My Fave Blogs that Show Some Love
Today, social media is all about the interaction. It's a part of our daily lives and we want to know that real people are on the other side. Here is a list of some of my favorite blogs or businesses on social media. They are interactive, but also, provide a glimpse into the business of social media.
South Dakota Tourism - On a recent trip to this great state, I interacted with their twitter account. While driving along the long, straight, mostly flat I-90, I saw a billboard with the hashtag #HifromSD. I began tagging all my pictures with it and I actually got a Tweet in response to my pictures. It's a great way to get people using the hashtag. The best way was to make the interaction personal. Not only did they respond, they commented on the content. Then, it got me to tweet more with that hashtag. When you post with a hashtag, you're hoping your posts will end up with related posts. The interaction is validation that it did!
Birchbox - I'm an avid fan of Birchbox products and I definitely think they use social media to their greatest advantage. Recently, they partnered with Benefit cosmetics to award subscribers with a Beauty Bash. It was almost entirely facilitate through social media (besides the actual entering the contest, you did that online on their website.) Not only did winners receive free makeup, they asked the winners to throw a fun party with their best friends and document it. The biggest incentive for documenting the bash via social media was another contest. Within the winning group, a smaller group would win more makeup based on their posts with the hashtag #beautybash. I took to Instagram to document my party and they even responded to my posts. Both Benefit and Birchbox commented. It was great to see that my posts from the party were being seen by the companies who made it possible. It made me an even bigger fan of both. Other beauty companies have also done a great job with interacting with me on twitter. (Rock London Nails tweet)
Uber DC - Although the situation did not begin positive, the result was great for Uber. A few months ago, I had a terrible interaction with an Uber driver. He ended up speeding off and I was pretty sure he would charge me for a ride I did not take. I remembered seeing Uber DC tweeting individuals so I took to a Tweet to let them know what happened. On the app, there is actually no place to report an incident like this. I tweeted the local Uber twitter account and received a response within 30 minutes. They were able to remove the charges and restore my trust in the product. This was hugely important since the company has little control of what happens on the ground. They can make up for unfortunate situations, but that can only happen if they are monitoring what's going on in real time. Twitter is a fantastic way to do that!
Purdue University - When I was at Purdue, they joined twitter and began tweeting. I remember it being a very new thing, but off the bat, they were connecting with students. This past year, they created a social media campaign to raise money for the different colleges and organizations. The challenge was that all the money had to be raised on one day. They called it Purdue Day of Giving and created a hashtag #purduedayofgiving. I donated and posted lots of pictures and videos supporting my school and the marching band! After tweeting a picture from school, I received this Tweet from the @LifeatPurdue account. Not only was this the busiest day of tweeting, they were able to interact with people on a personal level. It made the effort much more worthwhile.
