Why your company needs social media strategies

In the age of digital media, companies embrace social media as a center part of their business strategy to reach customers. Social media is not only about pushing new feeds to audiences, but also providing a public platform of collaborative interactions with customers and even employees. It is a new way that allows companies to gain more valuable insights and build long-lasting relationships with their customers. The unique advantage of using social media strategy is that allows companies tapping into customers’ information and increasing its marketing reach by communicate with customers.How do you break through all the noise on social media sites? Here are some creative, timely and interesting examples of how organizations achieved social media success.

#Social Media Campaign of the Year: WestJet Christmas Miracle

AirlineWestJet asked some travelers what they wanted for Christmas. Then, while the passengers were airborne, WestJet shoppers raced to buy and wrap the requested items, which were delivered to recipients via the destination airport's baggage carousel. The campaign's YouTube video received more than 36 million views, won a Shorty award, and gave WestJet the kind of "good will that money can't buy." (Forbes) The campaign "gets my vote for a truly successful campaign in every way," says Randstad Sourceright's Stroud. "For sheer ambition, it's hard to beat," says Viderity Inc's Everett. "It was an amazing, stunt-based campaign," adds Tania Yuki, founder and CEO of Shareablee.

#Michael Kors Instagram Ad
Instagram posted its first ad in November 2013, from fashion house Michael Kors. The ad "was met with a resounding chorus of boos from Instagram users," according to Business Insider. But the ad was actually a success. During the 18 hours after it was shared, the promoted post received 370 percent more "Likes" than the average Michael Kors Instagram post, according to Nitrogram, and Kors gained nearly 34,000 new followers. The post "demonstrated the power and growing popularity of Instagram and the importance of visual promotion to build exposure and, ultimately, sales," says The Buzz Agency's Bimonte. "It further shows that Instagram works well for fashion brands to be influencers and get in front of another audience."

#A marriage proposal on a Southwest flight    

Southwest Airline has a blog “Nuts About Southwest” which may come from the blog’s editorial team, employees, or even airline customers who mention an interesting experience on Twitter and even YouTube videos. The blog’s editors constantly look for content on Southwest’s intranet, e-mails, and other social networking sites. The team contacts the employees and customers to specify a story for details and even video clips and then packages them for the blog. One blog post featured a marriage proposal on a Southwest flight. The blog called "A marine marriage proposal in the air" is further amplified through the airline’s 1.3 million Twitter followers and more than 3 million Facebook users who see links to each post.