One of the most savvy things you can do as a social media or marketing manager is follow the best of the best on social media. Picking up on what the top brand’s are doing will help give you ideas for your own kick ass strategy.
Brands like Starbucks and Oreo are at the peak of social success, but who are the other current kings? Why should you follow them? What should you take away?
Here are the 5 best brands on social media for 2015, and something you can learn from each of them!
1. Starbucks
Lesson: how to create high-quality promotional content on social media
Starbucks reigns supreme when it comes to engaging content, as they have the most Twitter followers of all brick-and-mortar businesses. Surprisingly, about 90% of Starbuck’s posts are simply promotional content and up-selling. So why are they on the list?
Two reasons. While they may post a lot of promotional content, the promotions themselves are actually worth the follow (why yes, I’ll take 1/2 off my Peppermint Mocha). Second, Starbuck’s posts engaging, high-quality photos (see below). These photos allow them to effectively upsell and promote. You don’t feel like you’re being advertised to (how about the gift card upsell below? I’m sold).
2. Oreo
Lesson: how to generate creative and interactive content on social media
After following Oreo on Instagram, I can confirm they are the most creative brand on social media. Think your product or brand is hard to create content for? Imagine working for Oreo. I’ve never seen someone do so much with a cookie.
Recipes, cookie characters, ‘lost Oreo’ signs (?? below), you never know what you’re going to get. But I’ll tell you one thing; their photos are entertaining. One of my favorite brands (and snacks) to follow on social.
3. T-Mobile
Lesson: how to demonstrate great customer support using social media
T-Mobile’s amazing customer support on Twitter has garnered them a competitive advantage in the telecom service industry. How often do you tweet a displeasure at a major-brand only to hear nothing back? Well peep this, T-Mobile has replied to a staggering 86% of all customer questions, making them the second most devoted global brand on social.
One of the coolest parts of T-Mobile’s social media support strategy is the support rep’s signature that comes with each tweet (below). This adds a nice touch of individuality, making it feel less robotic.
4. Taco Bell
Lesson: how to use humor and wit to increase engagement on social media
Every brand should try to evoke some kind of emotion from their followers – it makes your content more shareable (and viral). Taco Bell does exactly that through their hilarious Twitter account.
Not only are their posts humorous, but they’re also fairly witty. While most brands struggle to get 100 retweets on any given tweet. It’s not unheard of for Taco Bell to get a few thousand (imagine all of those impressions!).
5. Burberry
Lesson: how to be more interesting on social media
Often times, social media coordinators think their content has to directly reflect their product. This is simply not the case. Burberry does a great job with sharing content that people actually want to see in their feeds (even if not directly related to their product).
A great example is their #BurberryWeather campaign (below), where they share amazing photos from different cities, along with the current weather for that city. The connection? Burberry is known in the fashion industry for their great trench coats, so they share photos of the outdoors. The connection is subtle and the photos make for great content.
