09 April 2014

Comparing Apple and Microsoft on Social Media

Let’s look at the presence of Apple and Microsoft—two major technology companies—on social media. Both companies can be considered successful when it comes to their strategy in utilizing social media, but they are very different in how they use and manage their presence on these services.

Microsoft

First let’s see how Microsoft uses Twitter. Microsoft is decidedly visible. They aggressively promote their products and services, have staff on Twitter monitoring @ mentions and doing searches to provide help and technical support, and the company’s accounts are highly interactive with Twitter users.

I can attest to the close monitoring Microsoft does with regard to Twitter (Storify conversation embedded below). When this semester began, I took advantage of the Microsoft DreamSpark Program and downloaded a copy of Windows 8 Pro, 8.1 Pro, and 7 Pro for personal and school use. I posted a tweet about getting some licenses for Windows and received a response a few hours later asking what I’d be using them for (gaming, mostly I replied). About a month later, I complained to @Windows about Windows 8 automatically restarting in the middle of a game, got a quick reply and link to a Knowledge Base entry. Once my problem had been solved, they followed up on our conversation from a month earlier, asking about my progress in the games I’d mentioned.

This sort of interaction requires very little effort on the part of the company—aside from searching through previous conversations—and is highly effective in leaving a positive impression of the company with users.


Apple

Apple is a bit different when it comes to social media. Take a look at two gifs comparing search results for the two companies on Facebook and Twitter: FB Twitter


Apple has essentially no presence on either Facebook or Twitter. There is one verified account run by Apple in the Twitter search results and their Facebook page seems to exist solely to keep someone else from impersonating them. The only exception to that are the pages/accounts for the iTunes and App Stores (not shown in either result) which are generally used to inform about new releases and promotions.[1] Even though Apple doesn’t run as many official accounts as Microsoft does, their products, services and ads are talked about as widely as—if not more than—Microsoft.

If you consider social media presence as an extension only of companies marketing departments, it’s easy to see why Apple is barely present. Apple, rather famously, doesn’t spend as much in advertising as their competitors, spending just over $1bn in 2013[2]. Compare this to the nearly $2.5bn that Microsoft spent last year (we’re not going to even mention the $4bn(!!!) Samsung spent over the same time period).

Although they have little official presence, I believe it would be incorrect to dismiss Apple as ignoring social media. Given the company’s confidence in both the ads it commissions to run in traditional media (print, television, etc.). Take their most recent holiday commercial, “Misunderstood”, was widely shared on both Facebook and Twitter. Numerous articles were written about the ad and shared on social media. Rather than ignoring social media, I believe that Apple uses it in a more natural fashion: letting its ads and products speak for themselves and spur conversation on social media without direct involvement from the company.

To an extent, social media exists as a projection of what a person—or company—believes to be their best assets. For Microsoft, that is flexibility and availability. For Apple, it is creativity and ease of access. In this light, both Apple’s and Microsoft’s approaches to social media can be considered successful and positive for the respective companies.



  1. In fact, the most significant presence the company has on Twitter is from executives Phil Schiller and Tim Cook, who rarely Tweet about Apple as a company aside from the occasional mention of a new product or ad campaign.  ↩
  2. This is up significantly since 2009, when they spent roughly $500m in advertising. These figures are from Horace Dediu’s tweet in Nov. 2013  ↩

06 February 2014

Why MATC

MATC is not the first college that I’ve attended. I ended up at MATC after a false start at another 4-year university and after roughly 7 majors ranging from Pre-law to Film to Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. I grew disaffected with my university experience and decided to drop out so that I wouldn’t waste any more of my time or money. One of the reasons why I didn’t do well at a traditional 4-year school was that I was easily frustrated with the speed at which I progressed in my studies; general education classes were required in subjects that in all likelihood I would never use in my future career. So when looking to resume my post-high school studies, I looked for a technical school because of the quicker progress I would make in getting a degree as well as the hands-on experience I would get in my field. Also, the cost-to-benefit ratio of attending MATC was too high not to go.

Selecting the information technology field was relatively easy. I’ve always had a knack for working with computers and technology and I figured why not make a career out of it. Since deciding on IT however, I’ve had a renewed desire to continue on with my education. After I’ve received my degree from MATC, I would like to continue on at a 4-year school, in the science or engineering field, which—while loosely related with IT—can still put my hard work to use. So in addition to the IT classes that I’m taking at MATC, I’ll also be enrolled in a mathematics course each semester to get a head start on my future studies.

Careerwise, after graduating from MATC, I’ll be looking to start with a company that works in the science and engineering field (who will certainly have need of a skilled network technician) so that I’ll eventually be able to transition from the IT arena to science and engineering.

Ahead of me is a challenging path with great opportunity. MATC is the first step on that path and I’m excited for the future.