Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYSIS 1

Social Media Analysis of Patagonia

Tyler S. Hallman

Principles of Public Relations

Dr. Nance McCown

Messiah College
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Abstract

Patagonia has become one of the most successful and popular outdoor clothing brands

since its establishment in 1973. Blossoming from its dedication to creating gear for alpine and

“silent” sports (minimalist sports such as rock climbing, kayaking, or fly fishing), Patagonia

remains committed to its mission – to build the best product, to cause no unnecessary harm, and

to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. The company

manufactures environmentally-friendly products, using recycled polyester and organic cotton in

its clothing in order to reduce the pollution created as a by-product of that manufacturing. Also,

as the environmental crisis gradually grows in importance, Patagonia continues to increase its

involvement with and support for environmental groups who aim to reverse the tide. This

support comes in the form of donations, with at least 1% of all of its sales going to these

grassroots environmental groups. In addition to these donations, Patagonia largely advocates for

the environment through its social media platforms.

Social Media Usage

Patagonia actively uses both Twitter and Facebook to communicate with its publics.

However, after tracking its usage over a two-week period, it appears that both forms of social

media employ one way communication. Patagonia did not reply to any comments on either

Twitter or Facebook between the 7th of March and the 21st of March, showing that its usage of

these mediums of communication are meant solely for the dissemination of information.

However, although both social media platforms are used for one-way communication, the types

of information Patagonia releases through Twitter differs from those released through Facebook.
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Twitter Usage Summary

Over the two-week period of observation, Patagonia released 48 posts on Twitter,

averaging 3.5 posts a day. This is 31 more posts than the number released on Facebook. Clearly,

Patagonia uses Twitter more frequently than Facebook. All of the Twitter posts fit into one of

five categories: Adventure, Awareness, Call to Action, Personnel, or Product Promotion. There

were 16 Adventure posts; Adventure posts are those that share pictures of beautiful environments

or people engaging in a silent sport. These types of posts were the most frequent. The Awareness

and Call to Action posts combined for 22 of the 48 posts. The intention of these posts was almost

always to inform followers about environmental injustices and new agricultural breakthroughs,

as well as to inspire followers to partake in the “Patagonia Way” and join its environmental

movement. For example, there were several posts that condemned dams and deep-sea oil drilling,

asking its publics to do the same and join them in ending these environmental crisis-causing

methods of energy. The final two categories of posts made by Patagonia on Twitter are Product

Promotion and Personnel posts. These totaled for 10 of the 48 posts, each category claiming 5 of

the 10. The Personnel posts all referred to and promoted the work being done in ending the

environmental crisis by the CEO of Patagonia, Rose Marcario. The Product Promotion posts

were used for promoting Patagonia products, such as books, climbing pants, and bike parts.

Because of Patagonia’s following of roughly 406,000, Twitter makes for an ideal platform of

information dissemination and public interaction.

Twitter Analysis

Despite having over 400,000 followers, Patagonia only managed to accrue a few hundred

likes and a maximum of eight comments on its tweets over the two-week period. The Call to

Action posts on Patagonia’s Twitter generally drew more positive comments than those on its
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Facebook Call to Action posts. For example, on March 13th, the post suggesting that “Patagonia

Action Works” drew the positive comment, “Awesome. Love seeing this. Thank you for what

you are doing!” However, this was the only comment on the post, on which there were also

merely 98 likes. This extremely small number of comments and likes on its Twitter posts

suggests that Patagonia’s social media publics are not active, but merely aware. Patagonia

appears to be using its Twitter account to do two things: to create a following for its

environmental movement and to establish the subconscious connection between the brand and

the beauty of nature. However, only the latter of those two goals is being met. The environmental

movement appears to be gaining little influence and support through Twitter.

Facebook Usage Summary

Over the same two-week period of observation, Patagonia released 18 posts on Facebook,

average just over 1 post per day. Clearly, Facebook is used less frequently than Twitter by the

company. However, the categories in which the posts fit are the same 5: Adventure, Awareness,

Call to Action, Personnel, and Product Promotion. There were 7 Adventure posts, which was

more than double the amount all other types of posts. The Awareness and Call to Action posts

totaled for 6 of the 17 posts. These posts were not only about the same issues as the posts on

Twitter within these categories, but were almost always the exact same posts released on Twitter

by Patagonia. For example, the posts of the videos beginning with the phrase “The Dam Truth”

can be found on both Patagonia’s Twitter and Facebook. There was one Personnel post on

Facebook and it was also about the CEO Rose Marcario, and there were 3 Product Promotion

posts, used for the exact same purpose as on Twitter. Patagonia has over 1.25 million people who

like and follow its Facebook page, making it a valuable means of public interaction and

communication.
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Facebook Analysis

Despite its large following on Facebook, Patagonia only managed to accrue over a

thousand likes on three posts, with the remaining 14 only getting a few hundred likes. On top of

that, most posts that had comments only had a few. If the post was one based on Patagonia’s

environmental movement or its stance on politics, the comments tended to be more negative and

critical of Patagonia. For example, on March 9th, the offshore drilling post had two aggressive

comments: “I wish Patagonia would stick to clothes” and “What kind of cars do Patagonia mgmt.

drive, and how clean are your operations?” In addition, on March 16th, the “Dam Truth” video

post also drew two aggressive comments: “Did you know the Earth’s rotation has slowed

because of the weight of water stored behind the dams??” and “Where are we supposed to get

our electricity?”. These two examples do not prove that all of Patagonia’s publics are against the

movements to end offshore drilling and river dams, but they do demonstrate how the political

posts on Patagonia’s Facebook draw some very negative comments. On the other hand, if the

posts were adventurous pictures, the comments tended to be very positive. For example, on

March 12th, an adventurous post drew two positive, awe-inspired comments: “I want to go here,

but I don’t know where it is” and “This place was amaaaazing!!!” Many other posts like this one

received similarly positive comments. Much like with its usage of Twitter, Patagonia uses

Facebook to try gain a following for the environmental movement and to connect its brand to the

outdoors.

Analysis

Because Patagonia has so many followers, its social media is perfect for one way

communication; it can post something and know that it will instantly reach hundreds of

thousands of people. However, Patagonia’s usage of social media is very ineffective at building
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strong, mutually beneficial relationships with its publics. The company’s current usage of social

media is not causing any sort of large scale engagement from its publics as less than 1% of them

are liking or commenting on any of its Twitter or Facebook posts. This may partly have to do

with the fact that the majority of the content that Patagonia pushes through its Twitter and

Facebook accounts tends to be either politically based or nature/adventure based. If its posts took

on a little more variety, such as including more product promotion, its publics may begin to

become more active on its social media. Patagonia has to make some drastic changes to its social

media usage in order to engage its publics, or having social media could end up doing more harm

than good for the organization. If Patagonia’s current usage of its Twitter and Facebook is

frustrating and annoying publics or causing them to dissociate from the organization, it must

develop a new social media strategy that will settle the contempt of its publics.

In order to increase public engagement and to give its company a new connotation,

Patagonia could acquire a spokesperson. Through continuous posting of this person wearing

Patagonia gear, doing sporty activities, and even engaging in environmentally friendly activities,

Patagonia’s publics may slowly begin to more uniformly support the company and its views

because there is evidence that someone famous is as well. An example of when this sort of social

media usage worked was during the 2014 general elections in India throughout which a man

named Narendra Modi used a social media strategy now referred to as the “Modi” effect of

“selfie nationalism” to gain support (Rao, 2018). By making 40.5% of his tweets solely pictures

of him with a caption, it made him appear as a ubiquitous leader whose image was tightly

intertwined with public office in the eyes of the public despite existing in ephemeral posts (Rao,

2018). A strategy similar to this involving a Patagonia spokesperson could be extremely effective

in creating an additional layer to the company identity that is less abstract and more publicly
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relatable than the current identity of an environmentally-conscious company that sees the beauty

in nature. Also, this would increase the variety of social media posts that Patagonia’s publics see,

increasing the likelihood that they will begin to pay more attention to and become more involved

with them.

Another change that Patagonia could make to its social media usage is to employ the

strategy of “tactical transparency” (Holtz, 2008). Patagonia does a good job of remaining

transparent in its views; however, the ways in which they make its views known are very

aggressive and demanding. As stated by Shel Holtz in her (2008) book, “Tactical

Transparency,”:

Information technology may well be the most powerful single force for

transparency in our time. Whereas yesterday’s dominant broadcast media were

about one-way conversations, the multidirectional Internet is the opposite. No one

controls its content – except for its users. Companies that are passively transparent

are its victims. However, transparency is also a force that firms can actively

embrace, using candor to build trust. Transparency is a new form of power and is

becoming central to business success (p.2).

According to Holtz, Patagonia is doing an excellent job being transparent. However, the

level of transparency is not the problem–it is the way in which that transparency is

communicated. Patagonia should continue to be actively transparent to its publics through its

social media in order to build a trusting relationship with its publics. It should also go about

being transparent in a less aggressive manner. Rather than posting pictures and videos
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condemning those who support dams, fossil fuels, and offshore drilling, Patagonia should post

pictures that show why those sources of electricity are harmful to the environment. It is of

paramount importance that an organization employs tactical transparency, because when a

company uses social media, the power instantly shifts into the hands of the public. This means

that a company must be very careful with how it words its posts, especially when they concern

something as controversial as environmental politics. Because of this, Patagonia must aim to

employ strategy while being transparent to its publics so that fewer problems, distrust, and

animosity are created than if the company were merely to remain opaque to its publics.

A final improvement that Patagonia could make to increase its social media effectivity is

to hire a firm to consult them on social media usage and strategies, such as PRWeb. According to

Lee Odden in his (2012) book titled “Optimize,” PRWeb, a media release service, has been

relied upon for years in optimizing high-ranking press releases, website traffic, and links.

PRWeb also leverages different social media platforms, including both Twitter and Facebook, to

better connect companies to its publics (Odden, 2012, p. 20). As of right now, Patagonia is

nowhere near optimizing the effectiveness of its social media. This may be the result of them not

having anyone who truly knows how to best manage and employ social media to contribute to its

company’s success. The only solution to this issue may be to bring in an outside organization to

help Patagonia recreate its presence in the media.

Conclusion

It is relatively unchallenging for an organization’s publics to feel as though they have no

voice. However, social media completely eradicates that worry as it offers a direct connection

between the two entities. Because of this, social media has become the main channel through

which organizations can engage in easy two-way communication with its publics. Due to its
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enormous following of hundreds of thousands of people on both Twitter and Facebook,

Patagonia has a large media presence. This media presence could be used as a means through

which a strong, trusting, mutually beneficial relationships grow and flourish, however this has

not been the case. Patagonia is ineffective with its social media usage as it uses Facebook and

Twitter mainly for two reasons: the dissemination of information geared towards the support of

its environmental movement, and the correlation of its brand with the beauties of nature. In order

to truly get anything worthwhile out of its social media presence, it must change not only its one-

way communication scheme, but also its post content. Creativity and strategy are both

fundamental aspects of success in social media, and currently, Patagonia is lacking in both

categories.
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Appendix
*Included 1 of each category of posts for Facebook and Twitter
Facebook:

Call to action (1)

Personnel post (1)

March 12th
Adventure (3)
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March 14th
Product (1)

March 16th
Call to action (2)
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Awareness (2)

Facebook Posts
Adventure – 7
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Awareness – 3
Call to Action – 3
Personnel Post – 1
Product Promo – 3

Twitter:

Adventure (1)

Awareness (2)

Personnel post (4)

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Call to action (7)

Adventure (14)/product promo (3)

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Twitter Posts
Adventure – 16
Awareness – 14
Call to action – 8
Personnel post – 5
Product promotion – 5
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References

Holz, Shel., Havens, John C., & Johnson, Lynne, D (2008). Tactical Transparency: How Leaders

Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build Their Brand. John Wiley & Sons,

Incorporated.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/messiah-ebooks/detail.action?docID=380562

Odden, Lee (2012). Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO,

Social Media, and Content Marketing. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/messiah-ebooks/detail.action?docID=818122

Rao, S. (2018). Making of Selfie Nationalism: Narendra Modi, the Paradigm Shift to Social

Media Governance, and Crisis of Democracy. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 42(2),

166-183. doi:10.1177/0196859917754053.

http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy.messiah.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/0196859917754053