Unlikely Brands That Are Smashing Social Media

Sahail Ashraf posted on 31 July 2018

We strongly believe that any brand can have a useful and fun presence on social media. Brands are often so confident that they can do this that they use in-house staff. And a lot of that confidence is derived from knowing that their business works well on social media.

You’ve seen this happen. Coca Cola thrive on social media. The brand is essentially made for viral, clever marketing in short bites. And social media has become it’s marketing home. Fashion brands belong on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, as well as pretty much everywhere else. If it’s visual, colourful and fun, your product belongs on social.

Notice we used the word ‘product’ rather than ‘service’. Services aren’t as easy as products are when it comes marketing on social. The biggest platforms got to where they are because they’ve worked hard, but it’s a lot easier if you have a visual product that appeals to audiences.

Unlikely Brands That Are Smashing Social Media

So here are just a few brands that are actually making huge waves on social media, but perhaps despite their product or service being incredibly ‘non social media’. We think you’ll find that they make for great examples of social media marketing, and that’s with products or services that really shouldn’t work.

International Delight

This is not the world’s most recognisable coffee creamer brand, not by a long shot. But it does have a social media team that knows what it’s doing.

The brand have now been making a huge impact on Pinterest for a number of years. The work is colourful and, above all, useful. There’s not a part of their Pinterest work that isn’t something the audience can pick up and run with. Recipes, ideas and hacks are all over it. So what International Delight has done is create a useful resource.

However, when you use the phrase ‘coffee creamer’ it doesn’t leap out at you as something that belongs on social media. So they’ve done an excellent job.

OnStar

Here’s one that should really impress you. This brand has a service that is efficient but hardly exciting. They’ve managed to make their Pinterest board focus on one of the key themes the company has. That theme is ‘connection’. Because OnStar literally provides help as a service, this all makes sense.

They are not the only brand that does this kind of thing though, so they must be doing something different on Pinterest. And basically they’re becoming Pinterest ninjas, getting the most out of the platform and it’s business offering, and doing that every day.

The brand has also made it’s Pinterest work easily accessible and easy to navigate. Copying Pins is easy, as is using hashtags. All this makes it easier for people to engage with Pins, and that’s exactly what they do.

Peel

If you’ve ever wandered online to shop for a phone case, you’ll be quite aware that they are often generic, or so over-the-top you’d never consider buying them. And to add to the problem, there are so many sites out there selling this stuff it’s very easy to get lost.

Then we have Peel, which has taken the problem and simply solved it, buy making sure that their social media platforms are unique. So Peel stands out in an incredibly saturated market (have you ever tried to buy a phone case online?) with sophistication and a flair for eye-catching posts that really set them apart.

Wayfair

Chances are you’ll have absolutely no idea who these guys are. And to be honest, they probably don’t even care. They have cornered the market on Instagram. But it’s how they’ve done this that makes such a huge impact.

Because Instagram has business features, and these features include shopping, Wayfair decided that they should be on social media. Wayfair works so well with social media in fact, that it seems to have simple, clear marketing messages managed very well.

It knows that furniture only ever really does well in ads when it has a clear and uncluttered background behind it. Half the battle with social media is creating meaningful content, rather than the same old stuff that everyone is trying.

It’s a combination of care and attention to detail. And Wayfair also had the good sense to ensure that the posts on Instagram are attractive and engaging. It’s competing in an incredibly competitive sector, which makes the achievement even more impressive.

Unusual, but effective

Wayfair, OnStar, International Delight and Peele are all examples of how a small, even boring brand, can make big strides in the world of online marketing.