Building Community and Engagement

Peloton

Peloton, a health and fitness brand, is doing a great job building a community on and off social media. Peloton utilizes live, online events to connect people globally. Their goal is “to bring the community and excitement of boutique fitness into the home.” Peloton currently has 1.8M Instagram followers, 168.7K Twitter followers, and 895K Facebook followers. Their following is indicative of their huge online presence and community across various platforms.

Recently, Peloton has utilized the appeal of their fitness coaches’ personalities to draw a lot of interest to the brand. Their trainers and instructors serve as ambassadors, and many of their Instagram videos that feature their trainers have generated multi-million views. This method helps draw audiences who are not necessarily interested in the Peloton brand itself to the trainers and their identities, giving Peloton a human touch. Overall, most of Peloton’s tone and messaging are inspirational and motivational. Their videos make viewers feel valued and create a desire to take care of themselves and become the best version of themselves.

Additionally, Peloton often features famous athletes and public figures by having them join in on training sessions and work out alongside the trainers and members. Recently, Peloton partnered with Olympic Gold medalist Usain Bolt to create social media posts. Partnering with one of the greatest athletes of our time is a phenomenal way to inspire people to start their fitness journey and encourage individuals to continue to work hard. They also share user-generated content on their social platforms.

Due to Peloton’s extremely engaged community, the company has created a community guideline and moderation policy to govern the user interactions on and off of their platforms. Some of these guidelines include their stance against hate speech, bullying, promoting products or services, and politically related comments and posts.

Peloton uses Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to engage their online community. They successfully manage negative feedback by responding to tweets and comments quickly and requesting private conversations. Similarly, they respond to positive feedback with more positivity.

Primarily, Peloton engages with their community through their social media, fitness equipment, and fitness classes. The company often captures interesting, memorable, and exhilarating snapshots of their class sessions and share them on social media, allowing members to share with others that may not be part of the Peloton community. These clips also help their members reflect on their class sessions and spark excitement for their upcoming classes. 

This kind of content creates a cycle in which Peloton can host fitness experiences, share snapshots of those experiences, and then inspire more people to join in the experiences, growing their membership. Peloton grows membership through products and subscriptions. 

Telfar

The second brand, Telfar, is of a much smaller size but has developed a cult-like following in recent years, resulting in a huge impact on the U.S. fashion industry. Telfar is a “luxury, unisex fashion line based out of New York City.” The company currently has 1.2M Instagram followers and 110.8K followers on Twitter.

 Telfar continues to release their signature, highly coveted bags in new and distinct colors and sizes while dropping and selling out 2-3 new styles and merchandise items per week. Because the brand repeatedly sells out, followers request restocks of specific styles and colors, which Telfar uses as marketing opportunities once the requested items are available again. Telfar also maintains their own ambassadors and influencers, regularly publishes content related to social trends and pop culture, shares user-generated content, and collaborates with larger, widely-recognized brands. Their marketing content is highly distinct and eccentric.

This brand is developing an online community by maintaining and promoting a forward-thinking, inclusive, and hip culture. Telfar keeps followers involved in brand happenings by promoting and encouraging followers to subscribe to their mailing list and sign up for marketing text messages. From time to time, subscribers to these lists receive exclusive information. 

Another way that Telfar is creating their own online community is through Telfar TV. Telfar TV is “the place to see LIVE SHOWS, BREAKING NEWS on upcoming drops, EACH OTHER, the COMMUNITY, the CONSPIRACY, exclusive DRIPS that aren’t available anywhere else — and it’s the only place to get the new DUFFEL BAG.” In short, Telfar TV is an exclusive platform created by Telfar, for Telfar and their community. The channel broadcasts fashion shows, hosts special guests and public figures, and allows community members to enter competitions and win an exclusive bag. Although Telfar TV occurs offline, videos from the channel are regularly posted on social media and utilized for product marketing. Finally, Telfar occasionally hosts bag security programs in which followers have the opportunity to purchase any bag they want in the color or size they have been longing for to be specially made for them. 

Currently, Telfar does not have any public community guidelines or policies. The brand is still growing in their response to comments and typically responds to negative feedback via Twitter. Positive feedback may result in a short, positive reply, or reposting of user content.