The Giants of Social Media Marketing

Five Brands that have harnessed the power of Social Media to market their companies

Social media is defined as “a group of internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), social media technologies take on many different forms such as blogs, microblogs, wikis, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, photo and video sharing sites.The most common social media outlets we know of are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine etc. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A recent study by, The Creative Group predicts that the majority of advertising and marketing executives (62%) expect an increase of their company’s spending on Facebook marketing in the following twelve months – 9% more than they predicted one year ago (Meyer-Gossner, 2013). This showing how powerful social media marketing has now become and why companies need to make successful social media campaigns to keep ahead in the ever competitive marketing scene. These companies have done just this:

1. Guinness

Guinness scored a viral hit with its latest ad, racking up 3.5m YouTube views before it was even shown on TV. It now has more than 7m views. The ad was the first in a series of ‘Made of More’ commercials that highlight individual accomplishments for those who help others. This trying to convey Guinness' message that they are a brand to share with your friends and that nice people drink it. (Moth, 2013)

2. Dove

Dove beauty supplies had a very specific goal in mind when they launched their Real Beauty Sketches campaign in April of 2013. Their social media marketing team took a close look at their biggest consumer group, which was women and as everyone knows in marketing the rule is is to create a relationship with your target audience (Wang et al, 2013). To date, over 114 million people have watched the video which went viral on social media. The compelling video also became the number one viewed online video ad of all time within a month of launching. It also holds the record for the most shared video ad of all time. (David, 2013) 

3. Three Mobile 

 By using the hashtag #DancePonyDance Three mobile wanted to push a campaign that would show they can relate to their customers. The company simply understood what many people are using the Internet for, which is silly, humorous video sharing. The video got over 5 million views on YouTube, 863,958 Facebook shares and 22,584 Twitter shares (David, 2013), showing how a good social media campaign can enhance a brand. 

4. Red Bull 

This stunt where a skydiver became the first to reach the speed of sound, was sponsored by Red Bull and attracted eight million concurrent views on YouTube, the highest-ever concurrent viewing figures on the site. The brand managed to hook users by defining the jump as "death defying", the more and more people became engaged. The more they shared the story causing the marketing campaign to reach vast levels (Warren-Payne, 2013).

5. AT&T

The American mobile company wanted to capitalize on the incredible passion of college football fans so they launched a season-long #BeTheFan campaign. After this hashtag and video AT&T recorded that they received 80% higher engagement rate on Twitter, there 'social buzz' was up 271% over the previous period and 200 million consumers engaged in the program across all of the social networks (Cassinelli, 2013).

 All these companies have used social media marketing very effectively and have been very successful, although it needs to be stated that this isn't always the case, seeing as anything that is published is open to comment and criticism. Providing this arena for people to post negative comments about your company is usually the stuff of nightmares for marketer, however the other view is that ... at least they're talking about your company right? (Ambrose, 2010)

References

Kaplan, A.M., Haenlein, M. (2010), "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media", Business Horizons, Vol. 53 No.1, pp.59-68.

 Lili Luo, Yuan Wang, Lifeng Han, (2013) "Marketing via social media: a case study", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 31 Iss: 3, pp.455 - 466