We’ve spoken before about the importance of analyzing your social media campaigns. However, when we talk about analytics, we’re talking more in terms of viewership and interaction with potential leads and current customers. Lately we’ve noticed that there’s a lot of advice being thrown around that companies must measure the ROI of their social media campaigns. Anybody who has tried to do this knows that this idea is borderline laughable. So what exactly should you be focusing on? Using your social media campaign to engage with every single lead and customer you have on the Internet and from there measuring how successful your marketing efforts are.
I was recently on Facebook and saw an amazing example of a company using social media to outsmart their competition. A man named Thomas Cook in the UK posted on the wall of the company also called Thomas Cook. The company provides discounted travel deals. Mr. Cook went on to write the following message on the Thomas Cook’s company wall: “Hi Thomas Cook. Seeing as I share the exact same name as your huge company, and because of this I have been ridiculed since I can remember, I think it’s only fair that you help compensate for this by giving me one of your lovely holiday deals. A weekend to Paris would do just fine.”
What did the company Thomas Cook do? They responded “ Great to hear from you! Unfortunately we are unable to give away free holidays. Please see www.thomascook.com for the best available prices.”
Not much in terms of social media customer relations. Well someone at a competitor agency saw Thomas Cook’s response, and swooped in. Low Cost Holiday wrote to Thomas Cook the following message: “Dear Thomas Cook, Lowcostholidays.com here, how are you today? We’ve seen that you have recently made a request to the travel company Thomas Cook UK to be compensated for the years of ridicule that you have suffered for sharing their name. Here at lowcostholidays.com we completely sympathize with your suffering and if your name was “lowcostholidays.com” we would certainly have accepted your request to be sent away on a weekend to Paris. So in Thomas Cook’s time of crisis, we thought it was about time we stepped in to offer a helping hand to customers like yourself who have found themselves, as we like to say “Thomas Crooked.” So how about we send you on that weekend to Paris, in fact- why not make it a week for you and a friend! What do you say?! Kind Regards, The Marketing Team at lowcostholiday.com”
Now, the ROI on this PR stunt cannot be measured, but if the social buzz from this letter is any indication, lowcostholiday.com certainly will see a high ROI from giving away this free trip. This is a prime example that you can’t get caught up in measuring every effort in monetary terms. Go with your gut, and don’t be afraid to try something new with your local Internet marketing efforts. You never know who’s watching.
To see more case studies of successful marketing campaigns, please visit: http://www.surefiresocial.com/case-studies
For nearly three decades, Chris Marentis, Founder and CEO of Surefire Social, has been responsible for driving innovation and sales growth for large media and e-commerce brands as well as start-ups. With a long-history of counseling local businesses about their marketing efforts, Marentis provides insight on what it takes for small businesses to succeed and thrive in today’s evolving digital environment. His notable career includes creating the foundational blueprints for online marketing, e-commerce and content branding for AOL’s Interactive Marketing group, where he served as Senior Vice President. While CEO of Clearspring Technologies, Marentis developed one of the most widely adopted venture-backed Web 2.0 technology platforms. Marentis is a frequent speaker at local digital marketing conferences and a contributor to SMB and technology-focused publications.
