Red Bull: A brand built on social media

Red Bull is truly a brand that has built itself up using social media. The company has become extremely well known for its audacious pr stunts and it's imposing social media presence. Red Bull maintains a presence across a broad range of social media which powers it's marketing, PR and media endeavours. One of its main social media outlets is its Facebook page

The page which has amassed over 46 million likes does not list Red Bull as being a food/beverage manufacturer like most companies that produce a drink do, rather it lists itself as a news/media outlet. This further proves that by using social media Red Bull has shifted it's business model and even its identity in a dramatic way. It now appears that the drink itself is now a small by product of the over all brand with its media endeavours taken over. This is very evident wen you view It's Facebook page you are hard pressed to actually find a post of a Red Bull can rather the page posts about extreme sports and music Red Bull sponsors

    By doing this Red Bull is seen to be trying to market itself as not just a energy drink manufacturer, but as a lifestyle choice. These posts generate a lot of likes and comments but they dont seem to take the time to respond to them or even moderate them, This could be viewed as being a missed opportunity to gain some very useful customer feedback on there brand.

Red Bull also have a heavy Twitter presence with many different accounts for its different enterprises for example, There are separate accounts for its Music academy and its F1 page with many others too including Red Bull cliff diving.

Its main account has over 2.14 million followers and follows a similar trend to its Facebook page. You are hard pressed to actually find a post containing a photo of a can. The feed generally tweets once or twice a day and these range from links to sponsored athletes to music artists signed to the Red Bull label to promotional videos for some of its many other interests. 

Its clear to see that Red Bull has definitely re invented itself into a huge mass media company and seems to have almost forgotten  that its primarily a drinks manufacturer. I think even though they have boosted themselves to a worldwide brand through social media they have lost there identity along the way. If you didnt already know that Red Bull was an energy drink you would assume it's a sports magazine or a internet media sight from viewing its social media outlets. For some reason I cant shake the feeling that Red Bull is almost ashamed of the fact that at its  core its just a energy drink and there social media presence seems to downright ignore it. Red Bull needs to work harder to bring back its core product into the limelight , as it stands it seems that despite all its clever social media efforts, Rec Bull is a company that has lost it's identity.    

References:

https://econsultancy.com/blog/62178-how-red-bull-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google/

https://twitter.com/redbull?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/redbull/?fref=ts

http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing