Johnson & Johnson's Social Media Presence and Outreach

As Seth Godin once said, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories that you tell”. The essence of social media is knowing your audiences and engaging them in something that they love. Johnson & Johnson is a company that seemingly ‘gets it’.

Johnson & Johnson’s traditional website (http://www.jnj.com) is easily accessible, being the first link to show when an individual searches “Johnson & Johnson” on Google.

 

This, although it may seem negligible, is actually somewhat of a monumental step in the right direction; many times Internet searches become convoluted with ads for a company or their products and these ads are often displayed before the link to the actual website.

When visiting the Johnson & Johnson website, navigating to its social media sites is both quick and easy. The active social media icons provided on the site are inclusive of the following: Johnson & Johnson official blog (http://www.blogjnj.com), a Kilmer House website (http://www.kilmerhouse.com), Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/jnj), many Twitter accounts (https://twitter.com/JNJCares), YouTube account (https://www.youtube.com/user/JNJhealth), Linkedin account (https://www.linkedin.com/company/johnson-&-johnson), and Google+ account (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+jnj/posts).

The location of these icons on the website, however, is one aspect that may be fit for change. The social media icons are located at the bottom left of the webpage. According to eyetracking research Internet user’s eye path starts form the upper left corner, moves to the middle, and ends at the bottom left. Therefore to increase visibility, it may serve beneficial to move the icons to the top right of the page, below the company logo.

This company’s blog and Kilmer House website (a website dedicated to sharing the history and backstory of how Johnson & Johnson came to be) are both informative and personalized to the target audience.

The purpose of the J&J blog as states on the site is as follows: “Everyone else is talking about our company, so why can’t we? There are approximately 128,000 people who work for Johnson & Johnson and its operating companies around the world. This blog is an opportunity for us to find a voice, — and start some conversations, give our perspective and share some stories — that often get lost in formal communications about the work we do and the things we value”. The J&J blog acknowledges that everyone is talking about their corporation, so why not be a part of the conversation? As many reputation management individuals may say, ‘if you are not going to tell the story of your company someone else will’. Johnson & Johnson taking part in the conversation and allowing their voice to be heard gives them the ability to shape the vision of their company the way the want.

In addition to this, both sites are up to date allowing for the viewer to feel confident that they are receiving accurate information; a corporation having a stagnant website or blog is worse than it not having one at all.

The J&J Twitter and Facebook accounts also make great attempts to be interactive often creating posts posed as questions in order to generate conversation. An example tweet is seen below:

This tactic of using social media to generate buzz and conversation can be extremely successful if used correctly. The company’s website promotes Twitter campaigns and sponsored hashtags, increasing visibility and the likeliness of consumer participation.

One aspect that Johnson & Johnson may be able to improve upon is personally replying, on the Twitter or Facebook pages, to follower’s replies to these sort of tweets. For instance, if a follower is to reply something along the lines of “I paid it forward at the gas station to someone whose credit card was declined” J&J could reply, on their Twitter page,  “Great to hear, XYZ. Keep the good karma going! –JJ”. You will notice that I included a dash and initials. It is important to include the aspect of who actually replied to the tweet in order to give the response a sense of authenticity; the company could have a specific individual who responds to all of the tweets for consistency purposes, or team of responders.

One of the most stand-out aspects of Johnson & Johnson’s social media repertoire is its YouTube account. The company uses this account to share videos about healthy mind programs, talks given by J&J’s CEO, annual reports/shareholder reports, promotions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukz74aLMvhc), etc. Having such a plethora of visual information all on one platform could prove extremely beneficial for the company. The likeliness of an individual to click on a second J&J YouTube video after viewing one is somewhat high. 

The company is also able to measure consumer feedback via the number of views and the comments that are left on the video. The comment feature is yet another way for J&J to be part of the conversation with their consumers and rectify misinformation that may be posted. 

The corporation’s wide social media outreach is a smart and effective way to interact with both current and potential consumers of their products. Mothers serve as one of Johnson & Johnson’s target audiences; with statistics showing that women today are becoming mothers sooner, the ability of communicating with this particular age group via the media most popular to them is an incredibly vital and smart tactic. With small tweaks here and there, Johnson & Johnson’s social media plan could increase consumer engagement and, in turn, increase sales and revenue.