The best social media marketing.
Image via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegarfield/
We recently went through a fairly lengthy process of weeding through hundreds upon hundreds of examples of social media marketing done by companies to find the best for a client presentation. It was tedious beyond belief because there’s actually quite a lot of crap. I’m guessing there’s probably a similar search or two going on out there at the moment, so I thought I’d share our best of list, You may not agree but at least it might save you some time.
We used a variety of different sources. One was Peter Kim’s excellent social media marketing wiki, but mostly we just trawled through our various RSS feeds and so on (surely we can automate this sort of thing one day?) So here goes in no particular order:
Adobe on delicious: http://delicious.com/adobe
This is really smart, basically they’re bookmarking all the best Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc. tutorials out there. They’re driving traffic to these content creators from their 2700 fans (and their networks) and they’re maintaining a master list of the best how-to information on their products.
NYT Firefox Plugin: http://timespeople.nytimes.com/home/about/
I think this is smart because they’re turning the experience of reading the Time online into a social one. Using the plugin you can see what you friends are reading and share your stories with them. It unearths valuable data that helps me decide what to read. (The NYT and The Guardian are light years ahead of the pack – while the rest of the industry are whining these two are just getting on with it.)
My Starbucks Idea: http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/
Dell Ideastorm: http://www.ideastorm.com/
Not much to say about these that hasn’t been said but still, they’re very good and even after all this time, fairly well trafficked.
Intuit Tax Wiki: http://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Main_Page
This is actually a wiki for tax professionals. I think it’s genius, Intuit offers them a service by helping them stay current and in return gets free tips and advice from tax pros all over the country to help improve its consumer products. This is new marketing thinking at its best.
Urban Outfitters Flickr pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/79323077@N00/
Urban outfitters customers and fans post pictures of themselves wearing UO gear. While you have to join to post, UO gets a free fashion catalogue with over 4K images from 1.3K members and people get inspiration on how to wear UO.
Comcast on Twitter: http://twitter.com/comcastcares
Again this one’s been covered extensively but having experienced first-hand the help of ComcastBonnie recently, I rate it because they’re using social media to try to sort out one of the worst parts of the Comcast experience.
Run Finder on Nike+: http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/#mapit
Yes, like everyone else I love I love Nike+ and yes, like everyone else, I hate their slow, flash website, but at least they’re starting to add useful features to it. As a frequent traveler, Run Finder is invaluable and because Nike’s community is so big it even helps me find runs that aren’t on MapMyRun.
Home Depot on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/homedepot
How-to videos for fixing decks or other projects. The Home Depot channel seems really mature and well organised. 1600 subscribers isn’t bad either. This is really a no-brainer for them, it’s help, inspiration and content which can be repurposed a bunch of places.
Open Forum from American Express: http://www.openforum.com/
Business and marketing advice from business and marketing leaders. While this almost doesn’t make the list because it’s a little far afield from their core biz (more on this later) I think that the quality of thinking and writing they’ve assembled there is pretty amazing and is, in itself, a testament to the power of the brand.
Blendtec on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/blendtec?blend=1&ob=4
You may find its inclusion here strange but it’s a product demo that people want to watch! That’s pretty amazing in my book.
Dell Twitter directory: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/community/dell_on_twitter?c=us&l=en&s=gen
Dell have taken the really smart step of segmenting its different Twitter feeds into specific subjects. I think this is a must have for any big company with lots of different lines and/or products. It’s a blessing for people who are looking for very specific information or help, and I think that’s almost everyone when it comes to engaging with companies on social media.
The Official Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Put simply, this is where they typically launch new products. It’s so obvious but yet still brilliant.
IBM in Second Life: http://www.ibm.com/3dworlds/businesscenter/us/en/
I know this will be controversial, in fact someone tweeted a great quote from Steve Rubel yesterday, “Second Life is digital marketing’s Vietnam.” I’m guessing this isn’t that well used or popular, but I think it’s actually a really smart use of Second Life that is extremely well tied to what I might want to know about IBM as a prospective customer. If Second Life didn’t exist, they might want to roll their own just so they could do this kind of stuff.
Zappos Twitter Page: http://twitter.zappos.com/
An aggregator page that drives up Zappos’ organic search performance. Brilliant.
TJ Maxx on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tjmaxx
Like all discount retailers, TJ Maxx carries designer clothing but isn’t actually allowed to tell you it carries designer clothing. You’re just supposed to “discover” it in the store. Well their Twitter feed has circumvented that so you know exactly when that shipment of Dolce & Gabbana has hit and where.
Walmart Eleven Moms: http://instoresnow.walmart.com/Community.aspx
Walmart is actually making good on its save money claim by crowdsourcing real-world money saving tips from customers and sharing them. I think this is great because they’ve realised saving money isn’t just about low prices it’s about all the choices you make.
You may be thinking this is a strange list, what’s the criteria for qualifying for “the best?” In the beginning, we started with a small set of criteria, but more arose from looking at, playing with and studying these examples. In the end, when we looked at them as a group there were a bunch of commonalities that jumped out for us which I think are interesting.
- All of these are very focused, while they bring lots of benefits, they’re really designed to do one thing and do that well
- They put the product or service directly at the center.
- They are completely customer focused, they aren’t designed to do things that the company may want e.g. build community, evangelists etc. they are designed to serve customers.
- They are utilities much more than they are communications.
- Simply put, they make it easier for customers to do more business with them.
I think that companies make the mistake of thinking that they can behave like people on social media. The reasons that I follow or interact with people are completely different from the reasons I follow or interact with companies. I may develop a sense of friendship or community with the people behind a company’s social media, but that isn’t the primary reason I’ll start interacting in the first place. These examples above recognise that. They understand that their company is in business to sell or do something for me and they used social media to serve me better.
What are your thoughts, what would you add, subtract to this list?
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Tags: best of list, examples
taulpaul Says:
April 8th, 2009 at 3:34 pmMy addition would be Kuler by Adobe: http://kuler.adobe.com/ because a lot of us were hung-over for through color theory class, and not all of us have Faber Birren in our library.
I always wished Adobe would have taken this a step further into something like interior design study for medical establishments, psychological effects, etc…
Follow the Social Media Herd - All 14 Million of Them | Internet Marketing Company Blog | Internet Marketing Inc Says:
April 8th, 2009 at 8:50 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
hanmi Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 6:16 amgood information, thank you
The best of social media marketing - for now | Brandsential Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 4:29 pm[...] is a great list of brands that are focused and using social media to support their goals. What I found interesting [...]
Pintocas Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 5:21 amthat’s cool
Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links - Apr 10, 2009 « Sazbean Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 7:04 am[...] The best social media marketing (From The Head of Zeus Jones) [...]
Scott Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pmGood stuff, thanks for sharing.
To me BlendTec isn’t strange for inclusion in this list, it’s far and away the best example. It’s the only one I’ve encountered naturally as as a consumer,not as a I guy researching social media marketing. If I’m in the market for a blender that can frappe and iPod, there’s only one brand I’d trust: BlendTec!
All twitter-pated about Twitter : Brand Central Station Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm[...] finally, there’s this broad look at social media (in general) and Twitter specifically defined as the “best”in social media marketing. [...]
Ryan Turner Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 5:03 pmNice list! I’d quibble with one point: American Express’ The Members Project is much smarter than MyStarbucksIdea, which is just a copy of IdeaStorm.
I use the Blendtec example all the time, and I contrast it with Intuit’s TurboTax Rap Contest on Youtube (hosted by Vanilla Ice). I love me some Vanilla, but the examples are useful because Will It Blend actually communicates a value prop while turning that iPhone to dust. ‘Nilla, on the other hand, doesn’t exactly say effective tax software to me.
Thanks though, several of these were new to me. Very useful.
Don Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 9:53 pmI’m amazed at the blendtec’s originality as well.
Geoff Northcott Says:
April 13th, 2009 at 7:16 amHey Adrian, great list. Interesting to see how the criteria you’ve set out really narrows it down in a hurry.
Two suggestions come to mind:
Virtual world Club Penguin’s Club Penguin Times. A full two-thirds of its 6.7 million users read this community-generated newspaper at least once a week, and its readers send in 30,000 submissions a day. Staggering participation levels: http://bit.ly/14Sd9r
Walkers “Do Us a Flavour” flavour design contest. They ended up with over 1 million submissions. http://bit.ly/oU1x
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April 13th, 2009 at 8:16 am[...] From the head of zeus jones. « Bits e átomos Play vs Download » [...]
adrian Says:
April 13th, 2009 at 12:11 pmThanks Geoff, you’ve obviously been doing some digging yourself as I was checking out some great links on your blog this weekend!
funny you should ask » Bookmarks for April 11th through April 12th Says:
April 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones – list of cases of great use of "social media". Agreed. [...]
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April 13th, 2009 at 1:21 pm[...] más ejemplos interesantes en The best social media marketing y A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples. 13 Abr 09 | [...]
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April 16th, 2009 at 11:02 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus JonesGreat resource in case you forgot the canonical examples of successful social media initiatives. [...]
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April 21st, 2009 at 11:01 am[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
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April 22nd, 2009 at 4:13 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
Så marknadsför du via sociala medier | Pers Värld Says:
April 28th, 2009 at 7:02 am[...] Och när du har kommit så långt så … Well, det finns naturligtvis inga gränser här heller, det gäller bara att komma på vad du ska göra. Ett antal lysande exempel på hur företag har kampanjat eller kampanjar i sociala medier har reklambyrån Zeus Jones listat här: läs och imponeras! [...]
Why you have to engage in social media, even if you don’t want to | Insights into Startups and Entrepreneurship - nPost Blog Says:
April 28th, 2009 at 8:12 am[...] Zeus Jones describes 16 more terrific examples. (Thanks to David S. Finch for digging it up.) [...]
Per T Says:
April 28th, 2009 at 11:59 amWow: it's instant love from me! Thanks for a great list and thanks for an interesting blog as a whole. Appreciate.
adrianho Says:
April 28th, 2009 at 1:38 pmThank you, glad you're liking it and thanks for stopping by.
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May 2nd, 2009 at 1:02 pm[...] The best social media marketing. Image via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegarfield/ We recently went through a fairly… [...]
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May 7th, 2009 at 4:27 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
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Why you have to engage in social media, even if you don’t want to « cdbn.net Says:
May 25th, 2009 at 12:26 pm[...] Zeus Jones describes 16 more terrific examples. (Thanks to David S. Finch for digging it up.) [...]
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May 26th, 2009 at 12:46 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
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June 3rd, 2009 at 5:01 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
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June 8th, 2009 at 11:20 am[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
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June 17th, 2009 at 10:05 pm[...] Zeus Jones describes 16 more terrific examples. (Thanks to David S. Finch for digging it up.) [...]
Social Media Consulting | DREW JONES Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 8:00 pm[...] The best social media marketing. | From The Head Of Zeus Jones [...]
Isis Says:
June 30th, 2009 at 5:25 pmSo many interesting links you have shared here, thanks for sharing them, I totally appreciate it.
Buttatevi nei social media anche se non li capite! | Webgriffe® magazine Says:
September 7th, 2009 at 12:07 am[...] Zeus Jones descrive altri 16 esempi di successo. [...]
Why social media . . . even if you don’t want to Says:
September 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am[...] Zeus Jones describes 16 more terrific examples. (Thanks to David S. Finch for digging it up.) [...]
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September 16th, 2009 at 1:46 pm[...] Zeus Jones describes 16 more terrific examples. (Thanks to David S. Finch for digging it up.) [...]
Abby Says:
September 16th, 2009 at 2:10 pmLots of people still think of marketing in the old fashion way, (believe it or not, some people are only coming around to Search engine marketing), and are even more clueless when it comes to Social Media marketing.
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Jeff Says:
September 21st, 2009 at 2:24 pmNice post, thanks.
prova copia e incolla da browser « BlogGAS.it Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 12:46 pm[...] Zeus Jones descrive altri 16 esempi di successo. [...]
Social Media Says:
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:22 pmThat is an amazingly focused list of amazingly focused companies!
Thank you very much.
Best,
Magnus Lundin
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March 4th, 2010 at 8:37 pm[...] As Adrian says: This is really smart. They’re driving traffic to these content creators from their 2700 fans (and their networks) and they’re maintaining a master list of the best how-to information on their products. [...]
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May 20th, 2010 at 9:22 am[...] media? Google to the rescue – look for sites with practical advice and real life examples, like ZeusJones “Best Social Media Marketing” and Chris Wallace’s recent article in Promo [...]
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