NASA | #GlobalSelfie

In 2014, NASA found a way to get people excited about collaborating on a creative project it called the Global Selfie. By gathering photos that people posted of their environment, NASA created a mosaic of the entire world. The result is pretty incredible.

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/2014-globalselfie-wrap-up/#.V9blJjtfSF5

Marc Jacobs| #CastMeMarc

Want to find fresh talent and build brand awareness at the same time? That's exactly what Marc Jacobs did when he sought out to find the face of his new contemporary label. For the chance to star in the fashion icon's next campaign, all you  had to do was share a photo of yourself on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #CastMeMarc.  Marc announced the winner of his online casting call from his personal Twitter page.

ALS Association| Ice Bucket Challenge

The Ice Bucket Challenge is now considered one of the legendary social media campaigns of all time after using a simple (but unpleasant and hilarious) challenge to raise over $115 million dollars for a disease that most people had never even heard of.

What helped propel the virality was the fact that people were publicly challenging their friends and family on social media, which made them more likely to get involved than someone asking for a retweet. 

http://www.alsa.org

Marvel| Ant-Man Mini Billboards

To build hype for their upcoming movie, the marketing team behind Ant-Man placed tiny billboards in Australian cities.

Naturally, people reacted in the only way you would expect in 2015 when seeing something out of the ordinary, they posted pictures of it on social media. This is a genius way to get people talking about your brand, without asking them to.

Samsung| Celebrity Selfie

Who could forget the star-studded selfie from the 2014 Oscars that received 1 million retweets in 45 minutes? While this isn't technically a campaign, it was a great accidental social marketing by Samsung. 

Pepsi | #LiveForNow

This might be difficult for most companies to pull off unless you have a large enough budget to make room for these special effects. As part of Pepsi's #livefornow campaign, they created this incredible bus shelter in London that's designed to get funny reaction from people. This is one you really have to watch. 

Doritos | #crashthesuperbowl

Doritos utilizes two great strategies in this campaign: highlighting user-generated content and building off of the buzz from a huge event -- the Superbowl. This social media contest allows fans to submit their Doritios commercials and the winner gets their video on TV during the Superbowl, along with other cool prizes.

Essence | Justin Bieber Believe Tour Sponsorship

The European beauty brand Essence made the most of their sponsorship of Justin Bieber's Believe Tour by creating social media events around each show.

They gave away free products at shows and offered various sweepstakes that highlighted user-generated content as contest entries for free tickets and other prizes.

Not only did they generate a lot of interest in their own brand, but they helped build buzz around each of the shows on the tour. The campaign resulted in 263 million brand impressions, 82,615 brand expressions, and 35 percent of on-site activation through social.

Qdoba | Queso Bliss Showdown

Popular restaurant chain, Qdoba, created a campaign where their fans could vote for their favorite queso, deciding which one the company would keep and which one would have to go.

The best part about this social media campaign was that the Qdoba team updated the results in real-time, keeping everyone engaged, and building suspense around the showdown. 

TD Ameritrade | #itaddsup

With this campaign, TD Ameritrade was able to capitalize on the 2014 Winter Olympics hype by comparing the accumulation of small investments over time to the practice and preparation that athletes go through to compete.

An entire staff created for the campaign stayed in Sochi to document the athletes' journeys with photos, videos, and other content. The campaign resulted in 78,000+ uses of the campaign hashtag #itaddsup, a 12% increase in overall social audience, and 97 million brand impressions.

Social platform

Businesses today are starting to understand the value of social media for marketing and are turning their attention to integrating these various platforms into their strategy. Marketing plans that continue to solely focus on traditional methods and do not include social strategies are archaic and ineffective in today's social world. However, with multiple social platforms to choose from, it can be difficult to understand how to manage each account.
When managing multiple social media accounts, it's important to understand that not all platforms were created equal. Each platform (though there are some similarities) functions independently with its own unique qualities. As a result, social media managers must treat each platform as such. Let's take a closer look at the best ways to integrate the most popular social networks that businesses use today.

Facebook

With more than 1 billion active users, it's a no-brainer that businesses should have a Facebook presence, but keep in mind that Facebook is about more than just the number of "likes" a company has. Facebook is a great way to build brand persona and awareness through updates, contests, and sharing videos or pictures. It's a place to showcase a company's culture and vision, so be cognizant of the content posted on a business page. Businesses should also take advantage of the location information users provide in their profiles, allowing for targeted advertising based on city and the option to offer deals through Facebook Places when a users "checks in" to a particular business or location.

Twitter

Twitter began as a way to quickly share "what's happening." Now with more than 170 million active users, the microsite has evolved into a successful marketing tool when used strategically. Twitter is a free way to monitor conversations happening about your brand as they are happening. This allows businesses to extend their customer service efforts, as they can detect problems early and act timely, rectifying brewing situations before they can spill over. Twitter is also a great place to find hot leads, as people constantly tweet about things they need or want. Reach out to those who are at the point of decision making and introduce them to your product or service. And because many users follow their favorite brands and businesses, Twitter is a great platform to share deals and discounts or announce sales and new products.

LinkedIn

Last year, 10 million to 15 million users per quarter joined LinkedIn. Known as the social network for professionals, LinkedIn has plenty of benefits for business. At the basis of a successful business, there are employees that keep the wheels turning and business moving forward. LinkedIn is the preferred platform to recruit top-level employees. Employers can search for candidates based on job requirements, as users publicly offer their resumes and skill sets. LinkedIn Groups is also a great place for a business to grow its network while building rapport through offering advice or helpful content.

Google+

With more than 100 million active users, Google+ is a huge success compared to its predecessor, Google Buzz. One of the biggest benefits of Google+ for businesses is improved results in Google Search, increasing your visibility and helping customers find your business faster. The +1 button also increases the chance of this visibility, as the more +1s a link has, the more attention it gets in search results. Additionally, Google+ Circles create more personal relationships with consumers, even allowing businesses to have live video chat sessions with their audience through Hangouts.

Pinterest

Hailed as the "the fastest growing social site" ever, Pinterest is a great place for businesses to focus some of their social media efforts. Consumers love pictures, especially when they are looking to purchase a product or service. But beyond posting pictures of products to drive sales, Pinterest is also the platform to build your brand and showcase your mission. Dedicate a board to the company culture or lifestyle, and pin content that shows the company's unique personality. Pinterest also drives traffic to your site, so make sure you are detailed in the description and include a link back to your site.

Because social media is an essential part of successful marketing today, marketing, community, and social media managers must be well versed in the social media platforms most used. Effectively using social media begins with proper education of the platform, as each of the ones above has the potential to be a valuable asset, not only in the success of a social media plan, but also in the success of the business overall.

Newsweek's last print issue before go all-digital features a hashtag on the cover: #LastPrintIssue!

Instagram for brand communications

Webstagram is an Instagram Web Viewer.While Launched in Apple’s App Store in October 2010, Instagram is a photo sharing application famous for its easy to apply filters that magically improve the pictures we share with friends and followers.

Everybody-iphone users- is an instantaneous creative 

slide your iphone on, take a photo and use Instagram to turn your average snapshots into artistic image to share.

Brands using Instagram well — like Starbucks, Burberry, GE — are those who have also invested in a range of social platforms such as Tumblr and Pinterest. They understand these tools link together and have an up-skilled community management team needed to feed in daily content.

Hail in Riyadh . a tweet by an automotive brand.

A warm tweet sent to all Riyadh car owners to hide their cars because of hail.

This tweet is so smart it represents the ultimate brand engagement for positive reach and relevant conversation.

Twitter| Celebrates its sixth birthday

Twitter in Plain English
 


Twitter: picture what's happening now? Twitter, faster than earthquakes! Twitter: discover what's new in your world Is Your mom on Twitter?

KLM gets live and personal with Twitter

Airlines and Twitter have a chequered history. Some airline brands have embraced the immediacy that the micro-blogging platform has to offer, while others have come in for very public floggings from disgruntled passengers.

This stunt is the latest example of KLM's social media expertise. Unusually, this strategy publicised KLM's readiness to embrace customer conversations through social media, rather than promoting ticket sales.

Rather than using Twitter to promote a new ticket offer or service, KLM wanted to let customers know about its commitment to customer service in the social media space. KLM's social media policy was to answer every customer message personally within one hour, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The results was a Twitter response campaign that was people powered in more ways than one...

KLM wanted to let customers know about the service that KLM offered in the social media space. KLM's social media policy was to answer every customer message personally within one hour, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

In a move designed to demonstrate its commitment to customer service through social media, KLM decided to spend a day replying to Twitter messages in person, or at more accurately, with 450 people.

Live reply involved the deployment of 450 KLM volunteers working in three shifts to answer tweets, Facebook posts, or Hyves 'scraps' using 140 characters at a time.

Followers and friends of the brand could reach KLM through social media channels in Dutch or English and ask anything regarding their travel or tickets. KLM also informed its followers about the latest airline news.

The human tweets were streamed live on a dedicated site, and archived on the KLM YouTube channel.

Results

This stunt is one of a number that KLM has staged on Twitter. Live reply saw approximately 70 videos were uploaded onto the KLM YouTube channel, each achieving between 200 and 6,500 views.

External links

KLM YouTube channel

BRAND: KLM

BRAND OWNER: Air France KLM

CATEGORY: Travel/Airlines

REGION: The Netherlands

DATE: September - September 2011

MEDIA OWNERS: Twitter ,Facebook ,Hyves

MEDIA CHANNEL: Digital,Online,PR

The 1000 most-visited sites on the web

Google's Doubleckick Adplanner has published its April top 1,000 most visited sites on the net. Essential reading for anyone needing to know their way around. 
Here's the top 15 below, and click here for the full top 1,000.

 

Your Twitter Popularity Measured in Cup Size

eBoobs is probably one of the useless but funniest web apps available related to Twitter. It measures your popularity using cup size.

Using only US sizes to compare your popularity, this web app tells you immediately how popular you are just by entering your Twitter user name.

Twitter Facts and Figures - latest Twitter statistics users

Twitter101| case studies

Still not convinced that Twitter has some value for your brand?

Now Twitter has released their very own case studies showing how brands like Dell, Pepsi, JetBlue and others have incorporated the tool of wonder into their marketing plans.