I recommend checking out a new online tool called KnowEm.  KnowEm lets you check your brand/product name on 340 social media sites to see if anyone has claimed the name. This is helpful because:
1. it’s time-consuming (and painful!) to go to 340 sites
2. you can register your brand name straight from the site

Your customers know you by your brand name. That is why it’s important to have your business identity be consistent across the different social media sites you focus on. It’s also a bit like website domain name grabbing where early birds get the worm. If you think your brand name may be popular, please check this site out soon, you wouldn’t want someone else taking your brand identity and misbehaving on social media channels.

KnowEm also has a few other fee-based services that can further simplify things:

Individual Plan ($99)
Signup initiation only (not full profiles) on 150 social media websites.

Business Plan ($349)
Complete Signup of all profile info: photos, bio, URL and description on 150 social media websites.

Enterprise Plan ($649)
Complete Signup of all profile info: photos, bio, URL and description on 300 social media websites. Same as above, but for 300 sites!

Brand Protection Program ($49)
Continue to protect your brand or username on up to 30 new and emerging social media networks every month.

If you are just starting your social media journey for your business, KnowEm is definitely worth a visit.

Let’s start with the “hit the jackpot” campaign. Tourism Queensland came up with the concept of “The best job in the world” contest. Interested candidates can submit a video job application for a chance at living and working amongst the islands of the Great Barrier Reef for six months.

From the initial Youtube video to the dedicated website, Tourism Queensland cleverly tied “The best job in the world” contest to visiting the most beautiful islands and beaches Queensland has to offer. The visuals on the video and site were stunning, and it effortlessly inspired people to give the job contest a shot. Within two months after the campaign launch (Dec 2008), there were four million hits on the site and 2000 60-second video applications were received for the job. On May 2009, the winner of the contest got the jealousy of the whole world on his shoulder and was given the job offer, picked from a pool of 34,000 candidates.

The campaign was well thought-out, extremely viral (who didn’t fantasize for at least for a brief moment of taking that job?) and relevant to the goal – grow awareness and attract more visitors.

Let’s move to the “They did *What*?” example. First, there was the video. In this Youtube video, there is a Danish woman holding a baby boy, emotionally talking about her search for the baby daddy, because, well, she got drunk, had a one-night-stand and now voilà – a baby and no daddy. She wants to find the baby daddy and she needs your help. Naturally, people were concerned and wanted to help, the woman’s contact info was posted along the Youtube video.

After the video has gone viral and attracted several million views, the viewers find out, horror of all horrors, this was a video made by Denmark’s Tourism board whose goal “was solely to bring about a positive awareness of Denmark“. Not only were people angry that they’ve been tricked, the video essentially portrayed Danish women as promiscuous and that Denmark has little respect towards single-mothers. FAIL!

Two campaigns, two viral videos, same goals and yet, night and day in results.

As of today, here are some of the food truck brands (in LA and NY) and the numbers of twitter followers they have -

LA
kogibbq 44,364
Sprinklesmobile 6,885
CoolHaus 5,667
nomnomtruck 3,492
Marked5 2,589

NYC
waffletruck 3,462
RickshawTruck 3,280
Green_Truck 3,219
schnitzeltruck 2,467
TheTreatsTruck 2,407

There are many other food trucks business in LA and NY. The ones that seem to stand out more are the ones with a unique style/offering. And the ones listed above are the ones that seem to have the most followers. The leader with the most following is LA’s Kogi bbq tacos with 44K+ followers. However, looking at how it compares to other food trucks, it makes you wonder if the Kogibbq number is super inflated even though there are frequently 300+ people visiting them at the announced location.  Most of these businesses would say that Twitter made their growth possible.

For any businesses that travel to different locations of a city, has a group of customers that are frequent users of social media sites, and where frequent location updates would bring more businesses, twitter may just be the right solution to consider.

Bonobos is a web-only clothing company with no stores, no fitting rooms, and until recently, no physical interaction with the customer. While it is a relatively young company (nearly two year-old), Bonobos got it mostly right when it comes to using social media. I heard about Bonobos from an article on clickz and got intrigued. Here is Bonobos’s social media approach:

Twitter
- launched a Tweet4Trunks promotion. For the promo, Bonobos had a daily giveaway (a pair of swimming trunks to one person) as prize, and people can enter the giveaway by replying to questions Bonobos ask on Twitter regarding its products and relevant topics.

Results:
- 300% Increase of Twitter followers
- Increased traffic to Bonobos’ blog which listed additional daily promotions (which cleverly were offers of free goodies for new customer referrals)

Facebook
- created Facebook ads and targeted them to relevant regions, age groups, college backgrounds etc. Specifically, launched a pair of pants with Chicago Cubs theme/color and targeted it to Cubs fans. As a result, sold 100 pairs and sold out within a month
- announced new products on Facebook page that leads back to Bonobos site product page
- highlighted different customers and tell stories on how Bonobos pants make them look good
- shared fashion tips
- lots of engagement and call to actions (most drive traffic back to Bonobos site)

Results:
- Increased product sales through Facebook ads
- Increased overall traffic to Bonobos site
- Engagement with customers on Facebook

Blog
- contents on relevant topics ranging from fashion interviews, product highlights to business strategy philosophizing
- videos by Bonobos team for the personal touch
- communicate with customers on the usability of its website and new customer service (field ninjas)
- request participation on survey
- announce their referral program to help spread the word on the Bonobos products (via referral page on Bonobos site or individual’s blog/facebook/twitter account with custom public code)

Overall results:
- Revenue of $1.6 million in its first year
- Loyal and repeat customers (repeat purchase rate at 46%)

Bonobos focused its social media efforts on listening more than selling; which is really key for brands investing efforts in social media. And as a true sign of a transparent company, CEO Andy Dunn video-blogged about a campaign gone wrong and what Bonobos learned from that experience. If the Bonobos team keep up these excellent efforts, no doubt they’ll reach their goal of changing the way men purchase pants.

It’s a promotion that is timely as people are likely to check Facebook on Friday afternoon for friends to hang out with and places to go Friday night.

How about for your business? Would your customers appreciate timely incentives or promotions from your Facebook fan page or other social media platforms?