Lindsey Komson

Featured image by Polina Tankilevitch

Ever wonder why certain brands’ social media posts catch your eye over others?

In the book Paid Attention by Faris Yakob, the author explains that brands are constantly competing for the most valuable resource in today’s world: consumer attention. With the influx of content available at our fingertips at all times, brands need to reach their target audiences in a memorable way.

In the world of social media marketing, there are two main types of content that allow brands to reach their intended audiences – organic and paid. To analyze these types of content, I took a deeper look at Hollister’s social media presence. The company is most active on Instagram and TikTok, but has accounts on Facebook and X as well. I analyzed each platform’s performance, and here’s what I found:

Let’s start with Hollister’s organic efforts. The Marketing Campaign Playbook by Sharon Lee Thony explains that organic efforts are aimed at building trust and engagement among consumers. Hollister creates tons of organic content aimed at their target audience – teens and young adults. It’s important for the brand to stay on top of current events and trends to reach their audience where they are, and Hollister does a great job of that.

For example, one of Hollister’s most popular product sectors is its vintage sports apparel. Throughout the college football season, the company would post college team-inspired outfits to engage those particular fans/audiences. From seasonal traditions to major life events, Hollister taps into all the current and future trends. Two prominent examples I found were:

1. Posts and reels promoting College Football Playoff-inspired outfits
2. A post relating popular fall activities to fall-inspired Hollister outfits

Another example of Hollister’s organic content is their constant posting of consumer photos. Whether it’s a singular photo or a carousel photo dump, the brand always tags their consumers so it’s obvious to followers that it’s not just another marketing photoshoot. These are real photos from satisfied customers, so this builds a ton of trust between the brand and their social media following.

The Marketing Campaign Playbook also explains that paid efforts, in contrast to organic efforts, help amplify messages to new audiences. I used Meta Ad Library to analyze some of Hollister’s recent paid campaigns. I found that most of them were very plain, featuring just a photo and a short, straightforward caption. The paid ads that include videos look like they’re trying to be organic, but lack the messaging and personal touch that organic content has.

It seems that video views and comments are the metrics that Hollister prioritizes the most. The types of videos that get the most views are the simple, POV/PSA videos, showing off popular clothing with a trending sound in the background. These are evidently the types of videos they post the most, so a high view count must be grounds to continue. Comments are also very important to the brand – it’s clear that their most popular posts have the most comments, and they make quite the effort to respond to as many as they can.

The Marketing Campaign Playbook asserts that analytics enhances creativity by showing where improvements can be made. If I had to provide suggestions for Hollister’s social media presence, I would cover 2 main areas:

1. I recommend making the paid video ads look similar to the POV/PSA-style organic video content posted on Instagram and TikTok. This way, consumers wouldn’t scroll past knowing it’s an ad, they’d most likely engage since it seems personal and organic.
2. I would consider making a separate Instagram account for Hollister men’s clothing. Most of the posts on all platforms are women’s clothing, and posts promoting men’s clothing have significantly fewer views, likes, and comments. Creating a separate page would allow each audience to follow the page that suits their interests and not be flooded with content they will just scroll past.

Hollister is a great example of how organic and paid content can be used to promote a brand on social media. Social media analytics help us analyze current strategies to evaluate a brand’s success.