The List: the best of the best in social media

Welcome to The List: a roundup of the best current social media campaigns.

Maxibon and New World Really App-ly Themselves

When you hear the words ‘content marketing’, you might envision the usual suspects: blogs, photos and videos. But content can come in many shapes and sizes, and app-building is a content trend that seems to get bigger among brands every year.

Recently, Maxibon created a Tinder-like app for ice-cream fans, Snackr. The idea behind the app is to bring together people who are sick of eating ice-cream alone. Using the app, they swipe right on an ice-cream buddy, and go grab a frozen treat with them.

This a brilliant way to have fans engage with the brand, and the accompanying video content on Maxibon’s YouTube and Facebook pages has been appropriately hilarious.

Other brands are also getting in on the app-content fun, with New World supermarkets in New Zealand creating an augmented-reality game that’s similar to Pokemon Go. Users go in store, boot up the app, and collect Easter Eggs as part of a nationwide hunt.

Kids can then trade in their virtual eggs for real-life chocolates.

This builds awareness for the store, and then quite literally sends people into stores;  a supremely clever use of mobile.

Starbucks Gives Power to the People

User-generated content can be a powerful tool for brands when done well. Not only does it show your followers and customers you care about their thoughts and content, it can also help you in building a steady stream of content on your own pages.

There are very few brands that do this better than Starbucks, and nothing demonstrates this more than their #SpringCups campaign on Instagram. The campaign encourages fans and artists to doodle on their Starbucks takeaway cups and post the results on the social media platform.

By @kelsletters

Of course, this means searching for the hashtag on the platform now yields hundreds of beautifully drawn results, with everything from calligraphy to unicorns and Winnie the Pooh. This stream of content keeps the brand trending on people’s newsfeeds, and Starbucks has already reposted some of the cooler designs on their own page.

It’s a beautiful, artistic win-win.

By @heathernicoledesigns

Intel Knows its Audience

A key part of content marketing is knowing that not every piece of content needs to be about selling your brand. If you know what your audience likes, you can create content that will interest them without sounding as if all you care about is sales.

Intel have perfected this strategy with their Instagram page. Between shots of their products or videos filmed on their drones, they include content that’s of particular interest to their tech-obsessed audience: interviews with personalities from the world of video games.

They chat to e-sports champions and popular online streamers about their experiences with video games and technology. These snippets aren’t directly selling the brand or its products, but instead offer high-value, unique content for their audience.

That unique content gives people a great reason to follow Intel, even if they aren’t currently fans or in the market for new technology. And those followers just might be more open to buying Intel products further down the line.