With more than 1
billion active monthly users on Facebook,
more than 175 million tweets per day,
more than 104 million visits per month to
Pinterest, and more than 4 billion hours of video watched on YouTube each
month, social media has changed the
marketing landscape significantly[1].
Big brands can no longer choose to ignore this medium. When thinking about it as an
outreach avenue to increase brand awareness, companies have a choice whether
or not to use this medium. But one cannot forget that even though a brand chooses not to be active on social media, its users can choose to talk about the brand on social media. And so marketers can not afford to be absent from social media scene. Firms that do not monitor their brand image in social media avenues
risk missing the opportunity to curb any negative publicity about their product
before it goes viral. In this blog, I
will explore some successful social media campaigns and examine what strategies
work and what do not.
The first thing that comes to my mind
when we talk about marketing success and social media is Nike’s MakeItCount campaign. To promote
their Fuel band release, Nike’s filmmaker and editor posted a video of what
“MakeItCount” means to them on YouTube instead of creating the agreed upon
commercial. They showed themselves visiting 16 cities in 3 continents and
travelling 34,000 miles. The video, which had an adventure/sports/travel theme
to it showed quotes of famous world leaders from Abraham Lincoln to Mahatma
Gandhi stressing the value of living one’s life to the fullest. This video was
followed by their consistent social media campaign on both twitter and
Instagram asking users to share what MakeItCount means to them. Millions of
users posted their pictures, tweeted and promoted the hashtag. This campaign
was wildly successful and it generated publicity for Nike’s product from user
generated content.
Now let’s examine this campaign closely
and see what aspects can be leveraged by marketers in general. Nike’s core
customer segment is active young people aged 19-25. Their positioning statement
for the fuel band is “Do what you want to do to enjoy life to the fullest.
Don’t be tied down by rules. Fuel band keeps track of your accomplishments”.
They created content that resonates with that statement for that target. This
is nothing new to marketers. It is Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
from Marketing 101! Well, at least it confirms that Social Media Marketing
still follows the basic marketing principles. Content that is irrelevant to the
brand or casts a wide net and targets no one in particular is wasted marketing dollars-
even in the world of social media.
If you examine Nike’s campaign closely,
they did not take each social media platform as a different venue and promote
their brand in that silo. They had one theme, one position for their product
and tailored the message to TV, Instagram and twitter. Their audience just
chose the medium that they liked the best. Also, their strategy gave the
consumer an opportunity to do something with Nike’s campaign, not just be a passive
recipient of advertising. This is Nike
using the power of social media to its fullest. The key aspect of social media
advertising that many new marketers forget is that it is a 2-way medium. Making
a brilliant TV commercial and posting it on YouTube/Facebook and asking your
core-consumers what they think of it does not quite cut it as social media
strategy. The message has to be tailored to the medium. And notice how they did
not ask everyone to share what they did with Nike products. They kept the conversation
centered on activity, dreams in life, adventure, sports, travel etc. These
topics do not feel like in-your-face advertising. Social media consumers don’t
feel pushed to buy Nike products just by participating in that conversation.
But the topic of conversation is closely linked to Nike in general and its fuel
band in particular. And it generates awareness, well more than awareness; it
makes the target audience associate their dreams with Nike’s product.
Same is the story with two other wildly
successful social media campaigns. A documentary called Bully was promoted on
twitter (#BULLYmovie) by promoting awareness on bullying. Snicker’s “when you
are hungry, you are not yourself” campaign on twitter appealed to their
target’s sense of humor while positioning snickers as a hunger filling bar
instead of just another candy. All of the above examples demonstrate offensive
or growth/brand awareness oriented marketing tactics using social media.
The other interesting side of social
media is its use as a tool for implementing defensive strategies. In today’s
highly connected world, it takes just a few hours for negative publicity about
a brand to go viral. A few hours of shut eye while monitoring brand image on
social media platforms can mean big losses for a brand. I think about the song “United
breaks guitars” and am instantly reminded of the power of social media to
destroy a brand image. This song on YouTube amassed 150,000 viewers in one day[2].
The day after the song was posed on YouTube, United Airlines’ spokesperson
issued a statement regarding this incident. Such is the power of social media.
Had united not had a watchful eye on social media platforms, they would not
know until their brand suffered a bigger damage. The lesson learnt from United’s mishap is that every brand whose image is worth saving needs to have a full time employee staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week monitoring social media activity.
One might think that these strategies
work on B2C companies and B2B companies are different. There is one aspect that
makes B2C social media strategies relevant to B2B settings. Even when you sell
to a business, there is a human on the other side making the actual purchase on
behalf of his company. He is motivated by the same desire to connect, share and
participate without being hassled into buying by a brand. The key tactic to
employ while marketing a B2B brand on social media is to humanize the brand. People do
business with people they like. Humanize your brand with humor and personality.
Build a long-term relationship with customers and prospects. Embrace customer
ideas and suggestions. Build a platform where people exchange ideas. The
ultimate mantra in successfully using social media in B2B marketing is the same
as that in B2C settings – Create a venue for people to connect and talk about
what matters to them without being “sold
to” and create a way to channel those conversations towards your brand position
and you will have created a perfect social media platform.
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