Social Media Case Study – A Lesson In Keep It Simple

Here's an interesting article about a real social media case study, I've summarised what I feel are the salient points. The case study is based around a luxury hotel in Greece, so pretty 'real life' stuff.

Firstly, the hotel clearly defined its objectives:

1. Increase brand awareness through internet users in order to grow the prospect email database
2. Increase online booking as well as grow twitter followers, Facebook fans and views on You Tube based videos

The resulting campaign was only a few days long yet was very successful, amongst other stats it generated 187% increase in web traffic, 227% more people were drawn in to the booking engine and 150% more Facebook fans were recruited. And, the effects lasted for weeks after the campaign ended - which is interesting since the campaign only lasted for a few days so extremely short in social media terms.

The key take-aways from how the campaign was successful:

• Targeted: The audience are affluent and internet users - a small and important point! The company had already done their audience homework months earlier and understood the kinds of messages and personas they were trying to motivate
• Simple: The concept was a photo contest to win free stay at the hotel during the high season - to enter users had to fan the Facebook page and upload a specific themed photo and promote it their network to get as many "likes" as possible
• Crowd-sourced: The campaign used a crowd sourcing model which is effective for contests, and not too aggressive, it's about motivating people to do something that's relevant and encouraging sharing, and in this case has a promotional benefit
• Prepared: The company had already configured social media profiles, and had been active in those networks. This wasn't a standing start since marketing content (related to the hotel) for travellers was regularly being published. In short - their was an interested audience to engage with

Though there's nothing in this campaign which is earth-shattering here's a company doing it well, staying relevant, keeping it simple and getting results - and it's not expensive.

The article goes on to list what the team behind the campaign feels are the main tasks of a social media campaign, here's my take on it:

• Set up relevant social media profiles and ensure they're authentic and match the image of the organisation to that of your audience. I'd precede this with be clear how social media will operate within the organisation and who's responsible for what, and are there any necessary policies required for your business?
• Your "community" should span all manner of outposts (social networks, related web sites and blogs) and it requires you to define them and then be active, to listen and most importantly to care enough to interact with real people - one at a time! So, who does this in your organisation? It has to be natural and it will take real effort, we know social media marketing is not a free ticket, it needs thought, commitment and resource allocation
• Track and monitor what people are saying and doing. You can monitor through all manner of free and paid tools depending on what is right for your budget and this is key if you're to be genuine and informed in how you engage. Moreover, track the performance side - so traffic and conversion rates (to a marketing goal) would be obvious examples of that

Are there any good campaigns you can share here?