Social Media Success
Case Studies
Kelli Brown | April 2009

About your presenter
• Expertise includes web design and development,
SEO, social media marketing and strategy
• Seven years in newspaper journalism
– Created one of the first newspaper blogs
– Created first Yahoo! newspaper widget
– Captured target audience with Facebook, MySpace
• Experienced technical communicator
• kelli@pixelpointpress.com

Current state of SMM
• Several companies creating SMM initiatives
• SMM budgets are on the rise
• What creates a
successful marketing
campaign?

What leads to success?
• Three examples share common qualities
– Provide a unique experience or content
– Facilitate user interaction with the company
– Create interaction between users
– Allow companies to have a voice
– Know your audience and target users

Case studies
• Dell: Dell Community and Second Life
• Jeep: Jeep Community Home Base
• HP: 31 Days of the Dragon

Dell
• Twitter accounts by real people at Dell
– Using real names
• IdeaStorm
– Users submit ideas
– Other users vote
– Best ideas get development
• Blogs, forums, wikis, media galleries

Dell and Second Life

Dell
• Created an island and store inside Second Life
• Selling computers
– Virtual computers for use in Second Life
– Real computers for use in real life
• Engages users where they spend time
• Fosters user interaction

Jeep
• Community Home Base
• Flickr album of user-submitted photos
• Links to MySpace and Facebook groups
• Links to user-created content and groups
• News, events, commercials
– Touts the “real” Jeep enthusiasts

Jeep

HP
• 31 Days of the Dragon
• Challenge: Increase sales of a lagging laptop
• 31 laptops given to prominent tech bloggers
• Bloggers create contests to give laptops away
• Laptops given out one a day for a month

HP: The results
• Instant SEO: Top 50 Google entries were for
the contest
– 380,000 links to 31 sites
• Created huge buzz
among target market
• Sales: Increased 85% on an old product
– Exponential ROI

Best practices
• Target users where they spend their time
• Provide a unique experience or content
• Facilitate interaction with the company
– Give users a voice
• Create interaction between users
• Allow employees to have a voice