Social media: the ultimate marketing platform

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Why do I call social media the ultimate marketing platform? A couple of reasons:

1. It allows customers to find you and saves you the expense of finding them.

2. It facilitates a real connection with your customers.

3. It leverages word of mouth which is the cheapest form of marketing and the most effective. (WARNING: It can also spread negative word of mouth so don't suck.)

Let's look at how three clever, risk-taking marketers made the most of these social media campaign attributes:

Last year, Tourism Queensland launched a campaign asking for candidates for what they billed as the "Best Job in the World," spending six months on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, being paid $140,000 and promoting tourism to the region. The campaign generated tens of millions in publicity as well as many social media conversations where candidates were competing for the opportunity.

One of the serious contenders for this job was an editor from a Vancouver daily newspaper that I follow on Twitter.

This year, an Irish travel agency launched a contest to find two honeymoon testers to travel the world and be paid to review its most romantic destinations. The contest is still ongoing and is generating a ton of buzz on social networks and in traditional media too.

A friend sent me a link today to this article in Canada's Financial Post newspaper detailing how an upscale mall used a similar social media campaign on a regional scale. The 10 winners of the "Yorkdale is Me" campaign would be featured in its spring advertising campaign, get $1,000 to spend at the mall and park in their own dedicated spot at the mall for a year.

But the real winner was the Yorkdale mall which saw visits from its social media, fashion savvy new friends generate 49% greater sales per person. The campaign attracted 1,400 applicants and generated 100 Facebook fan pages created by contestants with 4,500 fans among them.

There are many more examples of creative social media campaigns that generated brand awareness and direct ROI from sales and earned media.

If you're considering such a campaign, you'll need a fresh and creative approach that captures people's imaginations and is worth talking about and competing for. Lastly, make sure the program ties back to your brand and creates stronger connections with your core customers because ultimately that is the point.