A few recent articles have been talking about a social media “backlash,” where marketers are realizing that social media marketing isn’t always the best approach.  An article on businessweek.com talks about social media marketing “myths” such as: social media marketing is free (it’s not really, since it requires many hours of work) or that social media sites are great places to find new customers (your prospects may not want to interact with you there).  The article also points out that companies don’t have to be on every social media site.  B2B companies will probably be more successful utilizing LinkedIn than MySpace.

However, some companies have used social media successfully for marketing, and in different ways.  It’s worth looking at some examples:

• Ad agency Centric generated a great deal of exposure for the movie Batman Gotham Knight by encouraging fans to download a widget — the more people who installed the widget, the brighter the Bat-signal would glow.  They generated over a million page views.  Clearly, this was a product with customers who wanted to interact and Centric found a hook to get their interest.

• For a completely different use of social media, consider Comcast.  The company monitors Twitter for negative comments about the company and tries to resolve the problems mentioned.  For a large company like Comcast, that seems like a good investment — a small expense for potentially very positive PR.

• A social media site can’t make you a cup of coffee, but Starbucks has been quite successful using social media marketing.  The company likes to combine social media marketing with traditional advertising.  For example, they sponsored a coffee giveaway on election day, promoting it with a TV commercial as well as a video on YouTube and advertising on Facebook encouraging users to forward the ad to tell their friends about the free coffee.

• Burger King’s “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign promised a free Whopper hamburger to anyone who would “sacrifice” (that is, “de-friend”) ten Facebook friends.  While this campaign might seem to be “anti” social media, the fact is, Burger King knows their customers are on Facebook and they found a novel way to get their attention.

The bottom line: while social media marketing may be new and overhyped, it also can provide significant opportunities for marketers.  Keeping an eye on what other companies are doing could inspire an effective social media marketing idea for your company.

We can help you learn what motivates your customers; give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Beware Social Media Marketing Myths,” Businessweek.com, May 26, 2009;  “The Groundswell of Social Media Backlash,” Collaboration 2.0, May 23, 2009; “Million Dollar Widget,” Centric blog, September 13, 2008; “Beware the Social Media Charlatans,” PC World, May 20, 2009