The Top 10 Social Media Success Stories of 2012 & What We Can Learn From Them

The rush to capitalize on social networking in the past year has produced some amazing social media success stories that defy logic. Unfortunately, it’s also been responsible for far too many spectacular failures that never delivered on the promise of the medium. Creating a blockbuster social media campaign that confers superior ROI and makes an actual impact overall is equal parts art and science. The best approach is to look at what’s worked for others and emulate those examples. Here, in no particular order, are the most successful social media campaigns of 2012 and their inherent lessons to be learned.

1. Obama 2012

Granted, President Elect Barack Obama had the advantage of incumbency going into the 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections. Regardless, he made skillful use of social media to lock down an election that may have otherwise been a close race. Considering his popularity with young people and the use of social media by his main demographic, it was the wisest choice. In particular, the Twitter front and the use of the #Romnesia tag to frame the debate was clutch. The point is that social media success revolves around knowing your target audience and catering to them for the highest returns.
2. Share It Up from Hertz

Widely-recognized rental car company Hertz is a textbook example of an established company that uses social media in innovative ways to boost recognition and sales. Their Share It Up campaign on Facebook used social coupons to increase visibility. Users who shared coupons with their Friends on Facebook could accrue greater and greater discounts based on how much they proliferated the Hertz message. At least 45% of users who saw the coupon ended up sharing it. By offering a tantalizing discount on a common good, they amplified the power of social networking for greater long-term results that lasted.
3. Jetsetter’s Pin Your Way to Paradise

Pinterest has been a major boon to bloggers, large companies and small startups alike. It’s a natural fit for a site like Jetsetter, the travel portal that sparks the imaginations of vacationers worldwide. Their Pin Your Way to Paradise promotion garnered loads of interest and boosted referral traffic by a whopping 150%. This campaign is a perfect case study of how to match the appropriate networking site with the right business. As a social media success story, it’s a terrific blueprint for smaller brands who’re looking to raise awareness and make the most of what they’ve got.
4. Ikea

Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA pulled off a stunning social media success story with its interactive shopping catalog Celebrate Brilliantly. Located on IKEA’s U.S. website, it’s packed with video clips that incorporate sharing options for users who want to send gift ideas to family members and friends via Pinterest and Facebook. When shoppers see something of interest, they can click it to signify a Facebook Like or a Pinterest Pin. Their campaign demonstrates the value of making sharing seamless and easy, as well as the possibilities that come with user-generated content curation in a consumer setting.
5. Sharpie

For a company that’s been around since 1964, Sharpie knows how to refresh their image in imaginative ways. The Sharpie Equals… campaign made it easy for users to express how they felt about what the brand means to them. In addition, the company broadly embraced Facebook Likes, Twitter hashtags and more to keep themselves visible on the web’s most prominent forums. The key here is that even established brands can’t rest on their laurels. A bonus takeaway is that listening to customers and fishing for feedback to understand their concerns is one of the best uses of social media marketing in the 21st century.
6. Book Burning Party

Outright lies in a social media campaign are usually something to avoid, but they’re occasionally a great way to promote a cause. The humble city of Troy, Michigan, found that it couldn’t afford to pay its public library bills. So, they advertised a book-burning party on Facebook to publicize their plight. Rather than torch books, however, they focused attention on their dire situation. The lesson is that controversy can be a fickle fire to control. Still, it can be a potent weapon for philanthropic good. Using it for commercial reasons is even more of a crapshoot, so tread lightly.
7. Mercedes A Class

Luxury automobile companies typically have no shortage of advertising dollars. Mercedes-Benz isn’t an exception. What makes their unique promotion different is its take user interaction. Their option-based campaign in the vein of Choose Your Own Adventure put the power in the hands of the viewer by allowing them to control the outcome of their ads. It also added an element of excitement into the overall mix. The lesson to be learned from their promotion is that social media success stories ultimately depend on involving the recipients of the advertising. A high degree of participation from your target audience is ultimately crucial.
8. Live Off Groupon

Brought to you by a “regular guy” by the name of Josh Stevens, the Live Off Groupon promotion highlighted the possibilities of a down-on-its-luck startup looking for a second, redemptive shot at glory. The gist of the promotion was this: one ordinary man would live off of Groupon discounts for a whole year. It was a risky proposition and its results are dubious. However, it managed to achieve an organic surge in interest for a beleaguered web company quickly losing clout. The first lesson is that the word “free” carries some serious currency. Secondly, an outside-of-the-box promotional idea is a legitimate path to social media success if implemented correctly.
9. Tweet Pie

Sometimes, the minimum amount of content can reap the maximum amount of rewards in the field of social media success. Tweet Pie began as a way to publicize a charity known as FoodCycle. In its short time on the Interwebz, it took on a life of its own. Using 140-character recipes, it successfully crowdsourced the collective knowledge of its users for the betterment of all and furthered a rather noble goal. Quite possibly the best example yet of a campaign that fully leverages the power of social media, it’s well worth emulating when devising a social media success story of your own.
10. Southwest Airlines’ LUV2LIKE

Facebook fans of Southwest were given the promotional code “LUV2LIKE” in order to promote the “Wanna Get Away” flights this fall. By booking flights in advance, customers could take advantage of a 50% discount on flights all over the world. Granted, Southwest probably lost a decent amount of money through this promotion. Regardless, it conferred a lot of popularity and attention to a company in an industry hurting for revenue. The lesson here is that coughing up dough in the short term can really help to boost profits in the long term through social media campaigns that spread like virtual wildfire.
The Larger Lesson
The most important component in any social media success story on every level is people. From business people to consumers to the marketers that attempt to bring them together, the actors involved in any social media campaign matter the most. Familiarity with social media tools is just one part of the equation. Knowing how to use those tools creatively is far more important. If you want your next campaign to be a social media success story, you’ll need to provide serious ingenuity in spades to pull it off and stand apart from the crowd.