This post is related to a recent article I wrote. Basically, I wrote about figuring out which social medium works best for your business. This article actually shows you how some businesses put social media to good use. It may give you some good ideas for your business too!
Recruitment: Social media is not just a great place for marketing—it’s also a great place to find new talent. For instance, popular Twitter hashtags like #employment, #NAJ (Twitter lingo for ‘Need a Job’) and #career are great ways for job recruiters to get out there and find potential job candidates instead of tweeting job openings and waiting for candidates to come to them. Twitter is also a pretty handy tool for keeping an eye on what your job candidates are up to. It allows employers to watch how they interact with others, what they’re interested in, where they might be, etc.
Recruiters can use the Facebook Marketplace feature on Facebook to post job openings for interested candidates or add their potential employees on Facebook to do a social media background check of sorts on them.
Hospitality Industry: An industry making good use of social media is the hospitality industry. Hotels like the Hyatt and UK based Premier Inn have their own Twitter-based concierge services. Guests can ask the concierge questions even when they aren’t in the lobby of the hotel. Besides this, they also have access to comments and questions made by other users interacting with the Hyatt concierge on Twitter.
Another trend seen in the Hyatt and Mariott hotels is the creation of exclusive online communities for premium members. Using location-based services like Foursquare or Facebook Places allows businesses to engage in Location Based Marketing. For instance, users signed into Foursquare when they hit the Wynn Hotel & Casino Las Vegas unlock a special offer of a free drink at one of the chain’s nightclubs.
Since about 80% of web-based activity is video, it only makes sense to use Youtube as a channel of promotion the way the Hilton chain does—by showing off the beautiful surroundings each of its Caribbean hotels sits amidst.
MNC: One large company that has really used social media in ways no other business has yet is Starbucks. Starbucks has Twitter and Facebook pages, the former of which serves as an open forum for discussion, while the latter is an apt medium for sharing photos, videos, blog posts and inviting fans to events.
Starbucks also has a Youtube channel that not only shows their advertisements but also has informational videos on the origins of their coffee blends and how they make their products. In addition to this, they allow their videos to be embedded anywhere on the internet which means that consumers can share their favourite Starbucks videos, allowing them to gain viral status over social media.
Starbucks’ own social network, My Starbucks Idea (as discussed here) goes hand in hand with their blog ‘Ideas in Action’, the first of which provides a forum for users to submit and vote on ideas—both their own and others, while the blog is where employees of Starbucks speak about what they are doing with selected ideas. This in turn helps encourage brand loyalty and gives customers a sense of ownership and belonging.
A truly unique way of advertising themselves has come with the free wifi Starbucks has in its stores. When users connect with it, the default homepage is a Starbucks page with media, articles and social sharing options on it. In addition to this, when you open the iTunes store in Starbucks, you can see the list of tracks playing at that particular store on that day. Recently, Apple has also agreed to give each Starbucks customer in the UK a free weekly download from the iTunes store. This is done by way of a ‘Pick of the Week’ download card handed out at the time of purchase valid for up to 2 months.
Recruitment: Social media is not just a great place for marketing—it’s also a great place to find new talent. For instance, popular Twitter hashtags like #employment, #NAJ (Twitter lingo for ‘Need a Job’) and #career are great ways for job recruiters to get out there and find potential job candidates instead of tweeting job openings and waiting for candidates to come to them. Twitter is also a pretty handy tool for keeping an eye on what your job candidates are up to. It allows employers to watch how they interact with others, what they’re interested in, where they might be, etc.
Recruiters can use the Facebook Marketplace feature on Facebook to post job openings for interested candidates or add their potential employees on Facebook to do a social media background check of sorts on them.
Hospitality Industry: An industry making good use of social media is the hospitality industry. Hotels like the Hyatt and UK based Premier Inn have their own Twitter-based concierge services. Guests can ask the concierge questions even when they aren’t in the lobby of the hotel. Besides this, they also have access to comments and questions made by other users interacting with the Hyatt concierge on Twitter.
Another trend seen in the Hyatt and Mariott hotels is the creation of exclusive online communities for premium members. Using location-based services like Foursquare or Facebook Places allows businesses to engage in Location Based Marketing. For instance, users signed into Foursquare when they hit the Wynn Hotel & Casino Las Vegas unlock a special offer of a free drink at one of the chain’s nightclubs.
Since about 80% of web-based activity is video, it only makes sense to use Youtube as a channel of promotion the way the Hilton chain does—by showing off the beautiful surroundings each of its Caribbean hotels sits amidst.
MNC: One large company that has really used social media in ways no other business has yet is Starbucks. Starbucks has Twitter and Facebook pages, the former of which serves as an open forum for discussion, while the latter is an apt medium for sharing photos, videos, blog posts and inviting fans to events.
Starbucks also has a Youtube channel that not only shows their advertisements but also has informational videos on the origins of their coffee blends and how they make their products. In addition to this, they allow their videos to be embedded anywhere on the internet which means that consumers can share their favourite Starbucks videos, allowing them to gain viral status over social media.
Starbucks’ own social network, My Starbucks Idea (as discussed here) goes hand in hand with their blog ‘Ideas in Action’, the first of which provides a forum for users to submit and vote on ideas—both their own and others, while the blog is where employees of Starbucks speak about what they are doing with selected ideas. This in turn helps encourage brand loyalty and gives customers a sense of ownership and belonging.
A truly unique way of advertising themselves has come with the free wifi Starbucks has in its stores. When users connect with it, the default homepage is a Starbucks page with media, articles and social sharing options on it. In addition to this, when you open the iTunes store in Starbucks, you can see the list of tracks playing at that particular store on that day. Recently, Apple has also agreed to give each Starbucks customer in the UK a free weekly download from the iTunes store. This is done by way of a ‘Pick of the Week’ download card handed out at the time of purchase valid for up to 2 months.
If you’re looking for more advice on how to use social media to your advantage, be sure to check out this article on our blog- Tactics on Advertising & Social Media. It gives some great tips on how to start off with your social media campaign. Speaking of which, here’s a post about successful social media campaigns during this past year—something else to get your creativity flowing!
For more great articles on navigating the ever-changing world of social media, visit the Moonlight Marketing Blog.
