The best way to learn about how to make your social media campaigns ENGAGING is to see what has worked for others in the past.  In this post I share over 30 case studies in social media that will give you a good look at what works and what does not.  The case studies are group together by topic but topics are arranged in no particular order.   Enjoy these case studies and if you have come across any good ones (or are working on creating one of your own) please share them in the comments below!

NON-PROFIT

Greenhour.org – Through the use of a vigorous social media strategy they doubled monthly page views (from 8,000 to 16,000) and their email subscriber base (from 2,500 to 5,000) in just 6 months. A targeted approach of reaching out to influential “mommy bloggers” worked well for them. More Info

Goodwill -  This Washington area Goodwill successfully used social media to intelligently raise its brand, educate new communities on its mission, and create sources of income.  A great example of what can be done when funds are low and manpower is available. More Info

CONSUMER GOODS

A look into how Target was able to succeed where Walmart failed on Facebook.  More Info

Rubbermaid went full steam ahead with an interesting “talking” campaign that incorporated multiple social media networks into a successful campaign that was good enough to win the attention of Forrester when it came time to pick nominations for last year’s best social media campaign.  More Info

ENTERTAINMENT

Disney recognized that hitting MySpacers over the head with advertising was not as effective as consistent steady messaging.  This tactic allowed them to produce the following success story in the promotion of their movie “Step Up”. More Info

Sony uses the increasingly popular mode of “Twitter Games” to bolster anticipation for the upcoming release of their new movie “Terminator Salvations”.  Twitter Case Study

“BEST PRACTICES”

Want to know how to blatantly advertise on social media (usually a big no-no) and get away with it?  Check out this case study.

Learn about what NOT to do in the case study about Belkin.  If you’re interested in learning what happens to companies who ignore or are not aware of best practices, this case study is for you.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Network Solutions decided to combat their PR issues of customer dissatisfaction head on.  By monitoring and directly responding to public displays of dissatisfaction found on social networks like Twitter, and various blogs, Network Solutions reached out their dissatisfied customers to improve their overall social reputation. More Info

HOSPITALITY

Fairmont Chicago of the Fairmont hotel chain made bold moves on Twitter using a sophisticated combination of a customized twitter background, direct message outreach, and a Twitter contest to build an engaged community of brand advocates.  Twitter Case Study

CAUSE MARKETING

(lil) Green Patch used Facebook to raise awareness (and money) for the Nature Conservancy.  Over $67,000 was raised and over 26,000 new members were recruited.  Cause marketing has been around since there were groups to fund raise for.  This case study shows how Facebook can help to get it done.  More Info

GOVERNMENT

PushingBack.com is the White Houses answer for their desire to share timely, informative content with journalists and the general public about the war on drugs. “Pushing Back gives us a way to bypass the filter of the news media and talk directly to the American people.” More Info

Is the Library of Congress hip to the times?  Equipped to combat notions that libraries are a thing of the past? You might say that.  The Library of Congress is active on the Blogosphere, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, and then some.  More Info

GRAB BAG

3 highlighted social media case studies from the Social Media Club in San Francisco.  More Info

FIVE MORE – “Five For Sharing”

MAGAZINE

Luxury-Insider.com launched an advertising campaign on social media platforms using primarily video.  Advertising on social media has proven to be one of the most targeted ways you can advertise online and can be very effective when planned correctly.  Here are the results – “estimated 100,000 video views, Significant, unverified blog and forum views, Front page search engine results lasting for months after campaign close”.  More Info

Luxury Insider on YouTube

TRAVEL

Two-for-One case study on Carnival and Southwest who have taken a holistic approach, participating in numerous sites simultaneously.  They have a presence on the popular social media sites: YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. More Info

FOOD

Carol’s Cookies (www.carolscookies.com) is a social media case study in progress. Visit their website to checkout their ongoing Facebook campaign. I will update this post with more info as it progresses. The take-away for right now is that they built a customized Facebook campaign with branded callouts which entice visitors to their website (where they sell cookies). A Carol’s Cookie “gift” was created using a custom application which allows for viral spreading of brand awareness. This campaign will be culminating in a contest towards the end of the summer.

SPORTS

3 for 1 – Success stories from Sony Ericsson, Addidas, and Olympus America on how they were able to ACTIVATE their sponsorship at a large sporting event and create mass traffic and sales from it. More Info

START-UPS

For those of you who are active reading posts in the blogging world, you have more than likely seen an ad for these guys… Freshbooks’ CEO goes into deetail about how they’re doing what they do.  More Info

BLOGGING

A case (study) for the future of blogging. More Info

GREAT CASE STUDY on reaching ‘Mommy Bloggers’.  I saved this one for last because it is a great reward for those of you who have made it all the way through this titanic list.  The case study discusses an approach that successfully harnessed the coveted “mommy blogger” contingency.  MORE INFO

Thank you for reading!  If you are looking for a company that can put the lessons of these case studies to work for you please take a gander at http://mavenmktg.com.

John Marlow
MavenMKTG

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