Success Stories
Welcome to the Tips and Success Stories section. This section will feature lessons learned from the online and Social Marketing frontier.
SOCIAL MARKETING SUCCESS STORIES:
Social Marketing Success Stories are always a great way to learn and get motivated. Below is an ongoing collection of Success Stories ranging from large consumer brands, to B2B, Government and non-profit success models.
The story of charity: water – The 2009 September Campaign
Warren Raisch Social Marketing Success Story Post: November 5, 2009
Sultry Singer Joss Loner reveals secrets of social marketing success
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc_ax-940l8
Robin Broitman put together a good list of case studies at:
Described by WOMMA (the Word of Mouth Marketing Association) as: “a “how-to” resource intended to help you gain a better understanding of the different types of word of mouth marketing that exist, as well as how to put them to work for you.” This is a very usable tool that includes searchable database of word-of-mouth/social media case studies. You can also browse by categories such as “Create a Blog,” “Work with Online Communities” and “Establish A User Community.”
List of 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media In Action from Mashable
Mashable has a list of more than 35 examples of companies who are experimenting with Social Media along with links to examples of their social media effects in action.
Peter Kim’s Long List of Social Media Marketing Examples
Former Forrester analyst Peter Kim has compiled (and is keeping updated) a very long “A to Z” list of companies who are using social media. Examples range from Absolut Vodka’s YouTube Channel to Zappos’ 13 corporate blogs. Peter has recently put these examples into a Wiki framework: Wiki of Social Media Examples for future collaborative efforts. Peter has also provided a list of international social media case studies for Canada, Australia, Germany, Malaysia and the U.K. Note: For those interested- there is also a list of German social media case studies compiled by Benedikt Koehler on his German language blog – Social Media Marketing In Deutschland.
Ray Schiel’s Categorized List of Examples
On his blog The Global Social Media Network, Ray has taken Peter’s list a step further and organized the examples into useful categories such as online video, blogs, social networks, widgets, etc.
Get Elastic’s “110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing“
Get Elastic, the E-Commerce blog has compiled a long list of examples of retailers using social media marketing in helpful categories such as Facebook applications, Youtube Videos and Podcasts, Second Life E-stores and Twitter applications. Separately, Econsultancy maintains a list of US retailers on Twitter and a list of UK retailers on Twitter.
The Association Social Media Wiki’s List
The Association Social Media Wiki has a growing “A to Z” list of some 100+ associations using social media with links to the association’s social media web pages. Ranges from the American Library Association’s Second LIfe intiative to the Urban Land Institute’s blog.
Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki
Maintains a directory of Fortune 500 companies that have active public business blogs. The blogs are listed along with links to reviews of the blogs.
Now is Gone List of Case Studies
Geoff Livingston, author of the book Now is Gone maintains a list of social media case studies on his blog of the same name.
The Corporate Twitter Awards List
The Stratius Blog has a list of nominees and winners in categories of companies who are using Twitter. Includes companies such as Whole Foods and Jet Blue.
Forrester’s Groundswell Awards
Write-ups on 150+ submissions for the 2008 awards as well as write-ups on the 2007 winners of the Groundswell Awards by Forrrester. The awards showcase organizations that have shown “excellent and effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational or corporate goal.” Nominees in 2008 include social media programs such as Quickbooks’ Community Site and Rubbermaid’s Adventures in Organization blog. For more in-depth case studies, the book Groundswell written by former Forrester Analyst Charlene Li and current Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff cites 65 corporate examples including 25 full case studies in a variety of industries and countries around the world. Click here to check the book out on Amazon: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
List of 75+ Big Brand Corporate Blogs
Debbie Weil, author of the “Corporate Blogging Book” has posted a terrific list of 75 “Big Brand” corporate blogs from Accenture to Zillow. The list also includes some big name associations and non-profits.
Ignite Social Media’s 26 Social Media Marketing Examples In Depth
Lisa Braziel is writing a series of posts taking an in depth look at 26 of Peter Kim’s social media marketing examples including Animal Planet, Clorox, Exxon Mobil, Delmonte Foods, and Best Western.
Provides a list organized into categories such as Business, Education, Entertainment, etc. with links to sub-categories within each.
NewPR/Wiki’s List of Corporate Blogs
An extensive A to Z list of corporate blogs on this Wiki, a collaborative tool for PR professionals
The Sniki Wiki Social Media Wiki
The Sniki Wiki Social Media Wikis lists companies (and also non-profits) leveraging social media for clients, and provides information on organizations building campaigns that integrate social media to connect with customers. You can add your organization’s social media activities to the growing list.
300+ Cases & Examples of Social Media Marketing
On his blog, Monty C. M. Metzger has pulled together a list of more than 300 companies who are active in the Social Media landscape.
Society for New Communications Research Award Winning Case Studies
The Society for New Communications Research has published 50+ case studies from their awards which honors individuals, corporations, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and media outlets that are pioneering the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities, virtual worlds, and collaborative technologies in the areas of business, media, journalism and professional communications, entertainment, education, social initiatives, government and politics.
The Blog Council (NEW)
The Blog Council, a group for senior executives responsible for social media at large corporations including Walmart and GE has it’s own blog The Blog Council Blog that specifically covers corporate social media success stories and examples and also, in partnership with Alltop, offers immediate one-page access to over 150 corporate blogs – All The Top Corporate Blogs. Watch videos from the October 08 Blogwell Conference: How Big Companies Use Social Media with presentations on Walmart, Graco, Intel, Cisco, UPS, The Home Depot and Kaiser Permanente.
Collaboration Project Case Studies Library
Terrific set of case studies of social media in federal, state and local governments. The Collaboration Project is an independent forum of leaders committed to leveraging web 2.0 and the benefits of collaborative technology to solve government’s complex problems. Powered by the National Academy of Public Administration, this “wikified” space is designed to share ideas, examples and insights on the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the field of public governance.
40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them
From Mashable: Results from querying 40 of the best brands experimenting with Twitter about how they’re using the micro-blogging platform.
From Ed Bennett: Hospital web manager Ed Bennett maintains the Hospital Social Network List, which currently has over 185 hospitals with links to their official blog, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube sites. For other nice lists of Health 2.0 companies see Dose of Digital’s Pharma & Healthcare Social Media Wiki and the Health 2.0 Wiki
From Beth Kanter: Great roundup that includes list and examples of non-profits on twitter. Includes links to several different aggregated listings of non-profit Twitter pages. Includes link to Mashable’s rundown of 26 Charities and Non-profits Who Tweet.
Drectory of government agencies using Twitter with the goal of including all facets of government on Twitter: state and local, federal, contractors, reporters, academics, judicial branch and more. The list will be a living list and will be kept updated via BearingPoint’s own research, as well as submissions from site readers.
AMF Ventures Tony Smith on pain, marketing and telepathy –
Take the pain early, and just do it
Read more at: http://www.vator.tv/news/sh…
One of the great things about where I work at Digitaria is that we get to work everyday on some of the most advanced Online,Social and Mobile Marketing for some of the largest global brands in the world including Intel, Hasbro, Cisco and Media & Entertainment giants like ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, MTV as well as leading sports franchises such as the NFL, MLS, ATP, ISC and many others. As great as it is to work with the giants it is also really satisfying when we have the opportunity to take all of our advanced technologies, know how and skills and apply them to making a difference in the world with some of the smaller non-profits that are driven by passionate people that get up everyday, give thanks for what they have and go about making the world a better place.
INVISIBLE CHILDREN
I am fortunate that I get to work with a group of passionate people that are truly moved to make a difference and we have a host of non-profits that we work with. It is truly one of the most satisfying parts of our jobs. One such example is our work with a non-profit called Invisible Children which was started by three young men who were just out of college and wanted to go out and see the world and capture their stories on film. They witnessed first hand the gross injustice of a war in Uganda, Africa where children were being taken from their homes in the middle of the night and turned into child soldiers as well as the families that were devestated by the warfare and lost absolutley everything being displaced and all but forgotten in camps where they struggle daily with the basics of clean watter and food. They came to us with a powerful story to tell and a challenge of how to gather American youth to take action to help. They took their story on the road and we helped them take the story onto the Web. Through the innovative use of storytelling through Social Networks & Marketing, Videos, Mobile Marketing , a powerful website and the passion of people who cared to step up and make a difference.
80,000 Sudents Take to the Streets
With extensive grassroots storytelling they gathered mobile phone numbers and then they put out the calls to action and hoped they would come. And come they did, in their first series of events over 80,000 students from across America were mobilized to take to the streets and stand up for the cause by staging Displace Me events in key cities where they similated what it would be like to be pulled from your home and put out into the streets. Watch the attached video and see the amazing success story or go to invisiblechildren.com today and read their stories and watch the videos in the media section. It is an amazing testiment to the power of passionate people. Also, it is one of the most successful Non-Profit projects we have ever been involved with using Social Marketing, mobile and online outreach. Through the efforts of all of these students they generated over $7 milllion in funding to go back to Uganda and rebuild schools, villages and lives and the story continues.
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10 Social Marketing Success Stories - Thanks to REd McCombs Media Blog.
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Social networking has all but taken over the web in the past couple of years. Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are grabbing more and more main stream attention because millions of people visit them every day. Social marketing is now almost as ubiquitous as social networking, marketing companies are scrambling to capitalize on the opportunity to place your product prominently in social channels. This is all a passing fancy, right? Let’s look at some example of social marketing and see how this is shaping up for companies, large and small. Below are 10 social marketing success stories.
- FreshBooks – I’m going to start with my favorite example. FreshBooks is a web application that helps with invoicing for small companies. They created a Twitter account and began interacting with their clients and the Twitter community there. One night one of their customers tweeted that she had been stood up by a blind date. A FreshBooks employee saw the tweet, recognized that she was a customer, looked up her address and sent her a bouquet of flowers with a note that FreshBooks will never stand her up. The girl was so affected by this gesture that she told all of her friends, blogged about it, tweeted about it, shared the message via every medium that she could. People listened, and took note of FreshBooks. A year later they have an army of devoted supporters answering support questions and comments for them. Calls to their customer support line have gone down, saving them thousands of dollars each month. FreshBooks takes social marketing seriously and uses Twitter as a direct line with their customers, and its working for them. They have brand evangelists to show for it. Does your company have such fanatical support? If not, when was the last time you sent flowers to a client?
- Dell – Dell computers has also had some Twitter success. Recognizing that Twitter was gaining momentum, they created an account to announce specials appearing in their outlet. They kept these specials separate from other marketing endeavors so they could track how Twitter is working for them. A year later they had produced $1M in sales through their Twitter account. This may not be a lot of money for one of the largest technology companies in the world, but keep in mind that the Twitter account didn’t cost them anything other than time. Do your customers know when you offer specials?
- Attorneys – Let’s turn our attention away from Twitter for a little while. Last summer Michelle M. Friedman recommended to the other attorneys in her office that they connect with other professionals through LinkedIn. As soon as they started connecting with clients and associates new cases began coming in with little effort. They also bring in new business through answering questions in the answers section. How well are you connected with clients and professionals in your industry?
- Masi Bikes – Tim Jackson is the sole marketer for this small, niche bike manufacturer. Working with a limited budget, he decided to start a company blog with podcast. Within two years sales doubled and Tim is now recognized as one of the people to keep up with in his industry. Even shop owners that don’t carry his brand read his blog because it is entertaining and informative. Do you keep up with trends in your industry? Do your clients and competitors?
- Ford – Wanting to rebuild its name among young web savvy car buyers, Ford selected 100 people with YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter accounts, gave them the new Fiesta to them free for six months with the stipulation that they share their experiences online. Here’s the kicker, Ford asked them to be honest about their experience, no boilerplate, no censoring, no editing. This certainly has the potential to blow up on them, but if successful they’ll have gone a long way toward establishing themselves as a quality brand among America’s young connected car buyers. So far its working in Ford’s favor, apart from the positive buzz about this marketing tactic the reviews are honest and favorable. Do you believe in your product or service enough to solicit public feedback?
- Gretsch Guitars – Gretsch wanted to do something different to celebrate the company’s 125th anniversary. They decided to meet their customers where the were, on MySpace. They created an unsigned artist contest on the community site. The contest was a success. The Gretsch website earned an additional 55,000 visits within a couple of months, and fans have created their own Gretsch MySpace layouts, strengthening brand recognition. Would a contest stimulate interest in your brand?
- Viewzi – Viewzi is a visual search engine. I could try to explain what that means but its easier for you to just click on the link, plus their site it unique enough that its worth seeing at least once. Social media guru Giovanni Gallucci was hired by the company to help with promoting the new brand. As Gallucci was going through his efforts, an acquaintance asked him a couple of questions about the site as well as for permission to write about it. Turns out the acquaintance regularly contributes to CNN, the very next day Viewzi was featured on CNN.com. That effort lead to feature stories on Wired, TechCrunch and several other prominent news sources. Within six months of launch the new company has a healthy stream of organic traffic and it is still growing. Are you connecting with everyone you can to spread the word about your company?
- Zappos – This online retailer has been blogging and using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook almost since the company started. What’s interesting about Zappos is that while they openly embrace these social mediums, so much so that their employees are trained on how to use them, the executives don’t consider this a marketing effort. They call it a more personal connection with people, whether they are employees, customers or just fans of the company. This company doesn’t want to control the message, they want to connect with people. How refreshing! Zappos now has a fanatical group of brand evangelists, just as FreshBooks does. In your social media efforts are you more focused on selling something, or connecting with people?
- CoffeeGroundz – This is a Houston coffee shop. Wanting to learn what social marketing was all about, the owner created a Twitter account and began having conversations with people there. One day a customer tweeted that he’d like to pre-order breakfast so that he could zip through the drive through. This one transaction got a lot of coverage because its recognized as the first to-go order on Twitter. The owner recognized the potential and began accepting orders via Twitter. This prompted even more attention, and today the coffee shop regularly hosts Houston Tweetups. This coffee shop used Twitter to double their clientele and generate a lot of buzz about the business. Would your customers feel comfortable asking for a new channel of communication? Would you respond if the did?
- Southwest Airlines – This is a company that has followed its own path from the start, and this strategy has always worked for them. The company started its corporate blog in 2006, and since then has fully embraced social media with accounts at Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. They also have a weekly podcast. Each of these mediums requires effort, but the net effect is that their customers have many ways of interacting with the company. Customer initiated conversations have led to the company evaluating their position on boarding flights, assigned seating, advanced scheduling and other facets of their business. These are genuine conversations between decision makers within the company and the customers that value their service. This level of communication shows that the company is committed to their customers. Are your customers letting you know what’s working and what isn’t? Are you inviting that conversation?
Above are ten examples of companies that have directly impacted their bottom line through the use of social media. Small companies like CoffeeGroundz and independent attorneys are benefiting from social marketing as much as national brands like Ford and Dell. The bottom line is that there are as many ways of succeeding in social marketing as there are companies in America, and none of them have to cost a lot of money. In fact, in this list of examples it seems that creativity and genuine connections are more important than big budgets.
