Over the past week, social media has been buzzing about #bendgate, which started when reports surfaced suggesting that the new iPhone 6 Plus bends after long hours in the user’s tight pant pocket. Competitors and spectators saw this opportunity and took to their own Twitter accounts to voice their own opinion on this controversy, some in the form of mockery, while others were a little more…constructive. In this day and age, social media offers people and brands the opportunity to join in on the conversation whenever something “big” happens, but how do they reap the most benefits from a conversation like this?

Let’s start by looking at what Apple’s biggest competitor Samsung, had to say about #bendgate:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This simple tweet easily generated over 10,000 retweet and 6,415 favourites.

Similarly, LG USA, another smartphone giant, also tweeted its own jab at the bending iPhone, and the tweet was retweeted over 9000 times and favourite just under 4,600 times:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, some of our favourite snack brands also not-so-steathily snuck in their own #bendgate tweet. The most important to note, is the tweet from KitKat:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This simple picture from a brand that isn’t even remotely connected to the smartphone industry generated an astonishing 28,000+ retweets and was favourited over 13,000 thousand times. If this were a popularity contest, KitKat would be the overwhelming winner.

But how did a snack brand with a much smaller dedicated fanbase (130k followers compared to Samsung’s 9 million+) than Apple’s top competitors achieve this with such a simple tweet? The answer is hashtags. KitKat utilized #bendgate and #iPhone6plus which are the constant centres of discussion in this new controversy, and people are on social media are constantly on the lookout for these keywords. Samsung on the other hand, pokes fun at the issue without directly inserting itself into the discussion with the relevant hashtag, thus limiting its exposure to everyone who is monitoring the #bendgate conversations. Even LG, with its 131K followers, also achieved similar numbers to Samsung with the use of the hashtag. Furthermore, both KitKat and LG used this opportunity to reiterate the unique selling points of their respective products, reinforcing aspects of their products that differentiates them from competitors and are loved by consumers. While Samsung focuses more of its efforts on simply mocking Apple, without referencing any specific strength of its own.

Although retweets and favourites don’t necessarily translate to tangible strategic benefits, they are definitely a step in the right direction. In this case, KitKat was able to effectively capitalize on Apple’s misfortune by placing itself in the centre of the conversation.

The Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) IPO has caused quite a the buzz in North America in recent months. But despite being the largest IPO in the U.S. market to-date, many people in North America are still wondering what it is that the company does so well.

Alibaba has 3 major E-commerce platforms that generate hundreds millions of visits per day. Of the three, Taobao(C2C) and tTmall(B2C)generate the bulk of the revenue for the Chinese E-commerce titan. Taobao, is connected to its B2C counterpart Tmall, as a relevant search query on platform will bring up results comprising of products and stores from both platforms. Customers used the same account to cumulate credibility and rewards across both platforms. In fact, writing meaningful reviews for vendors and brand names stores not only adds to one’s credibility, some vendors even offer rebates in exchange of timely reviews. Customers can also gather reward points through simply logging on everyday to “claim” their daily reward. Alibaba has created a highly-engaged community of vendors and consumers at virtually no extra cost to either party, so much so that countless international brands have opted to sell their products through Tmall, as opposed to developing their own E-commerce platform for the Chinese market. The success of its e-commerce platforms has not only allowed the company to create its own Paypal-like escrow payment system, it has also spilled over to fuel the development of the most efficient shipping network in the world.

While many traditional online vendors struggled with the wide adoption of smartphones, Alibaba embraced the challenged and offered even more to its customers. The Taobao mobile app, which is serves both Taobao and Tmall, offers a brilliantly designed user interfacethat includes every feature that is available on the web version,
including favouite vendors and products, reward redemption, convenient and secure payment, a live chat that allows vendors and customers to communicate in real time, and much more. Every additional feature is nicely tucked away to allow users to focus on the massive catalog, and easily accessible with the swipe of a finger. Mobile Taobao has connected people in remote, rural villages to the rich and glamorous inhabitants of the urban jungle through its convenient marketplace, giving people access to markets that would otherwise be unreachable. Founder Jack Ma has repeatedly stated that the company’s top priority is its customers. This video was released in the weeks leading up to the much anticipated IPO to give the public a glimpse of what Alibaba’s has accomplished: