Social Media Case Studies: Facebook Successes to Learn From

Businesses large and small have discovered how to leverage their Facebook communities to strengthen brand loyalty and communicate directly with customers. The challenges that they have faced and the solutions they have discovered along the way are just a few of the things we can learn from the companies who are successfully using Facebook as a marketing platform.

The following are three case studies that I think offer a lot of great insights on how to use Facebook for your business, as well as a few innovative ideas about how to use different Facebook features. Continue reading

The ROI of Social Media for Retail Websites

How do you measure the ROI of social media? This is a question that continues to populate blogs, webinars, and conversations between marketers. However, there is not one single answer. The ROI of social media depends greatly on each company’s goals, such as:

  • Increase leads
  • Strengthen relationships with current customers
  • Drive more engaged visitors to company website
  • Increase total number of sales or average order amount
  • Grow the number of website subscribers

There are a vast amount of metrics to measure the success of a social media campaign, but there is still a large amount of speculation about whether social media can have a monetary return on investment. For retail websites, the traffic from social media sites can be analyzed to determine if they are driving visitors who are “ready to shop” or those who are “just here to look”.

RichRelevance, a leading company in personalized e-commerce platforms, completed a study comparing the real traffic to retail websites from Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and whether or not the visitors were completed the desired action (i.e. purchasing a given product). They compiled their findings and insights on retail site traffic driven by social media in the infographic below. Continue reading

Why You Shouldn’t Give Up on Email Marketing

While many companies are focusing on integrating social media into their marketing strategies (as they should), they are tending to also over look tried-and-true practices to reach customers, one of which is email marketing. While other online medias, such as Facebook and Twitter, continue to grow in popularity, I think that there may be a growing assumption that email marketing is becoming passé. But, this is assumption is very far from true. Email usage and reach is actually growing and is still a powerful tool for any marketer, and can still offer companies various insight into their marketing efforts, including: Continue reading

top 10 restaurants on social media

Top 10 Restaurant Chains on Social Media

 

We all love to eat. While we may not agree on which is better, spaghetti or tacos, we can agree that food is generally a very popular topic and may be one of the most popular topics on social media

What do I want to eat? I will just Tweet out the choices and see which wins.

If I check-in to this restaurant on FourSquare could I get a coupon?

I’m such a good cook! I’m going to post a picture of what I made for dinner on Facebook!

Where should we eat for dinner? Let’s see what has the best reviews on Yelp!

I would totally make this awesome dish on Pinterest, and it would look JUST like the picture!

These are statements that we have probably either said ourselves or heard someone else say. Social media has become so engrained in our lives, that it can even become part of our dining experience. Whether it is choosing what/where to eat, sharing a great meal with all our friends/followers, or browsing for fun new recipes to use in the future, social media is creeping into our kitchen’s territory.

Check out the infographic below to find out what restaurant chains are most popular on social media. The infographic breaks down the top 10 limited-service restaurant chains by social media platform, including: Continue reading

How Social Media Has Changed the Sports Industry

Sports industry social mediaAre you a social media and sports addict? Or just interested in the ways different industries use social media? Well, check out this great article on the role of social media in the sports industry. Using real-life examples, the article breaks down how social media techniques have been used to build player notoriety, create a culture around sporting events, increase ticket sales, and managing crisis situations.

http://mashable.com/2012/06/04/social-media-sports-tickets-infographic/#bbrOEKlj2mqP

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

social media editorial calendar

How to Bring Life to a Social Media Strategy

With many factors influencing the success of the real-time online conversations surrounding your company, social media can seem overwhelming at the beginning. These influencing factors include

  • Learning multiple platforms (ie. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs)
  • Maintaining a constant conversation with followers
  • Writing & posting on a schedule

By having a strategy in place and investing time each week to maintain and grow each profile, you will be better prepared to create a successful and fun social media marketing experience. Continue reading

Components of High Quality Content Marketing

As search engines continue to alter their algorithms , so they can provide users with the best and most relevant content on the internet, the importance of content marketing is being pushed to the forefront. However, content marketing can be quite overwhelming when first diving in, so it is important to understand the influence that content has on customers and the core components.

Content+, a online marketing agency in the UK, created a captivating infographic to explain the importance and structure of content marketing.

Below are my favorite take-aways from the The Anatomy of Content Marketing – The Heart of Online Success infographic: Continue reading

Lowes Pinterest Profile

Building Brand Loyalty with an Integrated Social Media Strategy

I recently wrote an article for the Mudbug Media blog titled “Build a Following with an Integrated Social Media Strategy.” In the article I used Lowe’s Home Improvement store as an example of a company who got it right.

The following are snippets from the article about each component of Lowe’s strategy:

Lowe’s Facebook Strategy

The core of Lowe’s social media strategy is their Facebook page. With over 1.1 million likes (almost twice as many as the main competitor, Home Depot), Lowe’s has created a successful strategy to communicate with their customers using this social media platform.

Lowe’s leverages the best features of the Facebook timeline format, the cover photo and the history timeline.Lowes Facebook Page

For their cover photo, Lowe’s uses an attention grabbing photo composed of the top pins that followers have re-pinned on Pinterest. They also tie their profile picture directly into the timeline cover photo and use it to drive traffic to their Pinterest account.

The success of Lowe’s Facebook strategy is due greatly to their positive and real-time interaction with fans. Lowe’s responds to the majority of questions and comments within minutes. When a fan has a question about a product, Lowe’s not only answer the specific question, but frequently directs them back to Lowes.com and includes tips on how to use the product.

Check out the full article to find out how Lowe’s mastered the art of responding to negative comments and leveraged the other features of the new timeline format.

Lowe’s Twitter Strategy

Lowes Twitter ProfileWith over 47,000 followers, Lowe’s uses Twitter to answer customer questions and concerns, as well as spread community awareness. As with their Facebook page, Lowe’s does a great job of taking the conversation offline for any negative mentions by asking followers to email them at a Twitter-specific Lowe’s email address. They also respond to all questions, comments, and mentions, often within minutes of the original Tweet.

Check out the full article to find out how Lowe’s uses hashtags to give back to their followers.

Lowe’s Pinterest Strategy

The rapid growth of Pinterest has many companies overwhelmed, but Lowe’s has leveraged the user base and Lowes Pinterest Profilegrowing popularity create to a strong presence on the new social media platform. With almost 7,000 followers (and growing), Lowe’s is building a strong community around their brand on Pinterest. The boards on their Pinterest profile include topics that interest all their different types of customers.

Lowe’s uses Pinterest as a resource tool for customers to find fun and new projects. For example, they have a board for grilling recipes, which includes links to both the full recipe and grills available at lowes.com. Other popular boards on their Pinterest profile are craft, landscaping, and interior design projects using Lowe’s products.

Check out the full article to find out why Pinterest was the perfect addition to Lowe’s social media strategy.

Lowe’s social media strategy has been a success because they appear to understand that social media is a powerful tool for creating and maintaining relationships with customers. Visit the Mudbug Media blog to find out the five key factors that make Lowe’s strategy a success and to read the full article:

Build a Following with an Integrated Social Media Strategy