One of the best ways to learn is by learning from the mistakes of others and by emulating their best practices. The following is a broad overview of best practices.
For starter’s I want to mention a great article published about 6 months ago.
35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action
This is an overview of 35 pointed Social Media initiatives, each on a different site.
It’s good as an overview of possibilities, but many of these do not translate well to other sites. The strategies, tools, and approaches vary with each industry and organization.
Here are a 6 examples of large Brands applying lots of Social Media elements. These aren’t all good examples, but this is a good starting point. Most brands are not doing as much as these are. I’ve listed them due to the breadth of Social Media that they are each using. Interestingly most small businesses (under $5mm in revenue) are not doing social media well. The reasons for this are varied. Mainly, in my opinion, it’s due to the fact that smaller businesses have insufficient marketing expertise and small budgets.
Big Rock Brewery:
- Blogging: Friends of Big Rock blog.
- Bookmarking: StumbleUpon account.
- Meetup: Friends of Big Rock.
- Microblogging: Twitter account.
- Online video: YouTube account.
- Photo sharing: Flickr group pool.
- Social networks: Facebook group. Friends of Big Rock. MySpace group.
- Voting: Digg account.
IBM:
- Blogging: 125 corporate blogs.
- Forums: developerWorks.
- Microblogging: Smart SOA SocialNetwork ((S3N)) Team on Twitter.
- Online video: Rational Heroes machinima videos and Meet Mr. Fong on YouTube.
- Podcasting: developerWorks and Social Networking Now
- Social networks: Rational Heroes community space.
- Strategy: internal social computing guidelines
- Virtual Worlds: IBM Business Center and Rational Software Conference/Hipihi in Second Life.
- Wikis: developerWorks.
Intel:
- Blogger outreach: Intel Insider program.
- Blogging: Corporate family of blogs. Inside Scoop lifestyle blog. Game Faces blog.
- Microblogging: Intel Developer Forum and Inspired By Education.
- Online video: YouTube account.
- Photo sharing: Flickr photostream.
- Public Relations: Social media news releases.
- Social networks: Facebook Intel Developer Forum, Inspired By Education, and International Science and Engineering Fair pages. Gateway 2 India on Facebook. Intel Studios for unsigned musicians. Open Port for IT Pros. Intel Software Network Communities.
- Sponsorships: PopURL collection for IT Pros. Digg Labs Visual Arc. Slashdot meet the experts.
Intuit:
- Blogging: TurboTax support team blog. Bob Meighan’s Amazon Blog.
- Crowdsourcing: Suggestion box.
- Microblogging: 25+ employee accounts on Twitter to answer product questions.
- Online video: QuickBooks account on YouTube. TurboTax Tax Laugh on YouTube.
- Ratings and Reviews: TurboTax
- Social networks: Corporate umbrella fan page on Facebook. TurboTax Support community. QuickBooks community. JumpUp community for new businesses. TurboTax Inner Circle Community.
- Wiki: TaxAlmanac.
Toyota Motor Company:
- Blogging: Open Road Blog.
- Brand monitoring: Client of Nielsen Online.
- Microblogging: Open Road on Twitter.
- Virtual worlds: Toyota Metapolis.
- Widgets: Fantasy Football widget on Yahoo. FJ Cruiser mini bulletin widget. Corolla “the help” widget.
Wal-Mart:
- Blogging: Check Out, a blog written by buyers. Fake blog: Walmarting Across America. Detractor blogs: Wal-Mart Watch and Working Families For Walmart?
- Social networks: Facebook Roommate Style Match application. The Hub. Elevenmoms community.
- Widgets: Receipes.
Such a list is not complete without noting the pitfalls and landmines laying in the social media grass. Read Jeremiah Owyang’s A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media for some amusing and frightening examples of Social Media fiascos.
Posted by Daniel Endy at 04:07 PM. Filed under: