The past few weeks we’ve been covering how to integrate social media and public relations. We’ve explored press releases as blog posts and incorporating social media in your boiler plate. Today, we’ll give you some examples of some great social PR campaigns, who have magnified their marketing success with the winning mix.
1. The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel
The Balsams Resort, located in scenic New Hampshire, wanted to give would-be guests the experience of staying at the resort. The company worked with the bobdonpaul agency to come up with a way that would get the resort some press, but in a more organic way, through stories from a new type of brand ambassador. “The hotel’s “InnBedded Resorter” campaign used social media to find the world’s first-ever “Resorter” — a person who would live at the hotel for July and August 2010 and use social channels to share all of their experiences at the 8,000 acre resort. Entries poured in from all over the world — after narrowing the field to a few finalists, The BALSAMS then used online voting to pick the winner”.
This social PR campaign played to the strengths of public relations and social media by telling the story of what it’s like to stay at the resort. The strategy was not only successful in terms of customer engagement and media attention, but it did what all great marketing campaigns should do, brought more customers. As a result of their creative marketing efforts, the resort had a sold out first weekend and the busiest holiday in years.
2. The Honest Company
Actress Jessica Alba took on a new role when she launched The Honest Company earlier this year. The environmentally friendly childcare brand was created after Jessica discovered how toxic children’s products can be when she became a mother herself. Teaming up with a well-known family and environmental advocate, the brand leveraged Jessica’s celebrity status and extensive Facebook following to embark upon a campaign launch that exploded with publicity. More proof that a great story, especially with a celebrity spokesperson at the center, can generate a LOT of buzz. We like the fact that Jessica’s social media efforts are very accessible and friendly; young mother’s can relate well to her story.
3. Healthy Choice
Healthy Choice came up with a creative campaign that grew the company’s Page on Facebook as well as garnered publicity through bloggers. The company wanted to reinforce their brand as being healthy yet a good value as well, so they implemented a progressive coupon. The more “likes” they had, the more fans would save with the coupon. This engaged their Facebook community and also made a blog-worthy news story for coupon bloggers. Healthy Choice implemented an intricate blogger outreach that targeted bloggers to help publicize the Facebook campaign as well as build relationships with their fans in the blogging community. The campaign was successful, to say the least: “In just two weeks, the Healthy Choice Facebook page grew from 6,800 to nearly 60,000 fans, and the team distributed more than 50,000 buy-one-get-one-free coupons. The progressive coupon campaign also generated significant trade coverage, including an article in Brandweek.”
As you go about your marketing efforts, be mindful of creative ways to integrate social media and public relations. They a both great tools on their own, but when combined they have added power for storytelling and connecting fans with your brand.
The above campaigns are great examples of how implementing public relations tactics with your social media campaign can give your marketing extra oomph and pizazz. As more and more media is consumed online, it only makes sense to leverage the power of what used to be two very different disciplines into a streamlined strategy for success.
Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan!