Social Media Marketing Successes And Fails

Posted on Jul 8 2013 - 12:33pm by Daniel Dayton

In the recent couple of years, we have witnessed a fair share of successful and not-so-successful marketing campaigns on social networking sites. Youtube videos became viral, Facebook posts earned hundreds of thousands of shares and Twitter profiles earned followers by the millions. That is how powerful social media marketing can be.

Things can easily go viral on various social media platforms which usually catapults brands, products and even individuals into fame. However, there is a downside in using social media platforms for marketing purposes. Sometimes, the execution of social media marketing strategies can go so wrong that brands end up with loses instead of gains. Below are some of the highest and lowest moments in in social media marketing.

Social Media

SUCCESS STORIES

Sephora via Facebook

This beauty company was in the middle of launching its mobile app when it kickstarted a campaign called ‘15 Days of Beauty” on Facebook. As a promotional strategy, they strategically placed mobile devices like iPod touches and iPads on their retail stores across the US which caused a significant jump in their website traffic. Customers walking in their retail stores are asked to visit their FB page and were subsequently asked to like and share their promotions which was a good way to get the word out to the public. As a result, they earned for than two million mobile application downloads.

The Weinstein Co. via Twitter

Wanting to promote their latest project, The Weinstein Co. launched an aggressive social media campaign which involved Hollywood celebrities. They were about to launch a movie which tackles the effects of bullying to children and to the children’s families and so what better way to get attention than to launch an anti-bullying campaign on Twitter. Celebrities publicly spoke out about the issue on bullying and some even shared their history of being bullied. Due to the overwhelming support by Twitter users, the Motion Picture Association of America changed their rating of the movie from R to PG 13.

Dollar Shave Club via YouTube

One of the biggest YouTube hits in the past year was Dollar Shave Club’s YouTube video. The Dollar Shave Club is a start-up which is well-known for launching catchy Dallas online marketing campaigns and employing being offbeat marketing strategies. What better way to promote their newest product than to feature Roger Federer on a smackdown with a bear. The main concept of the whole company is having more affordable razor options. After all, who want’s to spend almost nine dollars per month for a razor blade if you can buy one of their own for just a dollar. With the bear as the star of the video and with a great tagline, their YouTube video earned more than 7.7 million views.

EPIC FAILS

Chick-Fil-A via Facebook

Being one of the biggest and most popular fast food chains in the US, Chick-Fil-A makes the best tasting chicken burgers around. However, as their recent social media campaign has proven, you can never be good at everything. Last year, a Facebook campaign allegedly sponsored by the popular fast food chain was caught in a web of controversy, This was due to a Facebook page that prompted the public to make a donation for anti-gay charities.

Needless to mention, the campaign received all sorts of criticisms from both sides of the issue. Chick-Fil-A denied creating the Facebook page and dismissed it as a mere hoax but the damage has been done. It was later found out that a teenage girl allegedly used the name of the popular fast food chain to push her own agenda.

McDonalds via Twitter

Another fast food chain that earned criticism due to their marketing campaign was McDonalds all because of the Twitter hashtag #McDStories. The said hashtag was promoted so that people in the twitter-verse can share their stories and moments that has something to do with the popular fast food chain. However, instead of receiving positive stories, the hashtag brought forth a lot of bad tales regarding McDonalds and the food they serve. Stories about bits of nails found in their Big Macs and their cruel treatment to livestock used in their food products was brought up. Due to the overwhelming bad publicity, the campaign was pulled out about a couple of hours after its launch.

Celeb Boutique via Twitter

Celeb Boutique has all the makings of a successful brand- quality products, a stream of celebrity customers and endorsers, catchy web design for online shoppers and even frequent charity events which they co-sponsor. However, if there was one major mistake that they’ve committed, it was tweeting about something that they were clueless about. In the middle of a campaign to promote their new line, Celeb Boutique made a mistake by identifying a trending twitter topic as referring to their popular dress named ‘Aurora’ not knowing that the #Aurora was trending because of a mass shooting that occurred on that day at guess what- Aurora, Colorado. It was an honest mistake, but hey, carelessness has its price.

Photo Credit: Flickr/Jason Howie

About the Author

Daniel Dayton is a professional blogger and a content writer who is currently working for an online dissertation writing company in the US. With a rich experience in social media marketing strategies, he is currently working on a blog dedicated to discussions about online marketing and the use of social media platforms to promote products, brands and services. Connect with Daniel via Twitter (@idanday) and Google Plus (danieldayton01@gmail.com).