Social Media Case Studies, January 2011 | Eve Dmochowska | www.TwoJumpsAhead.

com

Social Media
Case Studies
and what you can learn from them
Eve Dmochowska | www.Two Jumps Ahead. com | January 2011

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 Social Media Case Studies, January 2011 | Eve Dmochowska | www.TwoJumpsAhead.com
Welcome to the Social Media Case Study Guide!
You’ve gotten your hands on some diverse, global and relevant social
media case studies that you can use for analysis, inspiration and
campaign execution.
Each case study is presented in brief, outlining all the major campaign
features: the goal, the online tools used, the process, and most
importantly the result metrics, where applicable.
I’ve included as diverse a collection as possible: there are campaigns
that cover all the most common goals that you and your team will likely
encounter, and as many applications of the tools as possible.
I hope that by collating the case studies, and making them available in
an easy to read, easy to analyse and easy to share format that I can
help you and your team create innovative and successful social media
campaigns for your own products or clients.
A couple of points:
• The case studies, as they are written up in this book, are meant
to act as a solid but brief introduction to what can be achieved,
and how. Should a case study pique your interest, you will find a
collection of links at the end of each case study that will point you to
more detailed and in-depth information .
• This book is not meant to act as a teaching guide on how to
implement a good social media campaign: I assume that you have
a good understanding of the nature of the medium, and the tools
that can be used. Nevertheless, I’ve included a brief outline of the
type of goals you can try to reach with social media, what questions
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you should be asking before you start, what tools are available
and when they should be used. For more detailed information, and
other resources on social media strategy, please visit my site www.
TwoJumpsAhead.com.
• This is the first Social Media Case Studies book, and it is my
intention to publish a quarterly version. More details are available
on the website, but I will keep you informed of future publications.
• In addition, I publish one very in-depth case study every two weeks,
with a full description, interviews with the team, analysis and
conclusion. This is made available to digital marketers and their
agencies on a monthly subscription model. More information on that
on Page 49, or on my website here.
Please share your comments and suggestions with me by
emailing EveD@TwoJumpsAhead.com. Also, If you have a case
study of your own that you would like to share for the next book or
the next in-depth case study analysis, I’d love to hear from you!
Eve D.
About Eve D
Eve Dmochowska lives in South Africa, and but considers herself a
citizen of the online world. She reads, reads and then reads some
more about how companies adapt the online space to their own
benefit (or detriment), and writes her observations in various online
properties. Her blog, TwoJumpsAhead.com focusses on social media
and how it impacts any sized business. Eve is available for writing,
speaking and consulting.
 Social Media Case Studies, January 2011 | Eve Dmochowska | www.TwoJumpsAhead.com

When inspiration hits: Social Media Marketing Goals

// CO N V E R S I O N case study where customers were asked to create their own flavour,
At the end of the day, (especially if you are the CEO!) you are going to packaging and branding.
want to see the effort of a social media campaign show up on the bottom
line.
// IMPROVED SEO RANKINGS
Increased revenue or saved costs are both attainable social media Although it is true that by creating a social media presence you are losing
goals, as long as you have a firm and well-planned follow up strategy. a chunk of control of how your brand is perceived/mentioned online, the
In the case studies that follow, you will see that almost every social converse is that with a clever use of strategy you can greatly improve
media campaign featured resulted in, at the very least, an increased your search result ranking for key terms relevant to your company.
communication channel. All that is then needed is a follow up strategy to Search engine results (specifically Google) are greatly improved if
convert your listeners to payers. You should get some inspiration from your online properties (blogs, websites, Facebook pages) are linked to
the case studies on how that can be achieved. by third parties who themselves have a high reputation according to
Google.
// RESEARCH By giving reputable bloggers good reason to link to you, you are actively
This is a very important, but often overlooked, potential of a social improving your search engine results. It is often worthwhile to develop
media strategy. By the mere nature of the medium, a successful online a content strategy focussed on just achieving this goal (see Toyota’s iQ
campaign will almost always include some sort of interaction between case study).
your company and your target market.
The willingness of your customer to engage in a conversation with you,
no matter what format that conversation takes, is an excellent opportunity
for you to learn more about not just the customer himself, but what his
expectations are from your brand, and what his experiences are thus
far.
This research process can be achieved quite blatantly, for example
by you asking for advice, opinion or ideas on how a specific product
can be improved. Or, it can be more subtle, such as the Vitamin Water

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 Social Media Case Studies, January 2011 | Eve Dmochowska | www.TwoJumpsAhead.com
When inspiration hits: Social Media Marketing Goals
// B R A N D AWA R E N E S S
This is all about creating buzz, and is usually achieved by creating a
campaign that is innovative, viral, applicable to the nature of the brand
and relevant to the target consumer. It does not have to be shocking, or
funny, although neither of those characteristics would damper the buzz.
The lifespan of such a campaign is usually quite short.
Although it is always great to see a spike in traffic, or your brand trending
on Twitter, that should of course never be your end goal. When creating
a campaign to create brand awareness, always have a “step-up” plan as
to how you intend to engage with the new audience. It will do you little
good to be on everyone’s lips one day, and shelved in distant memory
the next.
If brand awareness is not your primary goal for the social media
campaign, it should be the secondary, incidental one.
// N E W P R O D U C T L AU N C H
Closely linked to brand awareness, a product launch campaign can be
used to launch a new product line (see Vitamin Water case study), or a
new company.
A campaign for a new product launch can begin a long time before the
product actually launches, and can be used as part of the research
process during the launch phase. You can then gauge consumers’
reaction, tweak as necessary, and create a bit of hype before the launch.
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// R E P U TAT I O N M A N AG E M E N T A N D C R I S I S CO N T R O L
You’ll appreciate being on the social media bandwagon when a crisis hits
your company or industry, and you need to communicate or appease a
large variety of consumers. (You will see the value of an established
communication channel when you read the CDC case study.)
Being able to give accurate and credible information, and fast, will
go a long way to satisfy critics, even in the most dire situation. It will
also give you control of the message, rather than leaving it to third
parties (independent blog writers, for instance) who might distort or
misunderstand your message.
// CO M M U N I C AT I O N C H A N N E L
This is a long term strategy, and goes hand in hand with reputation
management and crisis control. It is based on the premise that you
establish various appropriate channels of digital communication with
relevant parties. You might have a channel for your consumers, where
you release information about products and promotions, a channels for
your resellers which would be more business focussed.
It takes time and effort to establish an opt-in list where others give you
permission to talk to them digitally, and the sooner you start the better
any social media strategy or campaign that you launch will fare. You
will see from the case studies in the book that a lot of the campaign
successes were based on the fact that there was a ready communication
channel waiting to be properly utilised.
 Social Media Case Studies, January 2011 | Eve Dmochowska | www.TwoJumpsAhead.com

The Case Studies

Page 13 ... Vitamin Water Page 30 ... Dairy Queen
Page 14 ... Xbox Page 31 ... Mayo Clinic

Page 15 ... Coldstone Page 33 ... CDC

Page 16 ... Whole Foods Page 35 ... Toyota

Page 18 ... GAP Page 36 ... Old Spice

Page 19 ... Intel Page 37 ... Piper

Page 20 ... Roberts Durkee Page 38 ... Ford Fiesta

Page 21 ... CSF Page 40 ... Chevrolet

Page 22 ... Toy Story 3 Page 41 ... Compare the Meerkat

Page 23 ... IKEA Page 42 ... Weight Watchers

Page 24 ... Jim Bean Page 43 ... Matindale.com

Page 25 ... Pandora Page 44 ... Great Bear Rainforest

Page 26 ... Burberry Page 45 ... Bing

Page 27 ... CISCO Page 46 ... PBS Kids

Page 28 ... LIVESTRONG Page 47 ... Parents Magazine

Page 29 ... Carrillo Page 48 ... War Child

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// T H E C A M PA I G N
When the California States Park Foundation was faced with imminent
budget cuts from the state, which would result in closure of 220 state
parks, it implemented a lightning fast campaign to drive petition
signatures and donations, using Facebook as the main driver.
which was supported by very strong email and telemarketing campaigns.
Post campaign, the Facebook page is still going strong, and is updated
at least twice a week with new information, as well as photos from the
parks and events.

// T H E R E S U LT
// T H E TO O L S U S E D
The fan base of the Facebook page rose from 557 to over 33,000 in two
Facebook page with custom tabs and widgets, integrated marketing, weeks, and there is an average 15.5% monthly growth in the pages fans
website, YouTube videos, email marketing. (currently at 60,000 +).
The full campaign earned $950,000 and at least $300,000 of that was
// T H E PROCESS raised online, with 46% of that being raised from new members. Paid
Within 48 hours of the budget cuts being announced, there was a membership grew by 10% in two months.
Facebook “Friend get a friend” campaign launched. It asked people to In a subsequent campaign using the Facebook page and Twitter, CSPF
fan the page, and then led them to an action item where they were sold 700 memberships at $125.
asked to visit the CSPF site and sign a petition. This was supported
Most importantly, the 220 state parks which were supposed to be closed
with a paid advertising campaign on
by the state remained opened (150 parks were partially closed or offered
Google and Facebook, which led
reduced services).
people to the fan page.
Thanks to custom widgets and
tabs, the Facebook fan page was a // SOURCES AND LINKS
pseudo landing-page, not the wall. • http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/facebook.html
Visitors were asked to take action • http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-proven-steps-to-facebook-page-success/
(become a fan or visit the CSPF • http://www.thefundraisingjournal.com/Archive/0909-1/CaliforniaStateParksFoundation.html
website to sign a petition).
There was a very clear call to action,
 Social Media Case Studies, January 2011 | Eve Dmochowska | www.TwoJumpsAhead.com

// T H E C A M PA I G N Tweets pertaining to service issues are often retweeted, thus helping to

Microsoft treats its Xbox Twitter account as an official support channel. spread the news fast.
The Twitter account has 60,000 followers, 300,000 tweets and Microsoft
has received the Guiness World Record Holder award for the most
// T H E TO O L S U S E D responsive brand on Twitter. A year after a soft launch, the Twitter
Twitter account and a support team. support channel has become a ‘major leg” of the Xbox support team,
and pulls in the highest satisfaction across various support channels.

// T H E PROCESS It is ROI neutral.

The Twitter support team monitors the Twitter space carefully to spot any
queries or service level questions, and responds accordingly. Almost
all Twitter responses are public, and are tagged with the initials of the
member of the support team.
All tweets are responded to, except for the ones written by bots or the
very offensive ones. Microsoft used a “Tweepstakes” to gain followers:
each week a question was posted, and all tweeted replies stood a
chance to win prizes if they were followers.
The Twitter account posts around 5,000 tweets per week during the
following operating hours: Hours: 6-9pm, M-F, 10am-6pm Sat, Sunday.
// THE LESSONS LEARNT
Twitter offers an easy and convenient method to distribute a service
level message to a large number of people fast (and allow it to be spread
virally by retweeting, for greater coverage).
It is also, however, a great medium for a very large corporation to connect
one on one with its customers. A displeased Xbox user will more than
likely be pleasantly surprised that an official Microsoft employee not only
read his complaint on Twitter, but is actually proactively responding, and
presumably fixing, the issue.

// T H E R E S U LT // SOURCES AND LINKS

Proactive support lessens the • h t t p : / / t w i t t e r. c o m / # ! / x b o x s u p p o r t
burden of live service calls, and • h t t p : / / w w w. s o c i a l m e d i a e x a m i n e r. c o m / h o w - m i c r o s o f t - x b o x - u s e s - t w i t t e r -
allows the support team to spot to-reduce-support-costs/
problems almost immediately as
they happen.

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// T H E C A M PA I G N
The iQ city car campaign had two goals: to raise awareness of the iQ
model as a fuel efficient car, and to improve the SEO rankings of the iQ
blog by means of relevant back links.
// T H E TO O L S U S E D
Social media tools used included blogs (iQ blog and third party blogs),
Twitter and Flickr. An offline experiment, “Hypermilling” was also used,
where two drivers of an iQ car attempted to visit 18 cities and cover 500
miles on a single tank of petrol. A Google maps mashup was also used.
// T H E PROCESS
The iQ blog is written by journalists, not marketers, so that the content
can be engaging and appeal to the relevant, usually difficult to reach,
readers. The content is exclusive and unique, which makes it more likely
to be linked back to by third parties.
The Hypermilling experiment was very successful in providing this
exclusive content, and the uniqueness of the attempt ensured it was
covered by the likes of Wired and New York Times.
The two drivers/bloggers used social media every step of the way
throughout their 18 city journey, including blogs, Twitter, Flickr and
iPhone/Google maps mash up.
High profile blogs were specifically targetted by the social media team
with the story.
// T H E R E S U LT
The Hypermiling attempt was a success, with the iQ car achieving
65 miles per gallon. This ensured wide press coverage. Overall, 64
independent blogs covered the experiment, including Wired, New York
Times and Treehugger.com. This resulted in positive association of iQ
as a fuel efficient car.
Overall, a potential audience of 105 million was reached, with 3.4 million
stemming from the UK, the home of the campaign.
The iQ blog traffic increased by 212%, and referrals from third party
sites increased from 15% to 50%.
// THE LESSONS LEARNT
This is a good example of how online goals can be achieved using offline
events. The Hypermilling experiment was a good attempt at catching
the interest of high profile bloggers (would Toyota succeed? Would it
fail?). Each blog entry improved iQ’s search ranking.
// SOURCES AND LINKS
• iCrossing: www.icrossing.co.uk
• Case Study: http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/Case_studies/Toyota_GB_
iCrossing_case_study.pdf
 Social Media Case Studies, January 2011 | Eve Dmochowska | www.TwoJumpsAhead.com

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book ($25), please visit:
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