Social Listening: Canon Cameras

When looking back on all of the different companies, brands, and products that I encounter in my daily life, I decided to pick a company that I am actually in the market for currently. For awhile now I have thought about buying myself a professional camera, but it can be hard to choose when there are so many options out there. The two main camera companies I have narrowed down my search to happen to be Canon and Sony. For this blog post, I decided to choose Canon cameras to focus on, and dive deeper into what people are saying about their cameras online. 

If you know anything about the photography world you have probably heard of the Canon camera. Canon has a long history of creating amazing cameras and high-quality lenses. With a particular focus on image quality, contrast, and a variety of camera lenses. Canon's value proposition can be seen in the about us page of their US website which states, "As a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions, our determination to live and work together for the common good permeates everything we do". 

Canon however does not only create cameras, they also create camera lenses, printers, ink, and office supplies. When looking at their social media presence, the first thing you will notice is that there is a different Canon social media depending on which location you are in. For this blog post I decided to choose Canon USA. Most of the comments and content I have found from Canon comes from their Instagram and Youtube page and range from overall approval to complaints as well. 

After looking over all of their social media sights, it is clear that they follow some great marketing principles by constantly being engaged and interacting with their followers. Under almost every post, when someone has a comment or complaint, Canon does a very good job at replying, and replying fast. 

Even when the comments are negative ones, Canon follows the standard marketing principle of participation by replying fast and with helpful information. I think in this instance they did a great job or replying with helpful information and a number to even call them further. I would continue to do this for their social media pages. It also seems like the main focus of Canon's current Instagram page is to show off the different types of pictures their lenses and cameras can get you with slightly less of a focus on video. This could be one of Canon's marketing challenges as they compete with other cameras such as Sony and Nikon. As someone who hasn't been in the camera market very long, even I have heard that Sony is one of the top ones you want to go to for video while Canon is one of the top ones for photos. I noticed when going over to Canon's Tik-Tok that they have very little engagement or views on their content.

As you can see, the engagement they are getting on their Tik-Tok is not at all comparable to the thousands they get on their other social media sights. It could partially be because they focus more on showcasing their photos but also because they use very little hashtags on their Tik-Tok videos which I have found more helpful to push your content out to a wider audience.

If I were the brand manager of Canon, I would first try to focus on a more cohesive feed for their social media sights so it feels less overwhelming and easier to find information. Secondly, I would post photos of their actual cameras and have them include more videos on how to use their canon lenses and gear. While the Canon social media pages have done a good job on re-posting people's pictures using their camera's, I would include more comparison shots between the different lenses they sell in order to create more marketability. As shown above, their Tik-Tok has very few followers and little to no engagement as compared to their Instagram so I would also try and expand their content and reach on other social media sights as well.

Through this assignment I learned about the importance of social media marketing across multiple platforms and how a brand markets itself against its competitors.