The 4 Best Social Media Marketers of 2017

In the coming year, social media will be the most valuable, direct form of interaction that a company can have with its audience. You don’t have to look far for proof:

• In 2017, global social network penetration reached an all time high, and growth shows no signs of slowing down in 2018.
• In polls, respondents said that social media is their preferred way to communicate with a brand and 90% say they have done it before.
• 81% of businesses currently have a social media presence.

The data speaks for itself: a social media presence is non-negotiable for online marketers who want to generate as many sales as possible. And given that it’s a relatively straightforward technology, many brands have adopted the following techniques:

• Sharing content (blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, etc.) with information relevant to customer needs
• Responding quickly to customer queries through Facebook, Twitter, and other channels.
• Offering special discounts and coupon codes to customers who have followed the brand on social media, sometimes with an incentive for sharing the profile with other users

These methods have proven their worth over time, and will continue to be used in the near future. But in 2017, some brands pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with social media and won customers over with exceptionally creative content and marketing strategies.

It’s worth taking a look at what they did, and how they managed to earn so much attention for themselves. Here are 4 social media marketers who did a bang-up job in 2017:

1. Arby’s Geeky Admins

Managing the social media presence of a nationwide sandwich chain seems relatively straightforward: share commercials, pictures of food and upcoming promotional discounts. As long as your customers stay hungry, what more can you need?

But Arby’s took things a step further this year by continuing a social media strategy dreamt up for the company by Roare Group: using napkins, wrappers and other restaurant paraphernalia, create artistic works inspired by staples of Internet culture.

Take this tweet from last week, inspired by the Megaman video games:

Or this tweet inspired by Death Note, a Japanese animated show that became relevant again in 2017 after the release of a live action adaptation by Netflix:

The posts — shared across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — continue to thrill Arby’s followers, who frequently fill the comments section with warm messages of approval. In an interview this year, strategist Josh Martin remarked:

A year ago, if you looked at our branded content across social, it all looked very promotional and the same as everyone else. We knew we had to break through and do something different to engage these audiences through find their passions, instead of just trying to sell a product.

The takeaway: Social media doesn’t have to be bland and predictable. By tapping into the interests of your followers and creating high-quality, creative content, your brand can become unforgettable.

2. GoPro’s Loyal Fanbase

In case you didn’t know, GoPro produces cameras that can be worn on users’ bodies to capture video of sports, stunts, and other vigorous activities. The company’s social media strategy is a masterpiece of marketing that shows exactly how a product can sell itself.

Rather than inundate customers with a barrage of promotions or product images, GoPro’s method is to invite customers to send in their own content, which is then curated and pushed to the public.

Examples include the Picture of The day, user-generated video that is published across social media and YouTube, and even a channel that streams on Xbox and Virgin America Airlines.

For the holidays, GoPro recently shared this user generated short film —

Company strategist Andrew Shipp weighs in on the logic behind the technique:

Every business has a story to tell. Using GoPro cameras provides a way to capture those stories… GoPro is the world’s most versatile camera and we want to bring our social audience the world’s most diverse and amazing content

By getting users involved, GoPro is able to embody their vision of a versatile product, and win tremendous amounts of organic engagement: the proof is there for everyone to see.

The Takeaway: By leveraging your product’s story and selling points, it is possible to involve your community in a much more active way and garner user generated content to make your presence self-sustaining.

3. Kelloggs Seizes Fate

This year, an opportunity landed in the lap of Eggo waffle maker Kelloggs when Netflix released its second season of Stranger Things. We have elsewhere told the story of how a sci-fi series became a promotional tool for Kellogg’s ubiquitous breakfast product, but here the key point is social media.

In response to the season’s release this October, Eggo immediately released content based around the show across social platforms:

The mentions went both ways. After Netflix aired an Eggo inspired commercial for the show’s release, the two companies exchanged banter on social media which received a high amount of user interaction.

Especially surprising is that neither Netflix nor Kelloggs intended for this partnership to develop. It sort of just…happened, with no formal agreement on either side.

According to Kelloggs marketing director Trinh Le,

We have worked with them as we found out about their plans for the premiere and we’ve shared all of the ideas that we have for getting fans excited, to make sure they’re on board with all of that.

The result of this spontaneous venture was highly profitable:

The Takeaway: Influencer marketing remains a highly valuable way of getting a place in the spotlight. By keeping their eyes peeled, social media marketers can take advantage of big opportunities to collaborate with other brands.

4. KLM Stays Very Busy

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has mastered the art of simplicity with its ingenious social media strategy: provide a human response to every question within an hour of receiving it.

This task is bewilderingly difficult, given that the company — like many large entities with a social media presence — receives north of 30,000 user messages every week. However, using a combination of artificial intelligence and a large force of social media correspondents who are trained for six weeks before coming on board, the airline makes it work.

According to director of social Karlijn Vogel-Meijer,

In order to be successful in social media, we not only need to be better than other airlines, but other brands as well, like Nike or Victoria’s Secret…We see a movement going on right now where passengers want personal connections. They want to talk to us, and want a timely, correct, and personal answer back.

The move to social media for customer management occurred after a volcanic eruption in Iceland stranded KLM’s passengers across the continent of Europe. Many turned to Facebook and Twitter to air their grievances, and the company shifted full force to fielding questions, re-directing travelers, and protecting the brand image.

Using CRM software, thousands of messages are now processed and tagged with suggested queries that are then sent to agents who can review and add a personal touch.

The results have been exceptionally favorable for the company, which now delivers 15% of its boarding passes to customers through Facebook Messenger; the Netbase 2017 Airlines Social Media Report now scores the company at the top of many ranking factors.

The Takeaway: Engaging customers directly is still possible, and extremely effective. Emerging technologies like AI enhanced CRM can enable a trained support team to field thousands of queries in a personal way.

Whether engaging consumers through art and pop culture, user generated content, influencer marketing or emerging technology, the core theme that characterizes a killer social media strategy is creativity.

Every audience has different needs and interests. The secret to any great social media marketer is to capitalize on both, and meet them in ways that others simply can’t.

In 2018, the floor remains very open for innovative brands who are ready to carve out a unique space that will capture the attention of customers in the coming year. Will you be ready?

OMI is dedicated to helping small businesses navigate new marketing technologies more effectively, with practical education from experts across digital marketing fields.

To learn more about balancing your advertising strategy and building effective social media communities, consider viewing our brand new courses including a dedicated social media marketing track. For ten days, access to our entire library of classes is completely free.

-Brandon Shutt, Editor at OMI