Yes, everybody is doing it—incorporating social media into marketing campaigns—but that doesn’t mean everyone is doing it right. Connecting a brand and its messages with target audiences in an authentic way is essential to ongoing success.
“From a best practices standpoint, providing the brand’s assets for consumers to enjoy and develop further should be done in a manner that promotes safe environments, but that gives consumers freedom to drive campaigns virally and is also tied to the media buy,” says Reggie Bradford, CEO of Vitrue, the social media marketing agency that partnered with Ben & Jerry’s on its “Imagine Whirled Peace” campaign. He offers these additional best practices:
• Strategic integration: Tie the social media initiative to long-term strategy.
• Experience: Create a compelling end-user experience.
• Distribution: Ensure that the experience can be easily shared.
• Safety: Guarantee that the company can brand the content that’s being posted.
• Ownership: Make sure the brand owns valuable assets and can repurpose them across platforms.