Taking the business mantra of “think global, act local” to its maximum, Coca-Cola’s Facebook page is tailored to its 36 million fans around the world. While nearly all those fans access it through a single page, what they see differs based on where they are. Read →
When companies first began using social media to connect with customers, most large corporations viewed it as a marketing tool that needed to be tightly controlled from headquarters. Lately, however, many companies—with retailers leading the way–are beginning to trust their far-flung troops with the power to speak for the brand on social media, including big names like REI, Whole Foods, Radio Shack and more. Read →
Aiming to “connect the real, traditional world with Toyota’s digital world,” Toyota launched a campaign for the 2012 Corolla back in May 2011, targeting an Asian-American audience. The campaign was based on the US introduction of “computer-generated pop star” Hatsune Miku, but also had a strong focus on mobile content with QR codes and augmented reality to drive traffic to Toyota’s website. Read →
On July 26, the Seattle Police Department used its @SeattlePD Twitter account to post fragments of dispatch calls between 6am and 6pm – and in the process lost several hundred followers. This outcome, and the controversy around the Seattle PD Twitter campaign, stands in sharp contrast to a similar experiment conducted by the Greater Manchester Police in October 2010, which was declared a PR success with 11,000 followers gained and a global trending hashtag. Read our in-depth analysis of the Twitter campaigns and future social media plans for the Seattle PD and the Greater Manchester Police. Read →
Swinging for the fences, a recent one-day promotion boosted Louisville Slugger’s Facebook likes by 143%, its Twitter followers by 161% and its Facebook “talking about this” number by 834%. Read →
Finding the right voice on Facebook has been a work in progress for The Humane Society since creating their Facebook page in 2007. The organization has discovered that “When it comes to caring for animals, people prefer something a little more serious than the tongue-in-cheek fare found on many Facebook pages.” So how did the Humane Society manage to reach – and surpass – the one million fan mark while experimenting to find the right tone for their organization? Read →
Australian airline Qantas has seen a string of social media ‘fails’ in the last several months, the latest being a Twitter contest labeled the “Hindenburg of of social media strategies” by one irate tweeter. How did Qantas manage to embroil itself in such social media hot water, and then continue to make the situation worse? And what can the beleaguered airline do to resurrect its reputation with frustrated customers? Read →
New Yorkers walking down 6th Avenue or riding the 6 subway line may have been baffled at first by recent mysterious ads for @GirlBehindSix, which described it as a “140-character game show.” But that simple promotion, plus a one-day Promoted Trend on Twitter, generated 33,000 followers for @GirlBehindSix, which was a front for the promotion of a new burger at the Wendy’s fast-food restaurant chain. Read →
Fun social media story for the day: how did a tiny Swiss village become a Facebook sensation with nearly 10,000 fans? Read →
How should a brand react during a social media crisis? There’s no ‘one’ right answer, but repeatedly deleting Facebook comments from fans (and others) got Chapstick into some seriously hot water this week. Read →