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Is ISIS a Social Media Success?

Salomo Antunes

March 18,
2015

You cant go 24 hours without hearing about ISIS (also known as ISIL, IS, and Islamic State), the extremist group
that is spreading terror all over Iraq and Syria. Theyve apparently earned a recurrent slot in news networks and
in our social networks feeds. Hostage beheadings, recruitment of Westerners, destruction of historic landmarks,
and mass executions grant them headlines every now and then, but their social media activity grant them
continuous coverage. For example, this year, only one other topic out-tweeted ISIS: Dressgate. Some have even
argued that the extremists social media strategy can rival with that of the biggest brands in the world , but this
seems like an oversimplification of the phenomenon.
While ISIS has been successful at maintaining its internet virality, mainly due to its presence on Twitter, ISIS
cannot be compared to a brand. Like we argued in our Dressgate article, virality is something that can be planned
but is really hard to achieve since its success depends on the audiences receptivity. So, why is the Islamic States
social media presence so strong? Are they really the social media mavens/gurus/ninjas that every company
would kill to have or are they just lucky? By the amount of articles regarding this topic, we can safely say that
there is no one right answer. But, well share with you our conclusions on the subject of ISIS virtual popularity.
1.Brand ambassadors. While we dont consider ISIS to be a brand, well stick to marketing nomenclature just for
the sake of the discussion Is ISIS social media strategy better than yours? The Islamic State is now widely
known for its success on Twitter, where its hashtags are consistently among the most popular. This is mistakenly
seen as the proof of ISIS virality, since most of this Twitter activity comes from a few thousand accounts which
compensate its lack of manpower with high volumes of Tweets. This is the first reason that ISIS has such a strong
presence online but its also why its hard to compare the extremists to a company. Can you imagine Pepsi, Taco
Bell, or Walmart having a couple thousand Twitter accounts firing dozens of daily tweets telling the world how
great they are without spending a boatload of money or sounding like they were paying people to do that? We
cant either.

2.Clear Definition of the Ideal Customer. If theres something that weve learnt from our sales and marketing
efforts it is that you have to figure out who your audience is. Otherwise, youll be spending a lot of time and
money trying to reach every potential client that comes to your mind. Although ISIS broadcasts its messages in a
wide and general manner, on a micro level the extremists are contacting people who are more likely to identify
with their ideals and/or lifestyle. By portraying themselves as a righteous underdog who aims to destroy the
oppressive Western lifestyle, theyre successfully setting the ideal tone to recruit young people who feel like a
victim of that same lifestyle. ISIS targets young men and women who feel displaced in the societies they live in,
usually immigrants or first-generation nationals who are unemployed or have precarious jobs. By giving them an
opportunity to unleash their frustration against the society that marginalized them, the Islamic State has no
problem in recruiting people from all over Europe, North America, Australia, and so on. Once again, this is
something really hard to manufacture. Which kind of company offers products or services that align with a
populations core set of emotions? Not that many.
3.An attractive offer. The aforementioned opportunity of payback
might be a very strong argument for people who feel like theyve
been treated like second class citizens. Yet, joining or supporting an
emergent extremist army still sounds like a scary move. ISIS is
removing that obstacle by humanizing itself. Its doing so by allowing
its members in the battlefield to share pictures of themselves eating
candy, playing with cats or just relaxing under a tree. This tactic is
completed with tweets from official ISIS accounts that consistently
share images that show how inclusive the Islamic State is. Finally,
theres something you can copy: by humanizing your brand you can
bring your audience closer to you and make it easier for them to
engage with you and share your content throughout their social
networks.

4.Bad news trumps good news all day. Every time you read or watch the news you get the feeling that the
amount of crazy things that happen in this world is growing exponentially. Yet, that might not be the case. Simply,
audiences prefer to read/watch bad news over good news and their favorite topics are war, terrorism, and natural
disasters. While we think that theres already too much negativity in this world, the truth is that such content is
highly valued by most audiences. It is then easy to understand why ISIS is given so much attention. Yet, the
Islamic State seems to be going beyond the traditional warfare to which most audiences are becoming
desensitized by giving particular attention to topics that are quite sensitive in Western countries. Its doing so by
emphasizing its attack against homosexuals, Christians, and cultural heritage, for example. Not only are the
extremists getting attention for their barbaric invasion of Iraq and Syria but theyre also making an effort to shock
their enemies by mixing their attacks with recurrent themes on Western news.
5.ISIS is a femtorisk. Yup, its a word. A femtorisk is a
numerically small phenomenon capable of exerting an outsized
impact on global politics. ISIS fits the definition at a military
with just a few thousand members, theyve seized Mosul, a city
with 1.5M people social a few thousand tweeters generate
enough volume to gain the attention of the mainstream media
and religious level it represents less than 1% of the worlds
Islamic population but it has stirred a worldwide discussion
about the religion. And this is ISIS greatest feat. The Islamic
State was able to leverage news preferences, political agendas,
and social networks generating this image of a worldwide threat
that doesnt match its physical capabilities.
Summary:
On one hand, we have to agree that ISIS is doing a brilliant job
with their social media strategy. Theyre constantly in the news.
Talk about brand awareness. On the other hand, their sort of
marketing wont work for pretty much any other brand or
organization. Because of this, wed like to argue that theyre
cheating. By cheating we mean that theyre fueling these social
media campaigns with activities that are beyond the reach of any organization based on a civilized country even
armed forces. Theyre really good at capitalizing on mass executions, homophobia, religious and cultural
intolerance, and hate in general, but thats pretty easy. Whats really hard is to define an audience and engage it
in a productive and constructive way, the way that most brands must do.
Two lessons we can learn from ISIS social media strategy:

1) Understand your audience and connect with them emotionally

2) Humanize your brand
The rest of ISIS social media tactics only work for them.