What does it take to win in the social media space? While content is king, there are several key components to ensure that your communications across social and digital hit the right audience, provide an actionable message, and most importantly drive ROI.
Earning a "like" isn't a KPI that any true marketer will value and while affirmation is nice, our perspective when utilizing social media is to approach the results similarly to traditional platforms, albeit one that is fluid and dynamic. Simply put, we want to reach an ever increasing audience, provide content that serves a concise message, and has a CTA that is both actionable and measurable.
I use the "Three E's" when creating social media content. Entertain, Engage, and Educate. They are fairly self explanatory but we want to ensure all three areas contribute to a post that serves a purpose. If it becomes a viral hit, fantastic. But more likely, a follower should want to be compelled to view your post, find a positive connection quickly, and understand the process to consume more of the desirable content. Combine that with previous tips like star-power (see the chapter on STAR FISH), influencers, funny, shareable video, graphics and instant 'wow' factors, and topical relevance, and your posts should work to tell a story. The Three E's work for developing online content and overall, we add a forth "E" for Evaluation. Making sure the tactics resonated, have metrics we can compare and analyze, and determine best practices for future success.
Here are a few award-winning case studies I've championed that integrated social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and others) with celebrities, influencers, engaging content, and most importantly, ROI to drive a successful, measurable campaign.
CASE STUDY #1
With the launch of streaming service Rivit TV, I created a digital campaign that focused on driving users to the new platform via social media, search, and digital. The campaign exceeded all expectations by utilizing a "reverse engineering" process to identify distinct clusters of demographics that most likely would engage in the various Original series. Creating hundreds of bilingual assets including video, promos, BTS, and more and then seeding a paid campaign across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms drove over 40M impressions and over 1M unique site visits. With an engaging influencer effort, we had an unheard of 50% full :30 trailer view and record-setting conversion with 4.6M followers. Check out the recap video for more.
With the launch of streaming service Rivit TV, I created a digital campaign that focused on driving users to the new platform via social media, search, and digital. The campaign exceeded all expectations by utilizing a "reverse engineering" process to identify distinct clusters of demographics that most likely would engage in the various Original series. Creating hundreds of bilingual assets including video, promos, BTS, and more and then seeding a paid campaign across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms drove over 40M impressions and over 1M unique site visits. With an engaging influencer effort, we had an unheard of 50% full :30 trailer view and record-setting conversion with 4.6M followers. Check out the recap video for more.
CASE STUDY #2
Utilizing social media and digital to support a larger-scale marketing campaign, we took to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms to drive awareness for former New Kids On The Block boy-band star Joey McIntyre's new series Return of The Mac. To promote the show, we had a multi-city tour featuring meet-n-greets, in-store appearances with Comcast, and lots of media. Utilizing NKOTB social fan groups, bloggers, micro and macro influencers, local radio, and other partners, we drove social media buzz with event pages, calendars, posts, tweets, videos, live streams, and other sharable assets. Garnering millions of impressions via social media, the Return of the Mac tour was a huge hit.
Utilizing social media and digital to support a larger-scale marketing campaign, we took to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms to drive awareness for former New Kids On The Block boy-band star Joey McIntyre's new series Return of The Mac. To promote the show, we had a multi-city tour featuring meet-n-greets, in-store appearances with Comcast, and lots of media. Utilizing NKOTB social fan groups, bloggers, micro and macro influencers, local radio, and other partners, we drove social media buzz with event pages, calendars, posts, tweets, videos, live streams, and other sharable assets. Garnering millions of impressions via social media, the Return of the Mac tour was a huge hit.
CASE STUDY #3
On the Record with Mick Rock was an Ovation TV series that had the rock photographer dubbed "The Man who Shot The 70s" as the host of an artist-filled interview series. In order to reach a younger crowd and make the show as relevant as possible, we created a social media video series "Minute with Mick" for our partner Verizon FiOS. The goal was to engage followers in the classic debates of music including "best live performance," "best artist." and even a few age-old standard discussions like "Paul vs. John." With a targeted push exceeding 10M impressions targeting a key FiOS demographic, dynamic graphics, music and quick-cut editing, partnering with social media influencers and music bloggers, and of course the larger-than-life Mick Rock, we exceeded all KPIs and drove viewership for the series by 1,600% Social media can be an incredibly effective tool when done properly and as a marketer, the results I merchandise aren't just the likes, follows, or shares, but rather how we drove the bottom line for the company!
CASE STUDY #4
FX Networks' original series Light's Out starred Holt McCallany as former boxer Patrick 'Lights' Leary. With the show centered around a possible comeback for the fictional boxing legend, we wanted to create a social media campaign that had everyone buzzing. To create excitement, we engaged over 100 celebrities, media personalities, etc. to discuss Leary and his comeback as if the fictional character was doing everything in the real world from dating a Kardashian to attending a Super Bowl red carpet! With celebrities like Drew Brees, Jordin Sparks, and George Lopez in on the stunt, we built significant social media traffic by "drafting" off of the celebrities' social followings, engaging their fan groups and high profile followers, and utilizing pop culture and lifestyle bloggers to seed the vignettes of talent discussing the character, we had the internet buzzing with a knock out campaign.
On the Record with Mick Rock was an Ovation TV series that had the rock photographer dubbed "The Man who Shot The 70s" as the host of an artist-filled interview series. In order to reach a younger crowd and make the show as relevant as possible, we created a social media video series "Minute with Mick" for our partner Verizon FiOS. The goal was to engage followers in the classic debates of music including "best live performance," "best artist." and even a few age-old standard discussions like "Paul vs. John." With a targeted push exceeding 10M impressions targeting a key FiOS demographic, dynamic graphics, music and quick-cut editing, partnering with social media influencers and music bloggers, and of course the larger-than-life Mick Rock, we exceeded all KPIs and drove viewership for the series by 1,600% Social media can be an incredibly effective tool when done properly and as a marketer, the results I merchandise aren't just the likes, follows, or shares, but rather how we drove the bottom line for the company!
CASE STUDY #4
FX Networks' original series Light's Out starred Holt McCallany as former boxer Patrick 'Lights' Leary. With the show centered around a possible comeback for the fictional boxing legend, we wanted to create a social media campaign that had everyone buzzing. To create excitement, we engaged over 100 celebrities, media personalities, etc. to discuss Leary and his comeback as if the fictional character was doing everything in the real world from dating a Kardashian to attending a Super Bowl red carpet! With celebrities like Drew Brees, Jordin Sparks, and George Lopez in on the stunt, we built significant social media traffic by "drafting" off of the celebrities' social followings, engaging their fan groups and high profile followers, and utilizing pop culture and lifestyle bloggers to seed the vignettes of talent discussing the character, we had the internet buzzing with a knock out campaign.
Pop TV (CBS) wanted to drive viewership for the original series Hollywood Darlings starring 90's child stars Jodie Sweetin, Christine Lakin, and Beverly Mitchell. On the set of their promo shoot for Season 2, we engaged the cast to discuss their favorite childhood '90s toys growing up. The combination of nostalgia and talent personality, combined with visibility gained from YouTube influencers, was the perfect formula to make the Hollywood Darlings YouTube campaign the highest network partnership effort YouTube TV had seen to date.
