An increasing number of marketing managers are slowly buying into the benefit of social media marketing. The one question they all ask is, can you tell me some social media marketing success stories. Rather than focus on the big brand successes, I thought it would be interesting to focus on the success that two small businesses are having with social media marketing. My thanks to The Arizona Republic for doing this research.
Last year, Scottsdale-based ice- cream chain Cold Stone Creamery used the popular video-sharing site YouTube to disseminate a video it created to promote a new flavor. In the video, two ice cream flavors fell in love and got married. The ice-cream couple even had their own MySpace profile.
“I think the power of YouTube and MySpace and the connection it’s made with young people is important for not only Cold Stone, but for every company to investigate,” said Kevin Donnellan, senior director of advertising and public relations for the company.
Cynthia Drasler, founder of Phoenix-based Organic Excellence, a company that makes chemical-free personal-care products, tapes an online radio show every week. Listeners can download it as a podcast – and about 10,000 do every month, Drasler said.
Cynthia Drasler said she used to become frustrated as a guest on radio shows because she was never fully able to explain why she felt it was important for people to use chemical-free personal-care products so she decided to take matters into her own hands by starting her own online radio show in May 2006.
The show, Chemical Free Living, airs once a week on an Internet radio station at contacttalkradio.com. Listeners can download podcasts of the shows after they air. Even though she does not promote her products during the show, she said the show is helpful in building a brand.
“By having a weekly radio show and having certain shows where I do all the talking for the whole hour, people get to know me,” Drasler said. “I become a real person to them, and I think when people know you and if they get to like you, then they go and pay attention to what you’re saying.”
A couple of months ago we wrote about a Texas bike shop that was using MySpace to market to potential customers. Do you have a social media marketing success story to share?
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Nice story, As a small business owner, I am going to try to reconfigure a portion of my business to tap into the “social media,” and ready connect with big MNC’s who would like to gain outsourced work from United States, Your articles are always giving me great ideas. Keep em coming. Thanks.