Like it or not, social media now rules the Internet. As of June 2018, there are 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram. This means that there is a ton of opportunity for brands to connect to and grow their customer base in a natural and authentic way that people even enjoy. However, many companies just can’t seem to get social media marketing right. Even the New England Patriots, one of the NFL’s most renowned franchises, is one of them. Upon auditing their Instagram page, I found some good practices they follow, though they were overshadowed by poor application and lousy effort.

The Good

Where the Patriots get it right is consistency, at least during the season that is. During this time, they post very frequently, almost every day or every other day. Sprout Social says that the best days to post are during the week.

Best times to post on Instagram: Wednesday at 11 a.m. and Friday at 10–11 a.m.

Sprout Social “Best times to post on social media for 2019”

The Patriots do follow this best practice of when to post during the off season. During this time, they almost never post on the weekends, following the pattern of posting on the days where engagement is best.

The Bad

The Patriots have little going well with their Instagram. Though they do have good engagement simply because of their name, they are not taking advantage of this. There are other social medias, or even their website, linked anywhere.

Additionally, they are not utilizing the built in sales channel that Instagram has. Instagram shopping has dominated the platform and will continue to. They say that Instagram has incorporated enough shopping features that the platform can almost become an entirely new revenue stream for your e-commerce business, and that over 130 million users are tapping to view Instagram shopping tags on photos a month. The Patriots do not use Instagram shopping tags at all. Being that the apparel market for the Patriots is huge with fans, it is something that they should implement within their posts, especially the ones aimed at fans. A simple tag on a beanie, t-shirt, or jersey could net them thousands of more sales.

View this post on Instagram

The impact @realkylevannoy has made in the New England community is simply remarkable.

A post shared by New England Patriots (@patriots) on Dec 12, 2019 at 8:58am PST

The Ugly

Where the Patriots really fall behind lies in their interaction with comments. According to my own research, they replied to 6 comments out of almost 10,000. This means that they replied to .06% of comments. Also, one of their replies was to a player on the team, so I would hardly count that as interaction. This horrible interaction will most likely not hurt them, as they are such a giant in American football that fans will think highly of them no matter what, but it is something they could benefit from improving.

If you don’t respond, you lose money. Roughly 30% of social media users go to a competitor if you ignore their message. That’s important to know because 34.5% of people say social media is their top choice for customer care communication.

Sprout Social “5 Social Media Best Practices Every Marketer Must Follow”

Research shows that willingness to engage with your followers is the most essential social media best practice. They say to engage with your audience and send real responses to interact and humanize your brand. In the case of the Patriots, they only ever replied with emojis. With younger generations becoming more willing to directly reach out to a brand and expect a response, it is up to the brand to ensure they get one. The Patriots hardly respond to their followers, and when they do it does not seem like they genuinely care about the response. They are just doing it to seem like there is some interaction. This is very bad.

What do you think?

What is your opinion on the Patriots Instagram? What other brands do you think could use some social media help? Or what brands do you think do it perfectly? Let me know in the comments below, as well as share this blog post with people you think might be interested!