Stone IG

Experimental & Successful Social Media Campaigns

iMedia has some great examples of highly experimental but extremely successful social media campaigns carried out by some big brand names. Although these are some grand-scale endeavors, any small business can adapt tactics as it fits their business objectives and personality. Check out the highlights:

vitaminwater - Flavor Creator Lab Facebook App

Displaying an intense devotion to Facebook, vitaminwater scrapped its website altogether and made Facebook its landing page.  The objective being full interaction, visitors are now redirected to become fans and discuss the products. What does vitaminwater gain? Valuable, and instant, feedback for non-traditional market research and a much more personable way to respond to their consumers.

A contest determined the specs for a new drink named after social media, called Connect. Over the summer, fans could vote on flavor, ingredients, packaging, and naming for the new drink. The Facebook fan that won the name game also won $5,000.

View the rest of the post at the Stone Blog.

Tumblr: Microblogging Its Way Up

“Tumblr—which is beloved by its users for its clean interface, ease of use and community.”- The New York Observer

“…The smart thing to be doing online these days is tumblelogging, which is to weblogs what text messages are to email – short, to the point, and direct.” - Telegraph.co.uk

Tumblr is the slightly lesser known hybrid of Twitter and WordPress (or any other complex blogging platform). With all the capabilities of a blog but with a much more simple, attractive Web 2.0  WYSIWYG editor interface – or straight up HTML if you choose – this social media network caters to the needs of a time-crunched modern-day online user.

Much like Twitter, once you start following a certain user, their updates appear on your Dashboard (user-side interface). Follow loads of people, and a variety of real-time posts will display in your feed. As any social media site would be incomplete without creative interactivity features, Tumblr doesn’t disappoint. Favorite a post you like and view a feed of only favorited posts (similar to favoriting tweets).

The networking feature is the automated act of reblogging – literally stealing another post from a fellow Tumblr and posting it on yours, with accreditation (similar to retweeting). Tumblr puts it most eloquently: “The same way YouTube embeds make it easy for a video to become a viral hit, the “reblog” button on all Tumblr posts allows a meme to spread rapidly across thousands of blogs with just a click.”

Full post on the StoneIG Blog…

Social Networks Becoming Less Social?

The explosive growth of social networking sites in the past few years has led to quite a bit of clutter, and people are starting to notice. Whether you choose to go on a manual de-friending spree on Facebook, or use a tool like UnTweeps to ax followers on Twitter, you aren’t alone.

In his post Six Social Media Trends for 2010, David Armano says…

With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more “exclusive.” Not everyone can fit on someone’s newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it’s likely that user behavior such as “hiding” the hyperactive updaters that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common. Perhaps it’s not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks — while filtering out the clutter.

This makes sense, paring down your networks can allow you to get real value out of them. But now Sean Silverthorne at Bnet is asking what does this mean for all the companies flocking to social media as a marketing tactic? Well, as so often is the case, if you’re doing it right it shouldn’t matter.

Yes, the fact that your target audience is paring down their network connections will undoubtedly make them harder to reach. Sending out a few intermittent tweets and counting on your customers to find and connect with you on their own just won’t cut it. Social Media has become such a big trend that it may seem like the answer - or that easy button from the Staples commercials - when in reality it is simply just another tool in the toolbox. Companies who have success in the space realize this, and use the social media networks as tools to build up a loyal customer base - and actually continue to interact with them regularly. Which is why they make the grade the next time that particular customer goes to clean out his or her network. It’s about becoming a relevant resource and providing real value to your followers/customers.

Which is what quality online marketing teams have been telling their clients all along.

View original post on the Stone Interactive Group blog.