15 Social Media Marketing Examples you can apply to Your Social Media Strategy

Social media may undoubtedly be the home for today’s mainstream marketing. However, success in social media marketing and growth doesn’t come easy.

It requires loads of works that go far beyond consistency and posting.

The main element of social media marketing which propels the growth of brands and their overall success on social media is the development of social media strategies.

Over the years, various companies have developed various social media management strategies to aid their brands in attaining the height they foresee.

While some perform amazingly with their social media strategies, some fail miserably and make a mess of their businesses.

Today, we introduce you to 15 Social Media Marketing examples that you can apply to your social media strategies to grow your brand and attain marketing success.

These are examples of companies and brands that have implemented certain strategies that worked for them immensely.

1. Zoom Free Trial Competition

One of the key technology-related words that have become very popular within the coronavirus period is Zoom.

Before the Coronavirus became a wildfire, Zoom was used by some companies and individuals especially in the western world.

However, when the coronavirus came and there were restrictions placed on movements, the team at Zoom realized that it was their time to go big and make more gains because people were working from home and so they needed a video meeting or conferencing application.

To go global and attain huge numbers in terms of users, Zoom decided to launch a campaign that was focused on promoting its platform and offering free trial as well as giving people pleasure.

So, they introduced the virtual background challenge. The whole idea was for users to download the Zoom app, use the virtual background feature of Zoom, and take a screenshot (photo or video) of themselves on the Zoom app. Then users had to upload the images or videos on social media using certain hashtags.

3 Winners were selected every month to receive special branded prizes from Zoom. After running social media Pay per Click (PPC) campaigns for this strategy, Zoom got millions of people participating in the campaign and the more people tried the application, the more they found its use and then it went viral.

Today, Zoom is the world’s most-used video meeting application available. Lecturers and business folks use it.

So, as a business owner, you can also think of a challenge or a giveaway program that draws people to try your products or services.

2. Chipotle’s Fun Videos

Tiktok came at a time when people were generally getting tired of staying at home and doing nothing. Eventually, they captured on the moment and became a global brand with millions of people watching videos on the platform every day.

Before Tiktok became a global success, Chipotle Mexican Grill, an American business that owns a chain of restaurants decided to use Tiktok’s technology to promote its businesses.

The target for the strategy was for them to attract younger generations to buy their foods online.

The marketing team then realized that younger people love fun or anything fun so they decided to use the next big fun platform at the time which is Tiktok.

Capitalizing on that, they created a funny challenge dubbed #Chipotleleadflip challenge which went viral by gaining over 240 million views on Tiktok.

The following challenge was the #Guacdance challenge which gained over 400 million views within its first six days.

With this, the Chipotle brand became very popular amongst the younger generation and they made over 88% growth on their digital sales revenues and total revenue growth of 14.8% in the second-to-last quarter of 2019.

As a business owner, you can also create fun content that targets a specific audience. When promoted, it would create more awareness about your brand in the long term.

3. KFC UK’s Capitalization On PR Crisis

The word ‘savagery’ is one that has most-likely been linked with Twitter than any other platform.

As popular as that word is on twitter, little did anyone imagine that it would become important to businesses until KFC UK opened our eyes to new possibilities.

Recently, a twitter user tweeted at KFC UK, indicating to them that nobody wants their chips anymore because it tastes bad.

Now, instead of KFC to go on the defense and apologize to this user, they rather decided to capitalize on it to create brand awareness.

So, they run paid campaigns on twitter to promote what the user had tweeted at them. However, they included that they had started preparing new chips and that they were ready for serving.

So in effect, they used the criticism to create humor which people generally like and then brought the twist to inform people to come to taste their new chips.

Smart move by any standard!

With this campaign, awareness for the new chips reached 62% which is 12% more than what they projected before starting the campaign.

4. Nike’s Momentous Campaigns

If there is any brand in the world that is very timely and handles social media with such class and timeliness, then it should be Nike.

Nike has developed tactics of launching campaigns based on trending issues and situations globally which inure to the benefit of their brand.

Recently when most countries were in Lockdown, clothing companies launched a campaign called ‘Play for the World’ campaign which was in the spirit of promoting togetherness globally.

The campaign went viral in a few days and celebrities and influencers picked it up too. Nike has since seen a major spike in its social media marketing engagements and other metrics.

You can try this for your business too by creating campaigns that are geared towards global crisis, trending topics, and social issues.

5. Made.com’s Customer Content

Connecting with your customers has always been a way of reassuring them of their importance to your brand and makes them feel a part of your business.

If there’s any brand that understands this concept so well, it is the furniture-making company, Made.com.

They have over the years built their social media content on the content provided by their customers.

Instead of posting their content, they rather launch campaigns that request customers to upload photos of Made.com products in their homes with a hashtag. The most beautiful photos are reposted on Made.com’s social media pages as well as their influencers’ social media accounts.

And this gives them millions of views. Plus, they don’t have to worry about what content to post since customers already provide them with a wide range to choose from.

You could replicate this in your business too. Once you have satisfied customers or clients, this would be a good addition to your social media strategies.

6. KLM’s Questions And Answers

KLM has been one of the unique airlines in the business for some time now.

To ensure customer interest and to reach a larger audience for increased social media engagements, they are known to have created customer-oriented content over the years.

Recently, they launched a Question and Answer segment on Instagram TV to educate the public on anything concerning flights and aircraft. They labeled the series ‘What the FAQ’.

This eventually went viral and presently, their most recent video in this series has over 70,000 likes on Instagram alone.

Frankly, this is something most companies in this niche don’t do, hence, a novelty in that sphere.

7. Amazon’s Response To Customer Comments

Your business revolves around your customer base. Without your customers, you are out of business – most likely.

So when your customers give comments or review your products especially on social media, one thing you can do for sure is to respond to as many as you can.

So, Amazon decided to use this idea to their benefit. They do so by giving funny responses to tweets and comments on their social media pages about their posts.

It doesn’t end there. Once they respond to the comments or tweets on one platform, Amazon takes screenshots of the comment and reposts on their other social media platforms.

This has improved their social media interactions since customers want to stand the chance of being noticed globally through Amazon.

For any company looking to increase customer engagement and increase business growth, this is nothing short of a perfect social media strategy.

8. Netflix’s Brilliant Health Talk Sessions

The effects of COVID-19 on businesses and life, in general, can only be understated.

COVID-19 has had great emotional and psychological effects on many people throughout the world such that it has broken many people down.

Noticing this situation, the famous streaming platform, Netflix decided to engage its customers by running an Instagram Live session where viewers get to interact with mental health workers to express their problems and get live solutions.

This brought Netflix to the homes of many people and also helped them connect more with their customers and how they feel.

With this, Netflix was able to help some people with mental health issues while also reaching new customers and also learning more about their customers to plan the contents to upload on their streaming platform.

As a business owner, you should be able to take advantage of certain situations to create awareness for your brand while helping your customers.

9. Airbnb’s Consumer Trust Strategy

If there is any brand that should be hit considerably in these COVID-19 days, it should be Airbnb and other hospitality-related ventures.

Most hospitality ventures such as hotels and Travel agencies have had to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Airbnb, however, saw a fortune in the misfortune and decided to capitalize on it.

So, during the peak of the COVID-19, they ran a social media campaign that was focused on offering subsidized or free lodging to COVID-19 respondents in some cities.

Through the campaign, they’ve been able to win consumer trust in these hard times and also offered their support to those in need at the time.

This strategy made them win consumer trust, it also made them make some money in a time when all competitors are closed and also they were able to keep their social media engagements up and reach new audiences who are likely to become customers after the pandemic.

10. Harvard Business Review’s Free Resource Strategy

As a publishing and media company, Harvard Business Review realized the opportunity presented by this coronavirus crisis, knowing that most people were home and the use of the internet had increased immensely.

So, to benefit from this, the Business publication decided to give free access to some tools on their website during the period.

To get more people, they run paid social media campaigns for this promotion and they got a huge volume of traffic on their site.

Now, apart from traffic which translates into ad revenues, these individuals and companies who try HBR’s free resources would be encouraged to pay for the other resources to have access to them.

Those who are satisfied with the free resources would pay for the paid resources as well.

This strategy mostly works for websites that publish paid content.

11. Depop’s Mixed Strategies

Depop is a social trading site which is usually targeted at the younger generations. It is a platform where people can chat, connect and sell their products.

Depop is one of the successful trading platforms available on the internet today and it all comes down to their mixed approach of handling social media.

To encourage more users to sell on its platform, Depop looks through the platform daily and finds out the most beautiful products that are performing well on the platform. They then have a short interview with the seller of the product and share the image with a transcribed version of the interview on their social media platforms.

So in essence, they capitalize on User Generated Content (UGC) to propel their brand on social media. This creates a great connection between the platform and the users who then become loyal to the platform.

Apart from this strategy, Depop also pays influencers to help market their services for social media marketing, which helps them generate millions of reach aside what they gather on their channels.

To top it all, the brand’s digital marketing manager confirmed that they also have a budget for paid ads on social media which has been very helpful as well.

So, for Depop, the popular adage ‘do not put all your eggs in one basket’ holds valid at all times. Thus, diversification has been the core of their marketing strategies – which worked for them.

12. Dollar Shave Club’s Researched Facts

Knowledge is good and even so, it is better when it comes free of charge and at no extra hustle.

And this is exactly what Dollar Shave Club’s social media followers enjoy from time to time.

The brand consistently provides infographics that contain random facts about hair, hairstyles and hair-related issues on their platform.

By doing so, they encourage engagements on their platforms since most of their facts come in the form of graphics. And also, most of them are fun facts that require the audience to share their thoughts.

In the long run, engagement drives reach and reach drives brand presence on social media. The more your brand is seen online, the more likely you are to generate leads from your social media platforms and that is exactly what Dollar Shave Club does.

13. Northweek’s Content Diversification

Northweek is a company that produces and distributes eyewear such as sunglasses and lenses.

To ensure regular social media engagement and also grow their brand presence on social media, Northweek plays the game of diversification so well.

Though the brand usually depends on User Generated Content (UGC) for their social media , they also create unique graphics as well as photoshoots in some natural and beautiful environments to diversify the type of contents available on their social media platform.

Now, humans get tired of seeing the same kind of thing over and over again. Most people rarely watch the same movie twice. They won’t like to see the same kind of photo twice or thrice on your platform.

So, diversification is key to success on social media and none other than Northweek has provided a blueprint for this.

14. Daniel Wellington’s  Fun Games

For a brand that deals in watches, games would be the last thing you think they want to incorporate into their social media strategies.

But hey, innovation is key to success in a choked place such as Social Media.

So, Daniel Wellington launched a campaign with the hashtag #Whereiswellington. In this campaign, models are made to wear the watch and then photoshoots are taken at some beautiful places across the globe.

Social media users are then supposed to guess where exactly the photos were taken. This has helped them gather lots of social media engagements since people comment under the images with their answers.

To further involve their followers in this, Wellington also posts photos taken by their customers as part of this challenge.

15. Essie’s User Generated Content Competition

Essie is a global nail enamel products company that has gained prominence, especially on social media for its beautiful and colorful products.

With over 2 million followers on Instagram alone, Essie dwells mostly on the power of User Generated Content for Social Media Marketing.

However, to ensure unison and a touch of variation from time to time, Essie gives out the color for every month and asks customers to upload photos of their products bearing the color of the month, together with the given hashtag to qualify for a feature on the brand’s social media platforms.

For most social media platforms, being featured on a big platform like Essie’s Instagram account makes them fulfilled. It also gives them some new followers as well.

For Essie, they get huge volumes of UGC to choose from, lots of mentions and growth of their hashtags which makes their brand more discoverable and also translates to new leads and more money.

Conclusion

The social media world is not an easy one to tap into and become a success. Though there are billions of users on social media, every brand needs to have strategies put in place to ensure that they benefit fully from the fortunes available to be tapped on social media.

So, here is a list of strategies as simplified from the 15 examples explained above, which you can implement in your business setting to ensure an active presence on social media and leads generation as well:

1. Encourage the use of User Generated Content
2. Diversify your contents
3. Use infographics
4. Use video contents
5. Mix up your strategies
6. Use paid campaigns
7. Use humor to drive engagement
8. Create fun games with your content
9. Give out free trials or free resources.
10. Create competitions that come with prizes.

With these strategies, I am certain that your business would benefit immensely from the prospects available on social media.