In what’s been accurately dubbed as “the Internet age,” social media marketing has become an integral part of any modern brand development strategy. In fact, nine out of 10 marketers believe that social media marketing is one of the strongest indicators of any marketing effort’s success. What’s more, a whopping 77% of business-to-customer marketers say that social media marketing increases customer satisfaction.
While there’s no doubt that great success can be achieved by using social media marketing, many still wonder just how to use it. What exactly is it that makes a social media marketing campaign successful? Why is it that some things go viral, while others go unwatched? To better understand this exciting new marketing tactic, let’s take a look at some of the most successful brand development strategies that put social media to work last year.
Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches.
Dove became a top creative agency with a viral video featuring one of the most talked about social experiments of the year. The video featured a sketch artist drawing women’s faces as they described themselves, without the artist seeing them. The drawings were then compared to ones from a stranger describing the same person. Each of the latter pictures showed faces that were much more beautiful than the pictures of the women describing themselves. Since the social media marketing video elicited such an emotional reaction, it naturally went viral.
Human Rights Campaign’s Marriage Equality.
Back in March, many of your Facebook friends may have changed their Facebook picture to a red equal sign. This was part of the Human Rights Campaign’s social media marketing strategy. The goal was to raise awareness against unfair, same sex marriage laws. Judging by the fact that the original photo was seen by more than 9 million users and shared over 70,000 times to reach millions more, it’s fair to say that this social media marketing campaign was a resounding success.
K-Mart’s Ship My Pants.
Online marketers live by the phrase, “content is king.” When you’re doing any kind of online marketing, be it SEO, PPC, social media marketing, email marketing, or what have you — you need to have great content for it to be a success. Because the phrase “ship my pants” shares a homophonic similarity with a popular expletive, K-Mart’s social media marketing content made millions double over with laughter. The takeaway here is that for a social media marketing campaign to be a success, great content is needed. Read more.
