Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel is located on the famous European island of Ibiza. They combined technology with social media and got a huge payoff going from 4,000 Facebook fans to close to 70,000 in one summer. The idea was simple: guests were given an RFID tech-based wristband which was synchronized to their Facebook profile. Sensors were installed throughout the hotel so users could swipe their wristband to upload pictures, have their status updated automatically, and check-in using Facebook Places.
2. Blendtec
Blendtec, known as The World’s Most Advanced Blender, was created by a lifetime inventor and entrepreneur, Tom Dickson. He started the video campaign “Will it blend?” and it quickly went viral. Everything from hockey pucks to rake handles were shoved into a blender and pureed. The “Will it blend” campaign gained millions of views on YouTube where the brand currently has 878k fans.
3. Dollar Shave Club
Shaving is boring, right? Well Dollar Shave Club’s legendary launch video let viewers know that they aren’t just another razor distributor. They’ve continued to use YouTube to share humorous content like “Is It Bad to Pluck Nose Hairs with My Fingers?” and “Do I Really Need to Wash My Hands After I Pee?”
Today, Dollar Shave Club has over a million subscribers and its promotional video has been viewed over 26 million times. Recently acquired for $1 billion by Unilever, the Dollar Shave Club has kept its humorous voice and tone across all social media platforms.
4. Jala
Jala is a SmartBiz customer that distributes high performance, eco-friendly yoga clothing along with everyday casual wear. Jala’s founder, Kelly Kolterman, launched the business from her home in California in 2010. The brand has a strong social media presence on Instagram with 32.5k followers and a robust feed featuring their clothing, yoga poses and inspirational content. Every Jala purchase supports YogaGivesBack.org, a non-profit dedicated to empowering women and children in India to build sustainable livelihoods. They use hashtags and special promotions to support the organization, attracting more followers to their Instagram page.
5. Roshambo Baby
Roshambo Baby is a SmartBiz customer that makes durable and fashionable sunglasses sized for babies and children. The business was started by Scott Morris and his wife, who had a career working on large social media campaigns. The couple wanted to try Facebook ads but didn’t have the budget. They got traction from a simple video Scott made with his phone on the grass in their backyard. The video was targeted on Facebook to women age 25 – 40 on Facebook. “The moment we put up the video it went nuts,” he reports. “It’s been viewed well over a million times on Facebook and shared all over the place. It’s our most popular video…simple, organic. People related to it.”
The Roshambo Baby Facebook page has continued to be a big driver for product sales and awareness and the company now has 40,000+ followers. “You have to know what your product is and how to sell it to the right audience. Facebook is perfect for us and we’ve dedicated most of our advertising budget there.”
6. Fun Bowl
Steve Brown is another smart entrepreneur and SmartBiz customer. He owns Fun Bowl, a family entertainment center in Georgia that features bowling, billiards, video games, mini-golf, and laser tag. Operations of the 7-acre facility have gotten much easier due to modern technology and Fun Bowl has kept up. One of the ways he’s promoting his business is through social media.
“Marketing today is really less costly than what I was spending on print,” he says. “In fact, 98% of what we do is social media. If I want to do something on Friday night, we can blast out an announcement for $500 and cover it. We can reach more people quickly, it’s amazing.”
7. Infinity Strap
Amir Zaki is a SmartBiz customer and the inventor of the Infinity Strap, a unique yoga prop used by yogis and studios across America. The company turned a profit with minimal advertising and marketing costs. “We tried Google paid ads and advertising in magazines,” Amir reports. “The thing that has really taken off for us is Instagram. It’s a unique community of positive people who trust each other. We have over 35,000 followers and my wife has become our social media guru.” These days, Instagram drives 80% of the sales completely organically, without any paid advertising. They have over 54k followers.
8. American Express
Credit card giant American Express is well known among social media marketing experts for making excellent use of influencer marketing campaigns. Through its #AmexAmbassadors programs, AmEx has teamed up with influencers to create social media content that showcases fashionable people in beautiful places.
The key to it all? Following the influencer’s original caption is the #AmexAmbassadors hashtag and a mention of AmEx’s Instagram account. By tying the lives of influencers with a lavish lifestyle to its brand, AmEx links itself to extravagance in ways that can encourage people to get an Amex card.
9. Mint
Banking app Mint is also among the many companies that use social media marketing effectively on Instagram. Mint’s Instagram feed is full of images, colors, and typefaces that are connected to the brand’s identity and instantly catch users’ attention on their feeds.
Standout posts include a budgeting pie chart that looks like a donut and icon-plastered tips for being simultaneously sustainable and economical. These posts best speak to Mint’s ability to catch one’s eye and follow that first impression with meaningful information. Mint also cross-posts its Instagram content to Twitter for extra engagement.
