Social Media Homeruns

Companies are starting to broaden what they consider online advertising and are opting to run some robust and integrated social media campaigns. Rather than slapping a banner ad on a site, social media campaigns take full advantage of the Web’s unique properties like interactivity, community-building and the ability to specialize local offers. Mashable.com recently highlighted what it considers the most successful social media and online campaigns of the past year in order to study what these marketers did right and what lessons can be learned from them.

The number one campaign, according to Mashable, came from The Gap which teamed with popular group-buying site Groupon to offer a nationwide deal of $50 worth of apparel for just $25. In one day, 441,000 Groupons were sold bringing in a little more than $11 million. The sale marked Groupon’s first nationwide deal with a major brand. For Gap, the deal brought in a ton of cash and, hopefully, new customers.

“We’re really trying to reach new customers,” said Chris Gayton, Gap’s senior director of media. “To reach them in ways that are part of their everyday so that it becomes like a conversation.”

Gap’s other social media effort included deals for Foursquare users to help build community. Gayton says that 70 percent of people that buy something in a Gap store begin by browsing on their website. Social media is a way to reach those people and bring them under their brand. Part of that is encapsulated in their 1969 denim stream. Billed as a catch-all resource on denim (not just Gap-sponsored ads, though they are there as well), Gap built the stream to offer added value and create conversation among users. The Gap is betting online loyalty will turn into profit.

Mashable also profiled campaigns from Disney, AOL, Starbucks and Mountain Dew. For details on these and more, see the story.