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Mastering Social Media for Big Brands | Search Engine Journal

It’s no secret that marketers are relying on social media as a significant part of their marketing strategy.

In fact, according to Social Media Examiner, an astounding 92% of marketers have indicated that social media is important for their business in 2014.

That was up from 86% of marketers during the same study conducted in 2013.

So how are big brands making the most of social media?

We’re going to answer that question by exploring a number of case studies showing how brands identify buyer personas, create unique social media campaigns, and handle customer service issues.

Image Source: Pixabay

How to Identify Your Buyer Persona

According to the Buyer Persona Manifesto, a buyer persona is “an archetype, a composite picture of the real people who buy, or might buy, products like the ones you sell”. In other words, they are your ideal customer.

Why do we need to understand these personas? There are several reasons why clearly defined online buyer personas are important for brands:

They provide a greater understanding of who they are and what their wants or needs are.
They can help improve your content and ad messages so they’re even more powerful.
Allow you to obtain better insights into your customer’s actions, which then can be used to fine tune campaigns.

Tools For Identifying Personas

MakeMyPersona.com: This tool is powered by HubSpot, which easily generates a document of your buyer persona after completing the step-by-by guide wizard.
UpCloseandPersona.com: B2B marketing strategist Ardath Albee developed this free buyer persona tool, which also includes resources and helpful tips.
UsersBox.com: Usersbox claims to be “the first persona profiling service aimed to assist you in getting to know your target audience.” With this knowledge, you can focus on the parts of your product or service that your audience would enjoy the most.
Seeker.com/target/personas: This tool can help you discover everything from demographics to consumer interests to which devices they frequently use so you can effectively target your particular audience.
Google Analytics: Using user behavior metrics like geography, device, and if enabled, Google’s own demographic data, you can build personas of your existing audience.

Case Study: Four Seasons

After noticing that third-party sites like Priceline and Kayak were capitalizing on discounted room rates, which included some of the 92 global hotels and resorts that the Four Seasons operates, the company decided to create their own mobile app.

In order to compete with third-party apps, the Four Seasons wanted an app that would engage new and existing customers by letting them view and book various vacation destinations. So, they created buyer personas that reflect who their various customers may be.

One example would be Mark, a 40 year-old senior consultant in Manhattan, who is looking to book a family trip with his wife and five-year-old son. Mark would pull up the Four Seasons app and search for family friendly vacations. He might book a trip to Maui after noticing that the hotel advertises an itinerary tailored to children.

Another scenario would be Sarah, a 32 year-old project manager for a Bay Area technology company. She downloads the Four Seasons app after one of her friends shows her all of the amazing pictures from a recent trip to Paris. Before going to bed, Sarah decides to plan her next vacation and shares her favorite hotel pages with her boyfriend with the share feature.

The team behind the Four Seasons app started by creating photo prototypes of buyer personas with the idea of creating a “mobile concierge”. The sketches were imported to an app called PopApp so a working prototype could be created for testing. With an emphasis on usability and core functions, the browser was created so that visitors could easily browse and book vacations on any device. The team went one step further and created a visual mockup.

Case Study: Taco Bell

Taco Bell has earned a reputation of being a socially-savvy brand able to effectively target the millennial audience. One way in which Taco Bell optimizes this is by utilizing Snapchat, an app widely preferred by younger individuals.

When introducing their Doritos Locos taco in 2013, Taco Bell went on Twitter and announced they’d be debuting the product the following day on Snapchat, and asked users to connect with them there.

This campaign did a very good job at creating visual content that targets Taco Bell’s specific audience – the picture of the girl at the table with her phone and a taco.

You may be asking yourself – does every business need to go through the persona building process? While it is often viewed as a supplemental exercise to your overall marketing and branding efforts, with all the easy-to-use tools online anyone could and should consider exploring their customer persona.

Social Media Case Studies

While much of this is focused on larger brands, these techniques can really be applied to businesses of any size. Let’s explore via the following case studies how businesses can utilize social media to merge the online-offline experience.

Case Study: USAA Interactive Installation

During the 115th Army-Navy Game at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, MVP Interactive created an on-site interactive experience dubbed the “USAA Interactive Installation”.

Located outside of the stadium, the experience consisted of a green-screen photo station where attendees could get their picture taken in front of a football themed background. Attendees could then share their photos at social media sharing stations or see their pictures on a large LED streaming wall.