How to Create a Successful Social Media Campaign

1. What is a successful social media campaign?
2. Three of the most successful social media campaigns 2021
3. What makes successful social media campaigns - and how do you develop one yourself?
4. Which tools can support you in your social media campaigns?
5. Possible learnings from social media campaigns

The days when companies and brands could just "post something funny" on social media and thereby capture their followers are long over - I no longer need to tell you that. But I still find that many marketing campaigns on a company's social media channels simply get extended. For me, this is one of the biggest no-go's in social media marketing! Instead, each campaign should be set up individually and tailored to each channel.

In this article you will learn what makes a successful social media campaign and what you need to pay attention to when planning it. I also share selected examples and best practices for social media campaigns with you and we look at what you can learn from campaigns. Also Social media tools, which can support you in your campaigns, we present to you.

What is a successful social media campaign?

When we talk about a social media campaign, we mean a centrally coordinated marketing initiative that takes place simultaneously on a specific or several social media channels. First take a look at these best practice examples - then I'll show you how these social media campaigns became so successful.

Three of the most successful social media campaigns 2021

1. Product launch: Social media campaign by JOKOLADE

It's no surprise that a product distributed by television presenter Joko Winterscheidt is a success. But the success of the fair trade chocolate bars is not only due to the prominence of their namesake - but also to a well-made social media campaign that not only picked up potential fans on Instagram, but directly brought them on board.

Source: Instagram account jokolade

The goal of a successful product launch and brand awareness was definitely achieved: Approximately 3000 suggestions were submitted when users were asked via Instagram to develop ideas for the upcoming OOH campaign of the new brand. The winners were then chosen by voting in the Instagram story. You can imagine that the combination of user-generated content, interaction and follower appreciation worked very well.

The most important learning from this campaign for you is that (potential) fans are not only interesting for a social media campaign when a large community already exists - community building can also be done through a thoughtfully crafted first campaign! All you have to do is think about where your prospects are.

Extra tip: It certainly can't hurt to get one or two prominent faces into the campaign that are relevant for your target group and match the brand message - for social proof alone this is a good idea.

Upcycling initiative: Social media campaign from true fruits

The smoothie brand true fruits has long been known for its controversial advertising campaigns. It's a shame that the company only truly recognized the promising topic of sustainability as a marketing tool this year: I can imagine that this positive pragmatic approach is much more appealing to many prospects than the polarizing campaigns of the past. But what exactly did true fruits do differently this time?

Source: Instagram account truefruitssmoothies

In this campaign, true fruits presented upcycling possibilities - ideas on how customers can reuse empty true fruits bottles thanks to various alternative lids: Whether as a piggy bank, sugar shaker or oil dispenser. It's been known for several years that sustainability is a draw - the campaign goal, namely image enhancement and awareness for the product launch of the now 13 different bottle tops, was definitely achieved!

The most important learning for you from this campaign is, in my opinion, that it is worthwhile to always question and leave the most successful marketing paths.

Extra tip: Here too, you can learn a lot about user-generated content and take away for your own campaigns! Look at how true fruit integrated its followers into the campaign - under the hashtag #truefruitsupcycling, almost 5,000 posts were generated on Instagram alone.

100% Women: Social media campaign from HubSpot

The platform HubSpot cleverly uses social media to position itself and its employees as experts on various channels through webinars, blog articles, podcasts, e-books and video content. At the beginning of 2021, HubSpot invited to a customer experience conference - with 100% female leaders. A successful image campaign was built around this event, which addressed the equality of women in leadership positions. Not only did the social media content in the context of the campaign explicitly engage with this topic - other small details also made a positive contribution, for example, that during the campaign period, mainly content by female experts appeared on the website.

Source: Facebook account HubSpot

The social media campaign served severalgoals: In addition to brand image and brand awareness, lead generation certainly also comes into play.

The most important learning for you from this campaign is, however, that a very topical societal issue that is quite polarizing was used to create buzz around the company's own issues - without actually getting involved in the political-societal discussion.

Extra tip: We can also learn a lot about reciprocity from HubSpot. Offering high-quality content for free download is a smart way to generate leads!

But now to you!

What makes successful social media campaigns - and how do you develop one yourself?

In order to become as successful as the examples you saw above, a social media campaign needs to be well thought out and strategically conceived. The following six questions will help you.

1. What is the campaign goal?

The first question you should ask yourself when developing a successful social media campaign is: What is the occasion for my campaign? What is the campaign goal? Is it an image campaign? Do you want to sell more? Should a specific target group be (re) tapped or an existing one activated? Or is a product launch pending?

It is essential to clearly name this goal and make it clear to yourself and all participants before you start. Because all further decisions should be based on the answer to this question.

2. Does the type of campaign fit the brand?

Who doesn't know it - social media in particular often entice you to jump on a trend. Especially if you looked at the three social media marketing examples above, you may have felt like creating a similar campaign. And sure: orienting yourself on successful pioneers can't hurt. Nevertheless, it is crucial to ask yourself, whether this kind of campaign really fits your own brand!

A social media campaign should always firstly meet the brand and its goals, values, and tonality, serve these and pay off on them.

3. Crossmedial or Social Only?

When developing a social media campaign, it is just as important to ask from the outset whether it is to stand on its own or be part of a cross-media campaign. In this case, an integrative approach is advisable - get the classics colleagues on board from the start and work together to create a round campaign!

Often I still experience that a campaign is either conceived in the classic team and social media is then pulled in at the end when the concept is already set in stone. This often shows that the "social media glasses" were missing during the conception - and then this part will not develop any pull.

But the other way around is just as little sense - a campaign should also not only be developed by the social media team and then transformed onto traditional media. Working together from the start always pays off in the end!

Equally important at the beginning is the question of which social media channels are integrated into the campaign. If you ask me, all available channels should be taken into consideration - but always in a way that you (see below) actually have enough resources to serve and steer them everyone adequately.

4. Do content and ads go hand in hand?

You notice: Holistic thinking is indispensable for me if you want to set up a successful social media campaign! The individual content pieces and the ads, which are stratified according to the specific target group to underpin the campaign, should germinate each other - and align both with the campaign and the basic company strategy.

Always ask yourself: What added value does this ad have for the campaign? And: How does this content pay into the brand values?

5. Are you prepared for the echo?

We are on social media - so you definitely need to ensure that during the campaign the necessary capacities are available to manage the community for the advertised posts! Are there streamlined, clearly defined processes? The additional advertising pressure gives you additional reach - you should be prepared for the increased echo.

Especially with polarizing topics (which often offer themselves for successful social media campaigns) you have to expect critical resonance. Do you have a crisis management system? Do you have an emergency plan in the drawer? Panic is a bad adviser, so think in advance about what the worst-case scenario in the aftermath of a campaign looks like and how you want to react.

6. What does success measurement of social media campaigns look like?

The campaign is running, there have been no major incidents, and you can assume that it has achieved its goal? But that's not enough! Successful social media marketing requires concrete success measurement.

At the beginning of each social media campaign, you should therefore clearly define when it will be considered "successful": What are the KPIs? Define relevant metrics and use them as a yardstick. Let's say your campaign goal is to increase sales. Then it's great if you can look back at a very high reach for your campaign afterwards - but that wasn't the goal!

Instead, clearly define: You want about X conversions on your shop and as a result generate Y% buyers with Z EUR sales. Set concrete measurement values and numbers that you want to achieve! Only then can you decide at the end whether a social media campaign was successful or not.

Which tools can support you in your social media campaigns?

So you notice: There are quite a few things to consider if you want to successfully design and run your social media campaign. So that you don't lose track, there are some Social media tools, that can support you. These include, for example:

• Hootsuite
• Later
• Fanpage Karma
• Facelift
• Emplifi
• Falcon.io
• AgoraPulse

If you want to know more about the respective social media tools, you can find real user reviews on OMR Reviews, based on which you can select a suitable social media tool for you and your requirements.

Possible learnings from social media campaigns

Just because a campaign gets a lot of recognition from the scene or even sweeps a prize in the marketing industry, doesn't mean it was really "successful". Be honest with yourself when evaluating your campaign: Have you reached your set goals? Have you surpassed or not reached your metrics? How much was missing? And especially: why?

No failure is the end of the world - if you use it to draw learnings from it: What will you do differently, better in the future? Ask yourself: Have you acted accordingly to your target group? Reaching many people is one thing - but did you reach the right ones? Have you just increased your brand awareness, or really sent the relevant messages? Especially with image campaigns, this is essential.

I hope I could help you with this overview of successful social media campaigns. Always remember: The most important thing is that your campaign suits the target group you want to reach!