Yesterday we gave a couple of examples of how major brands are using Twitter to promote awareness of their brand.  Today we will look at Facebook:

Facebook

US Drinks Manufacturer Mountain Dew unleashed their DEWmocracy 2 Facebook campaign at the start of 2010. In it, they used the passion of their fans to produce a brand new flavour (White Out was the winner, by the way) and by inviting their Facebook fans be a part of the creation process they increased their fan count by almost tenfold.

Fans weren’t just talking about the brand, they were participating in it, creating a new flavour. Mountain Dew used multiple sources to drive traffic to their Facebook campaign and it paid off.

Crowd-sourcing on that scale may appear to be something only a big brand can do, but businesses of all sizes can learn from Mountain Dew’s success. Just what was it that helped them increase their fan base from just over 100,000 to nearly one million?  It was involving their fans in something and listening to their opinions.  This helped to engage them in the Mountain Dew brand and gave them an opportunity to be part of the decision making process as to what the flavour for the new drink should be.

For example, if your business retails something like say ski-wear, you could engage your fans in conversations about their favourite piece of skiing gear, have polls, online contests etc. to get your Facebook community involved. If your fans feel that their views are being listened to, and they can see the results of that, you will have a great following of fans who will be ambassadors for your business.

In the same way, Zappos and others are using Twitter as a CRM tool (see yesterdays post), brands like AT&T are using Facebook to reach out to their customers and prospects. If you visit the AT&T Facebook page you’ll see many messages by AT&T staff offering real, tangible help to their customers. Taking customer service to the next level using social media can be a real boost for a brand and it can be for your business too.

For Skittles, now the third most popular page on Facebook with nearly 14.5 million fans, social media life wasn’t always so sweet. The confectionary company originally decided to make its home page their Twitter feed. Unfortunately, some unwelcome comments led Skittles to change their homepage away from Twitter to their Facebook page. Initially that didn’t work well for them.  However they stuck with it and after re-working the Facebook page design and the introduction of a quick 2-for-1 Facebook-only voucher they increased their fan base by 100,000 in just ten days!

If you would like more information about social media marketing please leave a message below or visit WSI IMS – WSI Internet Marketing Services for UK Business.