Because of its ease of use and accessibility, social media marketing has leveled the marketing field for many small to medium business owners. For more established companies, social media is a tool to fortify their market position. Here are some popular examples of social media magic.
1. Blendtec. Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos showed different heavy-duty items being demolished in one of their equally heavy-duty blenders. These videos which were uploaded on YouTube went viral and the sheer absurdity of the videos (imagine watching an iPhone being chopped to pieces) made it an online hit. Since the campaign, Blendtec sales have apparently raised to 700%.
2. Dunkin Donuts. The donut company fortified their niche and even increased their sales as well as their Internet presence by offering consumers the chance to create the next donut. This “Create Next Donut” campaign gathered over 130,000 submissions and 174,000 voters registered to determine a winner. This remarkable social media success story was fueled by the company’s presence in multiple social networking platforms.
3. Old Spice. Like Blendtec, Old Spice took advantage of video sharing site YouTube to upload different humorous videos portraying the “ideal” man with an amusing tag line revolving around the “the man your man could smell like.” The most successful video has more than 32 million views and it is still growing in number. This viral campaign is so popular that it has been spoofed quite a number of times and has even received press coverage.
4. Comcast. Comcast saved their business and their reputation through their “Comcast Cares” campaign which started on Twitter. Their social media platform allowed a direct connection between customers and help agents so they were able to dramatically decrease complaints. In addition, Comcast monitors the mention of their name in various social media tools so anyone who has a complaint will be met with assistance.
5. IBM. IBM utilized the voice of its own workforce to cement their market dominance. The company allowed its employees to come up with their own blogs as well as their own Twitter accounts to directly communicate with customers. The creation of numerous blogs as well as other employee-driven social media marketing efforts led to a dramatic increase in profits.
