We can’t seem to open a newspaper, turn on our TV or visit a news site without seeing the words ‘SOCIAL MEDIA OUTRAGE ‘plastered all over the headlines. Whether it be a brand expressing sheer incompetence by hijacking a hashtag created in remembrance of a terrible tragedy (yes, you Celeb Boutique), a Swiss Olympian tweeting he wants to beat up the opposing team or someone viciously ‘trolling’ a sports star, it seems social media is still rife with unpleasant behaviour.
But it’s not all bad.
Social media presents brands and celebs with an excellent opportunity to really delight and reward fans, and there are many great examples of this out there. Unfortunately they tend to get lost in all the negativity (a negative story is a great news story right?) so I thought I'd set this right here.
Here are five of my favourite examples of brands and celebrities surprising, delighting and engaging their fans.
Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz asks his fans to help him come up with ideas for the music video for his new single “The Woman I Love” by answering the question ‘“What does ‘The Woman I Love’ mean to you?” on Twitter. Mraz posted this video last week, so we’ll keep an eye on response rates and update you on its success in the comments below.
Shaquille O’Neal
Legendary basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is well renowned for the time and effort he puts into interacting with his fans on Twitter. When it came to his retirement, he showed them the utmost respect by announcing his decision to them before sharing with the press.
QPR
Sport, at all levels, is inherently social, and QPR chairman Tony Fernandes is a great advocate of giving the fans unprecedented access and insights into the running of the club. To find out who the fans would like to see on the pitch, he asked for their opinion on signing suggestions. Sean Walsh over at the excellent Digital Football blog did some research and found that QPR witnessed a 39% growth in its Twitter following, as well as a staggering 49% increase in the number of Facebook fans around this period. This, coupled with the high number of suggestions actually sent by fans highlights that fans really do love being empowered by their clubs.
Marseille
Marseille offered its fans a special surprise if they could hit 1m Facebook likes on their official page. The fans met this request, and as a result, were given the task of creating the 2011/12 shirt. 60,000 submissions were made, and one lucky user's creation was selected by the fans. This is an excellent example of a creative way to drive traffic to your social presence.
Citroen
Citroen are on a mission to design the first car ‘Created for the Facebook generation, by the Facebook generation. The brand is doing this through the ‘You Like it, We Make it’ Facebook app allows fans to choose from six configurations including alloys, interior and exterior colour schemes, in-car technology options such as Bluetooth and sat-nav as well as the number of doors the vehicle has.
Citroen then plan to put the most popular ideas into production to create its Citroen C1 Connexion special edition city car. By participating, users are entered into a prize draw to win the car.
As a nice little bonus, I thought it would be good to showcase an example of people using social media to rally together for a good cause.
Karen Klein, a 68 year old bus monitor from upstate New York, was reduced to tears by a group of teenagers on a school bus who relentlessly bullied her for over 10 minutes. The video (above) was uploaded to YouTube and went viral, with sympathisers offering to start up a fund to send Karen on a ‘dream holiday’. To date, the fund has raised over $700K.
This list is by no means exhaustive. If I’ve missed out your favourite example, let me know in the comments section below :)
From Client Insight Manager John Paul @johnpaulfox #Yomegosocial