Remember the iconic Spotify Wrapped campaign or the #PutACanOnIt by Redbull?
Unless you have been living under a rock, such social media campaigns are inspirations to every marketer. There are more than 4.5 billion social media users, and if you can please even 1% of it, you will be rewarded with unmatched branding.
But how do you do that? What’s the secret that big brands know but the smaller ones can’t seem to find it?
Well, we will reveal some of the most iconic social media campaigns and expert tips that you can use to make your brand go viral.
Let’s dig into the basics first.
Table of Contents
A social media campaign is a marketing drive on either one or multiple social media platforms to raise awareness and get more leads.
A social media campaign is a way for brands to promote themselves or their products/services on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others.
The marketing team, in general, creates content designed to reach their target audience and achieve specific goals like getting more people to visit their website, building a larger social media following, or generating more sales.
The success of a social media campaign is measured by how many people engage with the content, how far it reaches, and how much it helps the business achieve its goals.
There are several goals that a social media campaign can accomplish. Some of the most common goals are:
Brand awareness: This involves increasing the brand’s visibility among the target audience so that people become more familiar with the brand and what it stands for.
Lead generation: This involves creating content that encourages people to share their contact information or to take other actions that indicate interest in the business’s products or services.
Website traffic: This involves driving more traffic to the business’s website through social media posts, ads, and other content.
Sales: This involves using social media to promote products or services and generate sales.
Community building: This involves creating a loyal community of followers and fans around the brand so that they become advocates for the brand and help spread the word.
Customer service: This involves using social media to respond to customer inquiries, complaints, or feedback in a timely and helpful manner to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
These are the most common goals for most social media campaigns. But your goal will vary depending on your business, target audience, and overall marketing strategy.
Now that you know social media campaigns are a truly indispensable tool for marketing, here’s how to start one for yourself.
Step 1: Define your goals
The first step in starting a social media campaign is to define your goals. You need to know what you want to achieve with the campaign.
Are you looking to increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive traffic to your website, or increase sales? Defining your goals will help you to create a focused and effective campaign.
Step 2: Identify your target audience
Once you have defined your goals, you must identify your target audience. You need to know your ideal customers and where they spend their time on social media.
Additionally, research what kind of content they are interested in. This will help you to create content that resonates with your target audience and increases engagement rate.
Not all social media platforms are created equal. You must choose the most relevant platforms for your target audience and goals.
For example, if your target audience is predominantly on LinkedIn, you should focus on LinkedIn rather than wasting time and resources on other platforms.
Step 4: Develop your content strategy
Your content strategy should be based on your goals and target audience. You need to create relevant, engaging, and valuable content for your audience.
This could include blog posts, videos, images, infographics, or any other content that resonates with your target audience.
Step 5: Create a posting schedule
Once you have developed your content strategy, you need to create a posting schedule. It will help if you post regularly and consistently on your chosen social media platforms. This will help to keep your audience engaged and interested in your brand.
Step 6: Monitor your campaign
It’s important to monitor your campaign’s performance. You should track metrics such as engagement rates, reach, click-through rates, conversions, and ROI. This will help you to identify what is working well and what needs to be improved.
Now that was easy. But how to think of an out-of-the-world idea nobody has ever thought of?
Well, it’s time to learn from the masters themselves.
Let’s have a look at 5 most successful social media campaigns that will ooze your creative juices out:
1. GOATS United by Louis Vuitton
Football prodigies were seen together in one post for the first time ever. Louis Vuitton roped in Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for one of their Instagram shares. It has been an age-old debate about the ultimate king of football.
Instead, they seem to leave their green pitches behind to prove their worth and play a chess match on an LV’s checkered suitcase. Though the real winner was not announced, the post surely did get enough attention, with more than 8 million likes.
2. Duo Lingo X Dua Lipa
The Albanian musician, Dua Lipa, was proposed by the famous green bird brand during her concert in NYC. Fans spotted this and posted multiple TikTok. As per reports, the birdy fell in love when people misspelled the brand name from Duolingo to Dualingo.
There was also an original post on TikTok by the Duolingo team where the famous mascot pulls out an engagement ring and holds a sign of “Will you marry me?” Many people since then have posted about this, including the brand itself.
Now that’s the extreme you go for salvaging your brand name!
3. Wednesday by Netflix
Did you try the Wednesday trend? If you haven’t tried it, we bet you saw it in your feed for sure.
Netflix lived up to the expectations for its unmatched series production. Like the famous Stranger Things launch, Wednesday got its range of campaigns. Needless to say, they were instant hits and garnered millions of impressions.
It also became one of the most-watched series on the platform and garnered positive reactions on social media. The key to their virality was hidden in their diverse campaign strategies.
From billboards to supermarkets, Wednesday posters were everywhere. On social media, fans took part in viral dance steps to one of the popular tracks from the series. This led to an immense rise in viewership as well.
4. Detox Your Feed by Dove
Dove started with another moving project on self-esteem. As per Dove’s research, 1 in 2 girls says toxic beauty advice on social media causes low self-esteem. Hence, the brand created a step-by-step guide for parents to help their children detoxify their feeds.
They shared videos and posts on YouTube and Instagram to promote this guide. The genuine conversation between a mother and daughter was moving. The fact that one needs to set a boundary on social media and even unfollow content that makes you feel otherwise.
Dove essentially passed the vibe check as they proudly addressed GenZ’s looming issues. The brand proves yet again that it’s a true advocate of natural beauty and undoing the toxic influence and standards.
5. Twitter’s If You Dream It, Tweet It
The social media giant shared a historic campaign to promote itself. Twitter leveraged emotional advertising tactics and featured tweets from celebrities that had once publicly tweeted about their ambition.
This campaign was a sensational hit among netizens, brimming them with positivity. A wave of determination hit them hard. More tweets surfaced that spoke about hard work and manifesting a brighter future.
This shows that giving your audience a purpose to use your offerings pays off well! We hope you are already brewing some really good ideas after seeing these campaigns. But it’s equally important to track your campaigns as well.
You can track your campaigns manually from social media directly. However, that is not the best solution. As promised, here’s the secret used by multiple enterprises and agencies.
They use social media monitoring tools like Keyhole that help them track and listen to their campaigns in real time without any effort. Let’s see how they do so.
Step 1: Set up your Keyhole account
Setting up your account is the first step in using Keyhole to start a social media campaign. You can sign up for a free trial on the Keyhole.
Keyhole allows you to monitor and analyze social media activity on various platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. You can choose the most relevant platforms for your target audience and add them to your Keyhole dashboard.
Step 3: Get campaign insights
Keyhole provides real-time monitoring and analytics for your social media campaigns. Just click on the trackers, and you’ll see metrics such as engagement rates, reach, click-through rates, conversions, and ROI. This will help you to identify what is working well and what needs to be improved.
Step 4: Optimize your campaign
Based on the insights provided by Keyhole, you can optimize your campaign to improve its performance. Under profile analytics, select your profile and opt for Optimization.
You’ll get tons of information about the best time to post, the impressions you have garnered, the engagement you have received, top trending posts, popular media types, etc. Based on this, you can optimize your content strategy, posting schedule, or targeting criteria.
You can also create custom reports and share them with your team, clients, and stakeholders for the ongoing performance review. By following these steps, we are sure you’ll create a successful social media campaign that helps you to achieve your goals and connect with your target audience.
Some of the best practices that you should follow for viral campaigns are:
1. Focus on emotions: Viral social media campaigns are often emotionally charged. Use content that evokes strong emotions such as joy, sadness, or humor to capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to share your content.
2. Make it shareable: Make your content easy to share by including share buttons or creating content that encourages users to tag their friends or share it on their social media profiles.
3. Leverage influencers: Partner with influencers or thought leaders in your industry to promote your content and increase its reach.
4. Use hashtags in your campaigns: Use relevant hashtag campaigns to increase the visibility of your content and make it easier for users to find and share your content.
5. Timing is key: Timing is crucial for viral social media campaigns. Launch your campaign when your audience is most active on social media platforms.
6. Keep it simple: Keep your content simple and easy to understand. Avoid using complex language or jargon that may confuse your audience.
7. Use humor: Humor is a powerful tool in creating viral social media campaigns. Use humor to create content that is entertaining and shareable.
8. Monitor and respond: Monitor your campaign and respond promptly to comments or messages. This helps to build trust and strengthen your relationship with your audience.
Following these and you’ll be able to create a viral social media campaign that reaches a larger audience and generates the buzz you need.
Conclusion
Social media campaigns are a must-have for brands looking to boost their online presence. They help you stand out from the crowd and connect with your target audience meaningfully.
Whether launching a new product or service or simply looking to build your brand, a well-executed social media campaign can help you achieve your goals.
And if you’re looking to take your social media campaigns to the next level, why not try out Keyhole? With its excellent analytics capabilities, Keyhole makes monitoring your campaigns, tracking your performance, and optimizing your strategy easy.
And the best part? You can try it out for free! So why not give Keyhole a whirl and take your social media campaigns to new heights? Who knows, maybe your next campaign will go viral, and you’ll be the talk of the town (or at least the talk of social media).
Related Articles:
What Are Social Mentions & How To Track Them
7 Profitable Social Media Marketing Tips To Generate Sales
Frequently Asked Questions
A successful social media campaign involves careful planning and execution. Some key elements of a successful social media campaign include
-Setting clear goals
-Defining your target audience
-Creating engaging content that resonates with your audience
-Choosing the right social media platforms to reach your audience
-Tracking and analyzing your results to optimize your campaign
The success of a social media campaign can be measured by various metrics like engagement rate, reach, click-through rate, conversion rate, and return on investment. You can try out any social media monitoring tool to measure them and automate creating reports for the same.
Some common mistakes to avoid in social media campaigns include the following:
-Neglecting to define your target audience.
-Failing to create engaging content.
-Over-promoting your products or services.
-Using the wrong social media platforms for your audience.
-Ignoring feedback and comments from your audience.
-Failing to measure and analyze your results.
It's also essential to stay up-to-date on social media trends and algorithm changes to ensure your campaigns remain relevant and effective.