10 Social Media Trailblazers

The world of social media is one where to emulate the success of a genius campaign is a huge effort. It’s a doable thing of course, it just takes time, and a clear view as to how the amazing social media campaign you are emulating can be scaled down or altered to fit your client’s particular space online.

We thought we would look at some excellent examples, real examples, of brands that are currently producing fantastic work on social media.

Net-a-Porter

If anything, this particular brand has achieved what many other brands haven’t. It’s managed to pull together a number of ‘properties’ and concepts online and make them work. There are high quality online magazines, an app that rewards engagement, and a general feel of true focus on social.

What they do right: Publish, actually use social media as a publishing platform.

KLM

Now these guys are no strangers to the negative side of social media. An ash cloud in Iceland a few years ago stranded flights, and KLM was quick to build up a new approach to their social, one that put the customer first.

They’ve excelled with an app that allows customers to do pretty much anything they need to when it comes to booking a flight or even paying for one. All of this can be done online and to cap it all, the airline was one of the very first to gain an actual presence on Messenger.

What they do right: Customer experience, perfected.

Taco Bell

Snapchat is still unknown territory to many brands. But not Taco Bell. They got to work early on the platform, and became used to lenses very quickly.

Then they created a lens that allowed users to become a taco. Result? Most viewed Snapchat lens in history.

What they do right: Innovate (also known as getting there before someone else does)

Mastercard

This brand wanted to show how Chicago Cubs fans could cheer passionately, just like any other baseball audience. The story was that these fans were quiet, and reserved.

Mastercard developed an app called The Sound of Priceless. They then recorded the decibels reached by the screaming crowd which definitely showed their passion. The Cubs fans were vindicated, and Mastercard got down with a whole audience.

What they do right: Tap into social tribes and go for emotion.

Fox

Deadpool was a big deal when it hit the cinemas, and that had nothing to do with the star, the story or the comic book legacy. But it had a lot to do with social media.

We can’t really clarify just how far-reaching this campaign was. We’re talking Snapchat Stories, videos that were just asking to be engaged with, and even an iTunes takeover. The whole thing hit multiple points and made the movie huge when it hit cinemas.

On social media, the content received over 200 million impressions.

What they do right: Everything. Everywhere.

Domino’s

Okay, they make great pizza, but they keep coming up with ridiculously novel ways to market the pizza. The brand is as innovative on social as you could hope to be.

Highlights of (just) the last two years? Tweet to Order (what it sounds like) and the #letsdolunch campaign, which made pizzas cheaper according to the number of people who ordered them. Oh, and quite possibly the coolest bot ever.

What they do right: Innovate. True social commerce in food and drink is still a mythical beast. Consider Domino’s to be mythbusters.

Letterfolk

This is a small business. Compared to Domino’s they are tiny. But the one thing they have mastered is Instagram. Essentially a board with accompanying letters that allow you to create any message (including punctuation), it seems obvious that Letterfolk would do well on such a visual platform.

Here is their Instagram feed. You’ll see how it works. If we were to get truly meta on this we’d say it’s essentially a different kind of blog. But we won’t because that makes our heads hurt just thinking about it.

What they do right: They know their audience, and they understand the platform perfectly.

Tentsile

You may have guessed from the name that these guys sell tents. Their quirky aspect comes from the details. They sell tents that you can suspend between two branches (sturdy branches) in a tree, for example. Basically, they are really fancy hammocks.

However, their Instagram feed is just beautiful. Lovingly shot scenes showing the product in all it’s practical and useful glory. If any brand or agency reading this has an outdoor product (or just even a physical product) that they are selling on Instagram, these guys are worth studying.

What they do right: Competitions, and glorious, wistful photography.

No Your City

While we’re on the subject of great images, No Your City has them in abundance. This brand isn’t anything other than a great celebration of (primarily) New York City, but it does it all with such style that it has become a much-loved Instagram account.

What they do right: Beautiful imagery, and a focus on what their fans love.

Wattpad

These guys are perhaps the most striking example of innovation on the Web. At first a fanfiction site, it soon became a popular force for storytelling full stop. One of the stories has been optioned by Hollywood, and an upcoming contest promotes the sharing of ideas on social media. Oh, and if that seems like cute, but so what… the service has 45 million users.

What they do right: they give their audience what it wants, and have the building a tribe deal down perfectly.

What they do right

they give their audience what it wants, and have the building a tribe deal down perfectly.

All of the above are either creating work that is extremely high quality, or innovating. All of them are switched on to social media and how to get the best out of it. The key findings here are:

● Innovation doesn’t have to change the world, it can just be slightly different
● Building a loyal tribe often counts far more than just reach
● Be on Instagram only if your images deserve to be
● Brands that match their work to the platform (like Letterfolk) gain huge engagement
● If you’re going to be everywhere on social, give each platform equal weighting

If you need to be able to show clients all the data they want on their social platforms, we think Locowise can help. Truly stunning reporting backed up by data that couldn’t be more ‘current’ if it tried. You can have it all for seven days, absolutely free.