HBO Social Media Audit Research Report
Abstract
This report will analyze HBO’s presence on a variety of social networks via a social media audit. The audit will examine factors such as consistency across platforms, quality of content, consumer feedback, competitor comparison, and platform compatibility. HBO’s overall social media presence is broad, but is lacking in several departments. These departments will be presented and criticized throughout the report.
Introduction
The chosen brand, HBO, was analyzed and audited due to glaring deficiencies in the organization’s online presence. The lack of consistency across all channels is reason to take a deeper look into the overall synchronicity of their social media platforms. As a beloved brand, known for their subscription based model, and incredible exclusive programming, there is significant potential for a revamped, or updated social media strategy.
HBO has become a beloved platform in Mass Media/Television. By analyzing their current social media strategy, and developing their online presence via a social media audit, there is significant progress to be made for the platform.
Literature Review
The majority of the literature gathered was used to explore strong social media strategy that companies are using at this point in time. This report will be guided by previous online literature such as a great article by Ben Davis illustrates 30 brand with excellent social media strategies, “How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond” from buffer.com, and “Creating Social Media Strategy” from moz.com.
Methodology
The methodology employed in order to analyze HBO’s social media strategy was a comprehensive social media audit. The audit analyzes HBO’s online platforms individually and weighs their pros and cons. This method gives great structure to the research report. The main platforms that will be analyzed are the HBO Canada’s Website, HBO Canada’s Facebook, and HBO Canada’s Twitter. In addition of the main prompts of pros, and cons, there will be evidence provided for the claims in screenshot form just in case posts are altered, or removed from the platforms.
Results
HBO Canada’s Website
The Pros of HBO Canada’s Website:
• Access to a large variety of ad-free and original content.
• No commercials, pop-up menus, or redirects on the website
• The website is easy to use, consistent, and caters to Canadian users by providing relevant and intriguing content.
• Popular titles are prominently featured on the site, and easily navigable for users.
• First prompt on the site mentions that HBO Canada has transitioned to CRAVE in Canada. This provides users with upfront information essential to the user’s subscription needs.
The Cons of HBO Canada’s Website:
• Blocked content seems to occur depending on your region/ provider.
• Additional costs added to exclusive content, which encourages users to switch to Netflix
• The website can experience lagging at times and the large images/ font size make it difficult to properly utilize all website functions on a smartphone or iPad.
• Confusing prices (ex. “Starz” package which is not clearly explained by Crave.ca website)
• HBO Canada has transitioned from “HBO Canada” to “CRAVE” which may confuse users. The social media links provided on the homepage of the HBO Canada site directly link to CRAVE social media platforms. This is confusing to users, and will lead to less successful Search Engine Optimization
HBO Canada’s Facebook
The Pros of HBO Canada’s Facebook:
• HBO Canada has an extensive following of 24,148 people (see Appendix 1). The Facebook page is well organized and consists of an in-depth description of the site, quality graphics, external links, posts, videos, and a strong community following. Additional pros to HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: easy to access and diverse content, consistent and high-quality video, no ads and no interruptions.
• Engagement on the page is extremely high as Facebook users consistently like, and comment on content posted (see Appendix B). This is a great sign for HBO in Canada. Users are interested, and use the HBO Facebook page to communicate interest with friends.
The Cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook:
• Although HBO Canada seems to be strong and well managed, the page doesn’t compare to the official HBO Facebook page, which has far more extensive content, and is liked by over 12 Million users. Upon analyzing both pages, it seems as though HBO Canada shares pictures, videos, and posts a few hours after the official HBO Facebook page. This is problematic due to the fact that many users want the most up-to-date and timely posts – which makes them more inclined to follow official HBO rather than HBO Canada. Additional cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: infrequent posting, poor timed posts, fails to consistently use hashtags and external links. The Facebook page also fails to explain how much the service costs + any additional costs such as the Movies + HBO option or the Starz package.
• The content on the HBO Canada Facebook page is very game of thrones centered. This may leave fans of other titles disenchanted with the page.
HBO Canada’s Twitter:
The Pros of HBO Canada’s Twitter:
• HBO Canada’s Twitter account posts frequent, up-to-date content and is well managed by the sites social media team.
• Consistently uses Twitter hashtags to encourage users to keep up with shows, content and news ex. #GoTPremiereNYC
• HBO Canada boast a following of 63.7K and receives consistent engagement from their followers.
The Cons of HBO Canada’s Twitter:
• HBO Canada’s Twitter account is not consistent with the Facebook page, thus proving that HBO Canada struggles to maintain consistency with their content across all media platforms.
• News will often be posted to the Twitter account and not the Facebook page
• Tweets from this account can sometimes be irrelevant and unnecessary, which media companies want to avoid due to the frequent posting and un-wanted spam complaints from users
• In the biography of the page, a link re-directs you to a page that wants you to sign up for Crave – failing to accurately explain what the service has to offer.
• Re-direct links can be confusing for less “tech savvy” users – this could create confusion and lead them to believe that other services are superior (ex. Netflix – which is incredibly user friendly).
Discussion
Changes as a result of the preliminary findings in the social media audit have the potential to create more buzz for upcoming release of Season 8 of HBO’s most notable title, Game of Thrones.
In the off chance you have missed the teasers for the new season, check these out:
GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice'
Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)
The results of the social media audit are very positive but point to current issues with HBO’s current social media strategy.
With many companies/organizations having such a negative or controversial presence online, all findings shown in the audit are much less dramatic than the following:
BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies
Conclusion
In summary, HBO Canada’s social media pages are well managed and active. Their Twitter and Facebook pages have been proven to post frequent, up-to-date and relevant content. Although high-quality content is evident, there lacks consistency across platforms. HBO Canada also fails to keep up with the competition – which was proven by comparing the user-friendliness, feedback and compatibility of Netflix up against Crave TV. In order to surpass competition from a business standpoint, HBO Canada will have to improve upon their social media strategy, potentially by reading this very report.
Recommendations
What needs to be done as a result of findings: HBO Canada needs to improve on consistency across platforms. In multiple cases, the Twitter account and Facebook account fail to post at the same time and the content is often varied slightly. In order to reach their target market effectively and consistently, Twitter posts should match Facebook posts and they should both utilize hashtags and external links. It was concluded that the webpage was user friendly, well managed and effective, but image/font size does impact mobile users. So, with this suggestion, HBO Canada needs to improve on their overall appearance and aesthetic while still maintaining consistent, well linked content throughout all three platforms. If this is effectively done, users across all platforms will avoid being confused and gain consistent, up-to-date knowledge on TV series, movies and docs.
HBO Canada is also faced with a difficult rebranding process with the incorporation of CRAVE into their social media and streaming platforms. For this reason, HBO Canada should consistently link CRAVE social media platforms across their existing HBO Canada platforms. This will aide users in finding the information they need to be fully immersed in HBO Canada’s content.
References
https://econsultancy.com/30-brands-with-excellent-social-media-strategies/
http://www.hbocanada.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HBOCanada/
https://twitter.com/HBOCanada
BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7QQb8oMG8k
Social Media Marketing Explained in 11 Minutes - Gary Vaynerchuk | Business Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rSWdW2GQI4
GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYWjB0kWNXk
Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA38GCX4Tb0
How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond
https://buffer.com/library/social-media-marketing-strategy
Creating Social Media Strategy
https://moz.com/learn/seo/social-media-strategy-video
Appendices
Screenshots of findings sorted by platform:
Facebook:
Appendix A
HBO Canada Facebook following.
Appendix B
HBO Canada’s Facebook engagement.
HBO Canada’s Twitter:
HBO Canada’s Following.
