6 Top Brands Using Social Media Marketing

There are many great case studies out there, including ones for small businesses. But this post is to highlight the big players in the market, leading by example and paving the way for the rest of us to follow.

Here is my top 6…

1.  Coca- Cola

Objective: Customer engagement

Coca-cola is one of the leaders in SMM – they make social media work!

Deciding that customer engagement was their main objective, Coke created a ‘fans first’ approach in social communities. Their social media marketing strategy was developed to engage their customers via social networks, photo sharing and video sharing. Not only a great strategy but they even share it! Its worth a couple of minutes to read it on Simply Zest.

2.  Dominos

Objective: Customer Feedback

A fantastic example of listening to customers and reacting to what is being said.

Dominos position in the market place had been declining for a while, one of the reasons cited was that it had the same pizza recipe since they launched 50 years ago!  In an attempt to regain market share as well as hoping to reinvent its brand and change its reputation for taste, Dominos decided to completely change its pizza recipe.  Instead of leaving the decision making to the management team they put it instead to the customers and asked for feedback on their pizzas.  A compelling video on BlogSpot shows the whole Dominos process.  Its worth the few minutes to get a better understanding on the positive impact social media can have on a business.

3.  Dell

Objective: Crowd sourcing

Dell know that social media in business is becoming more and more important.  To address this issue they created a Social Media for Small Business Facebook fan page.  Here they offer free downloads and giveaways on how to implement social media.

However this particular strategy is about crowd sourcing. Dell decided to create a community called The Ideas Storm, where people could come and share their ideas on how to improve Dell products.  They know that the people who understand the products the greatest are their customers.  By improving models and reacting to customers ideas they can create products people actually want to buy and there is a demand for.

4.  Starbucks

Objective: Crowd sourcing

Another social media success story comes from Starbucks.  They have several elements to their Starbucks strategy which are outlined in a great articles by The Next Web and Directory Journal.

They too wanted to use crowd sourcing as a way of improving their products, shops and service so they created a social network site, My Starbucks, for people to congregate and share their “Starbucks experience”

The site gives users the ability to see what others are suggesting, vote on ideas and check out the results. This site is a brilliant and important aspect of Starbucks social media strategy. Users who are part of this network feel that they have some role in the decision making process of the company and it makes them feel a part of it.

Starbucks successfully managed to create a community that people actually wanted to hang out in, just like their shops.

5.  Ikea

Objective: Viral marketing

Definitely one of my favourites, just for its sheer simplicity.  A blog post by Ikea Fans shows how a Facebook profile was created for IKEA Malmo store manager Gordon Gustavsson. Over the course of 2 weeks, 12 pictures of IKEA showrooms were uploaded to his profile. Facebook friends of Gustavsson could ‘tag’ the items in the photos with their name and then win the product.  As you can imagine the campaign went viral!! A genius idea yet oh so simple!

6.  Ford Fiesta

Objective: Generating Buzz

Ford held a competition called the Fiesta Movement where 4,000 people applied with a video to win the chance to drive a Fiesta for six months. The winners then created content around their experience with the car.  Not sounding too strategic is it?  Well what if the winners where are social media personalities in the making? The reach was phenomenal in just six months..

- 4.3 million YouTube views
– 500,000+ Flickr views
– 3 million+ Twitter impression
– 50,000 interested potential customers, 97% of which don’t own a Ford currently

Supercollider and Mashable deliver great detailed breakdown on the Ford Fiesta Movement.

Summary

I hope these case studies help you understand the true value of social media.  Many of you want to know immediately how social media will impact your bottom line, but this is no longer the big sales push via traditional marketing and PR.  It is about companies recognising: that the power now lies with the consumer; and we fortunately have the ability and resources to tap into this wealth of knowledge.

Everyone likes to feel valued!  Involving your customer so they feel like their opinion counts can go a long way in building customer loyalty and repeat business, not to mention positive word of mouth.  It’s time to see the bigger picture!

This is only a list according to little oul me! If you have any other social media examples that you think should be in here then please leave a comment below…