The 2012 games were the first Olympics event since the social media marketing boom. Watching the commercials that companies paid BIG money to air during the Olympics can teach you a thing or two about strategies for your own marketing campaign.
Obviously if the big boys spend so much money on these ads, the marketing techniques they’re using have to be worth the investment.
One of the most common similarities in the ads this year were Twitter chat #hashtags pictured on Olympics commercials’ final screen shot, along with company logo and website URL.
Web 2.0 emphasizes information sharing in a communal atmosphere. Building community involvement is like digital word of mouth. Real life consumers talking about and endorsing products and services builds credibility.
Twitter takes the cake when it comes to being the best social media outlet to host a conversation with consumers.
Twitter chats bring users together with a common hashtag word or phrase. By adding the hashtag to the end of tweets, anyone can easily join in on the conversation. And by clicking the hashtag, users can view a worldwide Twitter conversation.
Olympics 2012 ads confirm that Twitter is a worthy component of social media marketing. Using Twitter to increase interaction with consumers is a method of gaining mind share. When consumers need a certain product or service, if you’re always engaging with them, you’ll be the provider that comes to mind.
How to benefit from a Twitter conversation
Once you’ve determined your Twitter hashtag keyword or phrase, follow these steps to use the chat to your advantage:
- Promote your Twitter hashtag at the end of blog posts. Ask readers to join the conversation. If you have a following on Twitter already, tweet using the hashtag whenever you have relevant information to start the conversation.
- Follow people who are actively chiming in with the hashtag in their tweets.
- When they follow back, thank them through DM (direct message) for the follow and share a link to your website or blog.
- Continue to tweet casually with your audience. Add in promotional copy and links to landing pages or blog posts when the Twitter conversation heads in that direction.
- Share links to other relevant blogs and/or valuable content in your niche
- Link to pages created for building email marketing lists where you have free content to distribute in exchange for email addresses
- Tweet about company updates and announcements
- Share website updates and new product/service offers
By taking a lesson from the Olympics 2012 ads, you can achieve prosperous social media marketing on Twitter. There won’t be any gold medals, but the increased traffic, more qualified leads and higher conversion are even better rewards for winning marketers.