10 inspiring brands with a strategy for social media

 
 

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” – Seth Godin
To create a brand, a business usually follows the steps of creating a mission statement, core values, competitive differentiation, brand benefits, product messaging, logo, product and/or design, identifying mark, selling idea and the business strategy and measurement plan to achieve the desired results.
How many brands take these tangible and intangible benefits to their social media sites?
Here are 10 inspiring brands with a strategy for social media.

1. CITROEN: Uses trust as a strategy for sales by letting its Facebook fans design its forthcoming C1 Connexion. It’s the world’s first crowd-sourced car.  Over 24,000 different versions of the final car are submitted. 15,000 extra fans join up. The strategy leads to the sales of 500 cars.
2. CLEVELAND CLINIC: In a regulated industry generally far behind the content marketing curve, the hospital delivers posts that help people deal with chronic diseases, overcome depression, and the battle to live a healthier life. And all of the content is written by physicians who practice there. No wonder a regional hospital has more than 1.2 million Facebook Likes.
3. COCA-COLA: Has a mission statement, on their website: 1) To refresh the world – in mind, body and spirit, 2) To inspire moments of optimism – through our brands and actions and 3) To create value and make a difference everywhere we engage. Coca-Cola shares around the globe stories in social media that naturally highlight and unify its mission and values. Its YouTube channel isn’t divided up into smaller sub-channels by country, region or product line, for example. Instead, it features video stories from all over the world in one place.
4. GENERAL ELECTRIC: Lives up to its “Imagination at Work” slogan. GE’s social media content is dedicated to scientific and technological innovation. They encourage engagement attracting their target with a mission statement that states: “We love science, technology, innovation, and hearing from you! So, say hello.” GE’s Facebook Page has 1,300,000+ Likes. GE utilizes multiple social networks for each of its business categories, such as GE Capital, Aviation, Healthcare, Industrial Solutions, Transportation, and Mining. Aviation is  the most popular division, with over 86K followers on Twitter alone. It gathers its community with the hashtag #avgeek.
5. HUBSPOT: Practices what they preach about the value of content marketing by giving it away. But contest takes many form and Hubspot gets that visual content get  94% more total views and is now 40% more likely to be shared on social networks. They frequently give away packs of stock photos and have even created 60 customizable templates to help folks with no design expertise create dynamic social imagery.
6. INTUIT: Has been voted as one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Intuit uses social media to showcase the people that make up the company while offering lifestyle tips and advice for potential job seekers. Intuit is one of the rare B2B brands using Pinterest with great success.
7. MAERSK: a leading shipping company with a fleet of 580 container vessels, explains its social media evolution on its website. Maersk states there that it finally got going with social media in 2011. Up until that point, it had been in “a listening phase,” trying to digest what social media is about and decide whether or not it makes sense for a B2B company. Maersk states that is main goal with social media is to “get closer to our customers.” Its Facebook page has over 1,100,000 million Likes.
8. RED BULL: Gets huge per-post engagement from Instagram. Yet according to an analysis by SimplyMeasured, the company made fewer posts to Instagram than any of its other social networks, averaging just 0.6 posts per day. Red Bull’s Instagram story is proof that it doesn’t matter how much content you publish. It matters what that content is. Red Bull highlights people doing extraordinary things in extraordinary places. This content appeals to risk takers, recreational athletes, and all viewers who are stirred by the Red Bull vision of life.
9. T-MOBILE: In an attempt to steal away customers from it’s competitors, T-Mobile offers to pay the contract cancellation fees of any person who “broke up” with their existing cell phone service and switched to T-Mobile. They launched an ‘Un-Valentines Day’ with a Facebook App that let people create a custom break up letter to their carrier and print it out or share it on their social networks.
10. TURBO TAX: offers users a variety of ways to engage, including through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. As you might imagine, because the company deals with the most dreaded of things (taxes), a handful of disgruntled customers use the company’s social media to vent their dissatisfaction. nstead of ignoring the negative vibes, TurboTax addresses every concern. In doing so, its credibility skyrockets, because the fact is, we’re all going to be disappointed now and then. When we are, we want to know someone cares.

Do these stories inspire your brand with a strategy for social media?