As I type this, the Mid-Atlantic is hunkering down and bracing itself for the storm that the Capital Weather Gang has dubbed “Snowzilla”. The grocery stores were ransacked, the liquor stores look like a hurricane went through them, and my Twitter feed is full of jokes about DC drivers and plans for epic snowball fights. You know what else its full of? Smart, on-point content marketing. Whether its cocktail recipes, lists of shows to binge-watch, or reminders that not all Blizzards are bad, brands have taken advantage of this event that’s affecting roughly a quarter of the US population. And then there’s me, writing about it. I’m working from home today, and my dining room table slash temporary office has a nice view of the falling snow. That view, and seeing companies tweet and post about the storm, made me think of a few best practices for turning social listening into good social media.
Be Clever, and Be Quick About It
So one of the most common examples of social listening and quick turnaround (because it was awesome) was Oreo’s Tweet during the 2013 Superbowl. Within a few minutes of the power going out at the Big Game, Oreo’s social media team had created the graphic, the caption, and gotten it approved and ready to post. That is an amazingly quick turnaround, and it had amazing results: within an hour of posting, the Tweet was retweeted over 10,000 times. The Oreo Superbowl tweet is now the Holy Grail of social listening and social media. The moral is, pay attention to big news items that are happening, think about whether your company could have something to say about it, think of a genuinely clever way to phrase it, and get it posted. This is where having a team dedicated to social media comes in handy, with more brainpower and a higher likelihood of catching a trending topic before it becomes passé.
That Said, Think Before You Post
You remember Serial, right? Podcasting’s first break-out hit, the first podcast to hit 5 million downloads, the one that had people wondering what really happened on January 13th? One major question that Serial addressed was the discrepancies surrounding the “Come and get me call.” After all, was there even a payphone at Best Buy? That debate seemed to be everywhere in the last months of 2014, and with the holidays right around the corner, Best Buy decided to take advantage.
The tweet isn’t unfunny, it’s actually pretty clever, and they were smart enough to use the hashtag #Serial, which resulted in a retweet from Serial’s official Twitter account. But here’s the problem. While Serial was an engrossing podcast and the Syed case swept the nation, it still dealt with the murder of a 17 year old girl. Hae Min Lee was killed, allegedly in a Best Buy parking lot, and its in pretty poor taste to make fun of that in your social media marketing. To their credit, Best Buy apologized quickly and took the tweet down. But here’s where best practice #2 comes in – be sure to get multiple eyes on a post before you send it out. If even one or two more people had looked at that tweet before it went live, a social media faux pas could have been averted.
Do Your Research
A lot of companies will monitor trending hashtags to see what topics they can jump on and participate in. Which is great! It’s a smart way to get your content in front of the eyes of a lot of people, and it falls in line with best practice #1. Here’s when it’s less great: when companies don’t actually look up what the trending hashtag is about. The most famous example is DiGiorno’s Pizza (and I’m sure that they love that they’re the most famous example of something going horribly wrong). DiGiorno’s posted the Tweet below, and tagged it with “Why I Stayed”.
Do you see the other tweets that used that hashtag? Do you see how that trending hashtag was full of women talking about their experiences as survivors of domestic violence? And do you see how DiGiorno clearly didn’t actually check what the tag was about before posting? Yeah. Now, to give DiGiorno credit (even more credit than Best Buy) the person who posted the tweet took it down immediately and spent the next several hours apologizing personally to twitter users who were appalled by the tweet. No excuses, just the apology for not checking the tag and posting inappropriate content. Considering that other brands who commit social faux pas usually react like this:
Digiorno did a pretty good job dealing with their mistake. All that being said, Best Practice #3 – do you research before you join in!
Ok, that’s enough depressing stuff, now on to the fun stuff! Here are a few examples of brands that are on top of smart, relevant content thanks to social listening. Did I miss your favorite? Share it over on our Facebook page! Like I said, we’re all stuck in #Snowzilla, might as well have funny posts to get us through!
Who doesn’t love a snow day? Well, ok, mostly teachers and kids like snow days, but anyhow! The GIF perfectly captures that feeling of surprised joy and the glitter makes it stand out in a Twitter feed. Good job Coke!
Soap operas get made fun of a lot, but nobody can deny that they hire some attractive folks to act out those convoluted storylines. CBS is just reminding you that, hey, if you’re stuck at home why not treat yourself to some eye candy?
I’m a sucker for Simpsons references, so this is an automatic win in my book.
Ugh, now I really want curly fries. There’s an Arby’s not too far away… Maybe I could walk?
Yes, thank you Puerto Rico, we’re well aware that you’re gorgeous and warm while we’re stuck in a historic blizzard. UGH!