Have you ever tried to buy a pair of Air Jordan’s? It’s not as easy as you think it is. Sure you can walk into a Footlocker or Finishline store at any suburban shopping mall and pick up a pair but if you want a pair of retro Jordan’s or even the latest release it’s next to impossible!
Air Jordan’s have become the most coveted shoes among Millennials and younger generations to come. The next time you are out and about take a look at what young people are wearing on their feet and you will be shocked at how much Air Jordan’s are worn by both young men and women.
Air Jordan’s are the Pokemon cards for a new generation.
Not only do young people buy Jordan’s to wear they collect them and on a Saturday morning at 8 am you will find millions upon millions of potential customers waiting on Nike’s Twitter account or Sneakers App to buy the latest weekly release.
The demand is so overwhelming that a year ago Nike’s website crashed every weekend for the past three weeks. Most of the frustrated customers took to Twitter to voice their issues.
Nike responds to some but most fade into white noise as Saturday passes and the next Air Jordan release is scheduled. You would think that would be the end of things socially. Not at all, Monday starts with video bloggers on YouTube doing reviews of the next Air Jordan release. These are carefully watched videos by the Air Jordan community. People like (The Sneaker Addict, Sneaker Watch and Nightwing 230) do a fantastic job of reviewing and previewing next weekend’s shoe.
Before you know it, the madness begins again on Saturday.
NIKE HAS CREATED A SOCIAL ECOSYSTEM FOR AIR JORDAN’S. A SOCIAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEM INVOLVES THREE COMPONENTS:
FANS
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS
BRAND
Why is it so important to social media success? In Nike’s case, fans created the demand and need, social media managers both for Nike and in the social media community monitor and curate product information and the Brand continues to evolve and sustain itself that being Air Jordan.
When a company has found a social ecosystem it’s almost the same as finding gold. Both from a brand and monetary standpoint.
AIR JORDAN SALES ARE BOOMING!
Supporting a social media ecosystem is just as important. If one component suffers the whole ecosystem is in jeopardy. Take for example the negative feedback Nike received after their eCommerce site crashed. Nike’s Twitter account managers quickly understood and acknowledged the problems that Fans were experiencing - thus fixing the ecosystem. Simply reaching out to users and acknowledging them on social media channels is as important as marketing the shoes.
The lesson to be learned is that every product, service and company has these social media ecosystems. The goal is to understand them, and utilize them for success in social media.
