Big Corporate Social Media Campaigns That Work

Often when we think of social media use for business, we think about well known companies that are near and dear to our hearts.

We would assume that Southwest Airlines would leverage social media, as would Dell Computers and Apple. They are what we would call “hip” brands that follow trends and embrace change and pursue innovation. Social media marketing is a given, right?

However, there is a growing trend of companies trying social media you may not think of.

Here is a list of social media campaigns that is working for other large organizations.

Nike is big (and smart). They have taken social media to the streets – literally.  Their training application from iTunes is a portable work-out training tool, and you can do it anywhere.

The idea of crowd-sourcing, and user generated content (UGC) is big within social media. The point is to have your users contribute, and add value to the community. The http://behindthemask.michaeljackson.com/ program is exactly like that. Fans submit content, videos and the editors make it happen. A new video for and from the fans is likely what he would have wanted. Can you do something similar for your business?

Giveaways are a great way to engage your audience, and build large communities and followers. The Twitter Ticket Giveaway from Jetblue was a huge success. They sent secret location tweets, where people could pick up free tickets. You can do something similar for your business, and reward your clients and prospects with something lucrative.

Use social media as a fun way to hire staff. Flight Centre in Australia did exactly that. They asked participants to, using 140 characters or less – why candidates would be the best match for future hire. It was a confidential post.

Create interactive shopping experiences like Shopkick. They allow their application to use a smart phone to receive shopping credits as soon as you walk into the store (brick-mortar)

Create custom domains that you can feature fun, interesting, different ways to engage with your brand or business. Burger King did this with their WhopperVirgins.com website. It’s used in the marketplace, but you may not have thought of it? Make sure to include social buttons, and cross link to your own websites to add user and search engine value adds.

What do you think? What works for big business can work for small business.

Related articles to big social media

• Social media: The costs and returns (holykaw.alltop.com)
• A look at social media costs and returns with Erik Qualman (smartblogs.com)
• SMB’s Continue to Increase Social Media Use (marketingpilgrim.com)

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