Sharing the love
Three social media campaigns that I ❤️
Now that the Super Bowl is over, debate over which ads were the best/worst is just about to begin! For the record, this is my favourite Super Bowl ad of all time.
Just a note: I’ll be enjoying the full Family Day weekend, and taking a week off from TSP. I’ll see you back here on Monday, Feb. 27th!
In today’s newsletter:
Sharing the love for three social media campaigns
Promote this TikTok
Instagram has a gift for creators
Bringing it on Valentine’s Day
❤️ SHARING THE LOVE ❤️
As we get closer to Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be fun to share some of the social media posts and campaigns that I’ve fallen in love with over the years. While some of these may seem simple, social media managers know just how hard it is to post something funny without it going sideways. It’s also difficult to post under pressure. And creating inspiring user-generated content is so rare, but always welcome.
Below are my top picks. (And I’d love to know yours!)
1/3 Power out? No problem.
Ten years ago, during Super Bowl XLVII, the Oreo cookie company sent out an iconic post that many marketers still talk about. During an unexpected power outage that lasted 34 minutes, the social media team acted quickly to this trending topic to let people know they could “still dunk in the dark.” How was the team able to jump on this so quickly? According to a Wired article, the company had a 15-person social media team ready to respond to whatever happened during the game. The investment seems to have worked.
2/3 National Roast Day
Fast-food burger chain Wendy’s can be quite sassy on social media. And it gets particularly “roasty” on Jan. 12th, it’s annual Roast Day, where it invites people/brands to tweet at it to get roasted. The campaign first launched in 2018, and while it didn’t happen this year, there are some great tweets from past campaigns. Below are a few favourites, including this interaction between Wendy’s and Meta Quest, Cinnabon, and Velveeta. The brand’s ability to respond quickly, and to hit on a brand sore spot, but in a witty way, is awe-inspiring.
3/3 Manifesting That Tweet
The Twitter account on Twitter is one of my favourites (or, at least it used to be when it was more active in a pre-Elon Musk era). But one campaign really stands out. In January 2022, the company launched “Manifesting That Tweet,” which featured celebrities and athletes who achieved something that they had previously tweeted out. For example, Simu Liu tweeted at Marvel on Dec. 3, 2018 about his dream of being an action hero. He later starred as Shang-Chi in a 2021 Marvel film. The fact that Twitter noticed this trend in user-generated content is incredible. Good for them for jumping on it.
SOCIAL SNACKS
1/2 Promote this TikTok
TikTok wants to make it even easier to create ads on the platform “for advertisers of all sizes and budgets.” As such, it has launched new targeting and boosting features for Promote (Promote is an in-app advertising tool). Now, creators can: Drive more visits to your TikTok page, get more messages from potential customers, boost other creators' content, target your audience by location. Learn more.
2/2 Instagram has a gift for creators
Last November, Instagram began testing a new feature that allowed followers to send content creators money as “gifts.” Now, the company is expanding gifts to more users across the U.S., who can turn on gifts on Reels and posts from the past, present and future, according to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. This is how it works. As for whether this will be available to users in other countries, Mosseri says he hopes to expand it to viewers worldwide in the near future.
ICYMI
Twitter considering charging brands $1,000 per month for its new gold checkmark [Social Media Today]
Facebook rolls out new comment moderation tools for creators [TechCrunch]
Snapchat announces Partner Summit for April 19, 2023 [Snapchat Blog]
YouTube on three ways to remix videos with Shorts [YouTube Blog]
BRINGING IT ON VALENTINE’S DAY
While travelling in New York City recently (with my husband and dog, Olive), we came across a large heart outside the Langham Hotel. There was a small group of employees standing out front getting photos and video. We asked if we could get a pic, and one person stepped up. I knew right away she was the hotel’s social media manager. The signs were all there — grabbing video to promote it, wanting to help others use the heart, and taking a great photo!
This Valentine’s Day, I want to send out some extra love to all of the social media managers out there who love what they do — even when it’s so very hard to!
