brands featured here – companies who have built their successful businesses on social media success. This post will focus on brands 1stdibs.com and threadUP as industry examples, but there are much more insights waiting for you in the full report. Let’s dive in.
03.20.2021 - 06.17.2021
1stDibs is an ecommerce company selling luxury items such as designer furniture, art, and jewelry. The company’s IPO was on June 7, 2021.
The company’s regular social media strategy is very ecommerce-focused. 45% of ads are consideration-oriented, and 27% are conversion-specific. However in the last 7 days – possibly thanks to the buzz generated around the company’s IPO – the brand has been a bit more aggressive, with 47% of posts being conversion-oriented. As of writing, the company’s share price is up 15% since listing.
A typical 1stdibs post. Note the language, visuals, and intentional lack of a specific call to action (the link leads to their online store). Oh, and you can own this bag for the modest sum of $45,000.
In terms of their IPO, the company hardly “broke” from their usual posting before or after the IPO. Their only nod to the occasion was this post that acknowledged the company’s listing.
The sentiment around the brand is very positive. This is likely due to the connection the brand has fostered with its fans. It uses very specific and consistent language and visuals that speak directly to its demographic. This creates a tight feedback loop in which the right people are targeted, in the right way, leading to mutual love (which is one of the most used words in connection with the brand on social media.)
thredUP is an online consignment and thrift store selling high-quality secondhand clothes. The company went public on March 26, 2021 and has since doubled in value.
As noted before, thredUP is very specific in its targeting, aiming its social media posts exclusively at a female audience.
Like 1stdibs, thredUP is focused on sales. The majority of its ad campaigns are conversion oriented, and bar a few modest posts about the company listing, it was all business for the brand.
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In fact, even on the day of the company’s IPO, the company was posting conversion-oriented posts:
We hope that through these learnings and the additional insights in the full report, your organization is much better positioned to leverage paid social media to drive business success. This is just the beginning – there is so much more out there.
Incredibly, many of these insights would be invisible and inaccessible were it not for the BrandTotal platform. Without the access to this data that BrandTotal provides, we'd be completely in the dark about how these brands are carrying out their strategies, what tactics they employ, and what it takes to win.
Download the full report here for the whole story.