Social media can be a powerful tool to reach potential customers and grow your business.
It looks very promising, and for a good reason — more than 3.4 billion people use social media. To put that into perspective, there are approximately 7.7 billion people in the world.
This is huge and there’s nothing like it ever!
Unfortunately, one of the major challenges that businesses face is generating ROI from their social marketing efforts.
If you’re able to cut through the noise and understand what it takes to create campaigns that not only create brand awareness but also drive traffic to your website and leads to your business, then you’re one of the savvy businesses succeeding on social media.
With a plethora of social media channels and strategies to utilize, knowing where to start and how to scale can be a daunting task.
According to the 2019 Sprout Social Index, the major challenges social media marketers face is being able to develop winning social strategies that align with business goals.
Sadly, roughly 50% of online marketers said they struggle to develop these strategies. And 60% of B2B companies find it difficult to effectively measuring the ROI of their social program.
But it’s not all bad news. As a marketing firm, we’ve helped our clients on their social media marketing journey to craft successful campaigns that resulted in tens of thousands of leads and sales.
We’ve also seen good examples from our fellow marketers and competitors. In this article, we’ll share 5 social media campaign examples that will put springs on your steps — so that you can be confident in your social strategy.
1. Humor Campaign by MoonPie
Humor is a great ingredient for your social media communications.
It doesn’t really matter what your business model is, you can’t go wrong by some tidbits of funny elements. You must have seen some funny memes and witty hashtags going viral.
Would you laugh at this tweet? I betcha!
We all fall in love with comedians because they tell jokes that, most times, are relatable. Even when the content isn’t useful to your current situation, you’ll laugh along, or at least grin.
Some studies have shown how much impact funny advertisements can make. Furthermore, humor is perceived as a universal appeal for transforming a piece of content and increasing its chances of going viral.
That’s why MoonPie, one of America’s historic cracker cookies capitalized on humor to get their message across. The team knows that funny content is shared more on social media than any other content. Pictures are also shared, but not just any picture — think funny.
But what else does humor help you achieve on social media?
By leveraging Twitter, MoonPie incorporated humor into the mix and established itself as a favorite among fans.
Since Twitter only allows 280 characters per post (it used to be 160 characters), you have to polish every word you choose. Just looking at MoonPie’s tweets, you can see a dose of humor all over.
MoonPie team is so conscious of infusing ‘funny’ into their tweets, even if they’re reporting the weather or a new product.
So when you’re designing a Twitter marketing strategy, put yourself in someone’s shoes. Why would they follow your account? This question will give you the needed insight to do things that will only inspire Twitter users to follow you.
It’s not too late to start using humor in your social media engagement on Twitter.
In Sprout Social Index, research released by SproutSocial annually, it was revealed that 67% of consumers are most willing to like entertaining social media content, and 55% of those surveyed will likely share the content.
Tweeting consistently is important (and MoonPie) does that. But quality should be the main focus. MoonPie even jumps in when there’s a holiday such as Father’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, and the like.
Another approach the MoonPie uses is content repurposing and adding a dose of humor to it. When there’s news flying around, it might even be a viral topic, MoonPie will always tweet and make it fun.
What about the results? Do funny tweets help MoonPie in any way?
Well, the brand now has well over 290,000 followers and counting. Their Twitter feed is inviting and very focused on making people happy.
This is critical to your success on social media. Even if you don’t add humor (there are other ways to succeed), at least add value to people’s lives.
As an online marketer, avoid pushing products down your fan’s throats. Remember they’re not on Twitter to buy a product but to engage and be a part of what you’re doing.
2. Cross-Channel Social Marketing by Casper
Casper manufactures some of the best mattresses and sleeping-related products. You can check them out and don’t forget to study their marketing strategies.
Some amazing social media campaigns that will leave you dumbfounded.
To penetrate their industry, Casper used what’s known as multi-channel or cross-channel marketing.
What is Cross-Channel Marketing?
It’s the concept of amplifying your content and ads across multiple channels to reach your target audience. Cross-channel marketing can include both online and offline platforms.
In Casper’s case, though, they focused on social media platforms but leveraged every opportunity that it brings.
This is a cool way to spread your tentacles — since not everyone uses Facebook and Twitter, some of your target audience is active on Instagram.
If you’re a professional looking to network with fellow professionals in your industry, the best social media to spend resources on is LinkedIn.
This is just to illustrate that you’ve to “Be everywhere” — mostly where your prospects and customers enjoy hanging out. If you have a marketing team, then it’s a smart move to have a footprint on a handful of these social media networks.
You’ll reach more people with the type of content they’re used to.
If this doesn’t work, then we wouldn’t be sharing Casper’s case study here. The company has chosen social media platforms that will get them the most results.
As you would expect, they use giant platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. But they’re now building following on YouTube, IGTV, and Spotify to create brand awareness for its growing brand.
You also see Casper’s channel on Spotify, which is by the way, ‘spot on.’
Building brand awareness through social media marketing can be a powerful way to get customers. Because you’re helping people understand that your brand is readily available to answer questions when they need them.
Casper is active on Twitter as well. By being consistent and answering simple ‘sleep-related’ questions, the brand is winning. Kennedy even tweeted that the company has motivated her to buy the mattress.
Just like Casper, you can do better on social media networks. Be strategic about your posts and look for ways to stand out from the crowd. There’s so much noise on social networks, so differentiate your brand.
For example, Casper Sleep Channel welcomes you with soothing sounds that help their customers enjoy a better nap or sleep. Of course, for that to happen, the fans have to try Casper mattress, to see how well it supports their sleep ‘naturally.’
If your social media strategy is going to leverage multi-channel marketing, then you have to automate some of the processes using HootSuite or any social media scheduling tool.
Every episode that the company produces is shared on Spotify, IGTV, & YouTube). But they don’t ignore other social networks.
Creating a buzz around their sleep channel is a great way to get new eyeballs on their product, help people enjoy better sleep, and cross-promote content to existing customers.
3. International House of Burgers (IHOP) Social Media Campaign
IHOP:IHOb
When I first saw this campaign, I thought to myself, “this is cool!” It may be odd to most people but that’s the point: Sometimes, you need to be odd enough to make an impact on social media.
When you’ve got the opportunity to reach new people and at the same time touch their lives, then you’re savvy and efficient.
Here’s the campaign:
IHOP simply flipped its last letter upside down — this temporary was pronounced as IHOb. What do you think happened? Did fans think it was a spelling blunder from some untrained copywriter?
I don’t think so. We’ll see…
So why what made this social media campaign unique and successful? Before D-Day, when the campaign will be revealed, IHOP asked his followers to guess what the “B” represents.
Some questions are just meant to trigger answers. More than 30,000 users sent their guesses, and when the new name was shared on Twitter, it garnered 15,000+ retweets.
The announcement was simple and unexpected. It goes like this:
“Dear internet, we abbreciate your batience. Now let’s see who guessed right. B-hold!!!! #IHOb
Well over 150,000 users tweeted about this new campaign. And their following grew to 3.1 million within a short while.
In fact, IHOP’s Word of Mouth Score increased in the subsequent week following the announcement of its new name.
But there was more to this. If it hadn’t generated any form of traction for the burger brand, it would have resulted in a missed opportunity — but the campaign was successful.
It was recorded that sales at the restaurant went through the roof as a result of this marketing strategy. What you can take away from this social media campaign is to always do something different but meaningful.
If you can challenge the status quo in some way that doesn’t demean your product or brand, go for it. We talked about humor earlier, and IHOb was funny enough to catch social media attention.
4. Self-Esteem Social Campaign by Dove
A lot of beauty brands are leveraging the power of social media to build a strong brand identity. Dove is not different. The team launched a campaign that resulted in massive growth for the beauty product.
YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to distribute the campaign.
It was truly #RealBeauty.
It’s all about promoting self-love and infusing self-esteem into modern marketing. When Dove’s campaign was launched over a decade ago, it’s now more or less a corporate mission due to its virality. [source]
The brand is mainly out to instill in consumers of all ages the need to take pride in their beauty through self-esteem. They also shared messages related to bullying, in the online world, and how it somewhat demeans #RealBeauty.
Some of the Hashtags for the campaign include #RealBeauty, #NoLikesNeeded, and #SpeakBeautiful.
Users were no longer held bound. They were excited to share their inner beauty, this generated a lot of content for the brand.
Dove even pledged to stop retouching and improving all photos of models used in its marketing by 2019. This was a way to stand tall with 70% of women who prefer #RealBeauty.
According to AdAge, Dove’s #RealBeauty social media campaign was recognized as one of the top 100 campaigns of the 21st century at the time, when they released their 2015 survey results.
Dove’s social media campaign led to so many amazing things; a two-year partnership with Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe to advocate body confidence and self-esteem issues.
The results were amazing, the first video in the series was published to Cartoon Network’s channel, and as expected, it reached 2 million views, 9,500+ comments, and 103,000 likes.
This campaign proves that evoking positive energy, positivity, and content that preaches goodness (especially when it’s tied to a particular demographics) can be well received on social media.
So whatever your business model is, you can find ways to drive a change; this might be the right time to quit advocating negativity in your industry. Look at the good side and showcase it.
5. Social Media Educational Campaign by WealthSimple
The world of investing and personal finance can be boring if you’re not in that industry. Terms like “Robo-advisor”, “Fintech”, “Mortgage”, and other jargon can be confusing, to say the least.
That’s why WealthSimple, an investment company based in Toronto tapped into the opportunity of creating campaigns that explain some of these industry terms in a way that will appeal to beginner investors.
This campaign helped millennials to understand the first steps they must take when making their first investment.
Bear in mind that WealthSimple has a defined audience — millennials in their 20s. The social campaign was to captivate this demographic, and communicate important messages that will create trust.
The strategy revolves around being simple in their messaging. Their campaign, driven by this hashtag “#InvestingForHumans” garnered lots of interest, even though the campaign wasn’t the typical style you’d expect from a financial firm.
So what exactly did WealthSimple do?
The team interviewed hundreds of people, getting feedback on issues related to money. The firm created a high-quality short films that illustrates important thoughts about money using stories and graphics from different individuals.
This campaign resulted in several interviews on TV and the web. It was advertised on billboards at strategic locations as well. It was a massive hit for the investment firm, and a great campaign you can learn from.
You can learn a lot from WealthSimple’s #InvestingForHumans” social media campaign.
It’s based on the premise of educating the millennials (a specific demographics). Knowing your audience and serving them is key.
“Investing for Humans” campaign was a success. More than 1,800,000 people watched the video on YouTube within 5 months.
As a digital marketer, don’t think that offline channels are a waste of time. No, think again.
Leveraging highly-targeted magazines, TV commercials, and billboard advertisements can help you reach a massive audience, especially when you’re targeting a broad market.
Conclusion
Did you find a campaign or two that inspired your creative juices?
Even if the entire campaign from a brand doesn’t inspire you, you can extract ideas from the idea, the graphics, the channels utilized, or the copy to craft yours.
When you run into muddy waters, you can always reach out to our team to support you. Or if you need a full-suite digital marketing solution to generate leads and sales, we’re here to support you.