Social Advertising

   

     Volkswagen typically uses it's social media platforms to advertise to a wide range of audiences.  They target millennials with their Facebook posts about their sportier line of cars - the Golf R, GTI, and Jetta and target families with content about their larger vehicles like the new Atlas.  There is also a large following of race fans who want to be up to date on the latest Americas Rallycross or even Europen race stats. VW.com shares this article about the first season of Americas Rallycross :  http://newsroom.vw.com/community/volkswagen-andretti-rallycross-beetles-sweep-inaugural-americas-rallycross/?cid=fb.20180530.1.p

     Commercials tend to feature younger actors and lately, their commercials have been focusing on the cars with an appeal to a younger generation than those with a more family or luxury appeal.  Visuals are bright and colorful - with a touch of a throwback to the vintage era and a feeling of wanderlust.  https://www.facebook.com/VW/videos/10160647437930790/.  Instagram seems to focus on showing a single image of a car highlighting only a portion of it.  This keeps the visuals interesting and makes people want to see more of the car.  https://www.instagram.com/p/BltOu_qjGUY/?taken-by=vw

     There are many ways for followers to engage with the brand through any of the social media sites they use.  According to unmetric.com, in June the VW Instagram page had 625,392 likes, VW posted 55 tweets to Twitter, and their Facebook following grew by .33%.  https://unmetric.com/brands/volkswagen  While this may seem like VW presents a good platform for engagement, a closer look shows that most of the tweets were closed-ended posts that didn't promote responses. Followers do a double tap to like images on Instagram and they can also upload their own images and tag #VW as well. 
     It appears that VW does not differentiate much between the content posted on Twitter and the content posted on Facebook leading me to question why I should follow both.  The only difference appears to be that people reach out via Twitter in hopes of opening a line of communication with someone at headquarters.  One thing that Volkswagen has accepted is the amount of negative feedback that they receive due to the diesel emissions scandal.  They remain diligent in answering as many of the negative tweets that they possibly can and offer support wherever possible.