Social Media Awards, Best and Worst of 2011

SOCIAL MEDIA: everyone is talking about it, everyone is using it, and you should too! The expansion of the digital medium has opened new doors for PR. Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter now provide a way for brands to connect personally to customers and fans.

Unlike traditional media outlets, social media can be used creatively and brands can adopt more informal language to engage fans on a casual level. With capabilities like video, pictures, and polls, your fans can interact with your brand in a personal way.

BEST OF FACEBOOK

Healthy Choice Coupon Campaign

To increase “likes” Facebook, Healthy Choice was looking to increase engagement and reinforce the brand’s value image.

Healthy Choice introduced a growing coupon on their Facebook page that began at $0.75 off and increased as people ‘liked’ the page and signed up for the coupon. As “likes” increased, the coupon grew to a “buy-one-get-one-free” deal. Over a few weeks Healthy Choice’s “likes” went from less than 7,000 to over 60,000.

Ultimat Vodka “Social Life Audit” Campaign
Ultimat Vodka developed a Facebook app called the Social Life Audit which features a calculator to determine how much fun fans are having in their photos and cross checks BlackBook’s database of 2.5 million hot spots with Facebook check-ins to see if users are going to trendy places.

BEST OF TWITTER

Greg Burney “#drawmyfollowers” Campaign

To increase his followers on Twitter, artist Greg Burney promoted his Twitter by pledging to draw his first 3,000 followers. The drawings took him from 70 to over 2,000 followers in one day.

Orange “#thissummer” Campaign

Orange, a British Telecommunications company, asked Twitter followers to share their summer plans with the hashtag #thissummer. They then selected entries to put into movie trailer-style voiceovers so fans could hear their summer plans narrated like a summer blockbuster hit.

WORST OF FACEBOOK

Dr. Pepper “1 Cup” Campaign

Dr. Pepper initiated a campaign that offered fans a chance to win $1,000 if they agreed to let Dr. Pepper take over their Facebook statuses. This could have been a useful marketing scheme, but when the status update featured “I watched 2 Girls 1 Cup and felt hungry afterwards,” fans were offended. (Anyone not familiar with the reference to 2 Girls 1 Cup can read this review of the campaign.)

WORST OF TWITTER

Keep A Child Alive “Digital Death” Campaign

Keep A Child Alive went in an unusual direction with their “Digital Death” campaign in which celebrities took a digital vow of silence on Twitter until fans raised a million dollars for the organization. They seem to have overestimated public interest in celebrity tweets, because the response from fans was underwhelming.

Cisco “Ted From Accounting” Campaign

Cisco launched a YouTube/Twitter campaign replicating Old Spice’s “The Man You Wish Your Man Smelled Like” but with the less spectacular character “Ted From Accounting.” They encouraged fans to tweet at “Ted” with the hashtag #CiscoSPice. Unfortunately, Ted from accounting was just not as interesting as Old Spice’s Isaiah Mustafa (go figure), and the campaign did not catch on.

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LESSONS LEARNED

The best campaigns are examples of promoting interaction with fans, generating interest in the brand, and showing followers that the company or brand is relevant to their lives. On the other end of the spectrum, the worst campaigns fail to make a positive connection with fans. From disinterest to disgust, the reactions to these campaigns are negative for the brands.

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