There are fans and then there are superfans. These are your best customers who not only advocate your brand but have enough clout in their social circles to influence decisions and motivate actions. As elusive as they may seem, some brands have figured out how to motivate them and have linked the outcomes of their actions to measurable ROI. We combed through 300+ hugely successful social marketing campaigns that involved sweepstakes, contests, coupons, etc. and have reached millions of consumers in the past year. Here are the top 5 tactics brands adopted to create a community of fans so engaged they became their best advocates.

1. 5 Best Practices to Mobilize and
Grow Your Brand Advocates

2. Table of Contents
Introduction
01
Create Simultaneous Engagements and Be Consistent About It
02
Don’t Wait; Get Your Fans to Take Action and Be Clear About It
03
Images, images, images!
04
Be Relevant
05
Mix It Up
06
The Final Take
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(i)

3. BACK
Introduction
There are fans and then there are superfans. These are
your best customers who not only advocate your brand
but have enough clout in their social circles to influence
decisions and motivate actions. As elusive as they may
seem, these superfans are not a myth. Some brands
have figured out how to motivate them and have linked
the outcomes of their actions to measurable ROI.
But what is it that some of these successful brands are
doing with their social marketing to achieve such
success? To find out, we combed through 300+ hugely
successful social marketing campaigns that involved
sweepstakes, contests, coupons, etc. and have reached
millions of consumers in the past year, and came up with
a set of best practices.
Here are the top 5 tactics’ brands adopted to create a
community of fans so engaged they became their best
advocates.
But what is it that some
of these successful brands
are doing with their social
marketing to achieve such
success?
To find out, we
combed through 300+
hugely successful
social marketing
campaigns that involved
sweepstakes, contests,
coupons, etc. and have
reached millions of consumers
in the past year, and came
up with a set of best
practices.
01

4. BACK
Create Simultaneous Engagements
and Be Consistent About It
Give consumers multiple ways to engage with your
brand and stimulate different actions when they get to
your social assets. This helps increase the duration of
engagement and the likelihood of these consumers
returning.
A natural foods brand offers its Facebook visitors a
steady stream of activities including,
An collection of videos that shows recipes, exercise
tips, product information and how their natural foods
are sourced.
questions like “Do you like the packaging of our food
products”?
Resources catered only towards people with special
dietary needs, like diabetes or certain allergies.
A “Healthy Eating for my Kids” project with an
interactive guide that points mothers to right foods
products and shares tips from connected fans on
helping picky eaters, eat more healthy.
A transition to the brands company website.
A forum allowing fans to enter into a dialogue via
Great Tastings
108,371 likes 634 talking about this
Food/Beverages
All about natural foods.
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on the page. Use these to
run your most recent and
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5. BACK
Don’t Wait; Get Your Fans to Take
Action and Be Clear About It
Stimulate action with crystal clear “Call to Action” to your social communities and instruct fans exactly on how they can
make use of that offer, application or resource.
A large CPG company recently discovered that despite a
gripping ad and lucrative offer, more than 60% of their Facebook
fans and visitors who “liked” the ad did not really share or
redeem. A closer look at some of the fan comments and an
analysis of how consumers clicked on Facebook showed up a
surprising result.
LAST CHANCE Click here: http://bit.ly/12JTtch
Get your $2 coupon
SHARE & SAVE
SocialTwist analyzed how consumers were reacting to that offer
and found out that because the copy highlighted “Share and
Save” (see image), fans instantly hit the Facebook share button.
What they ended up doing was share the ad image but never
really clicked on the accompanying link that took them to the
Brands’ microsite where all the action was.
More than 8000 fans who wanted to redeem the offer never
clicked the link. Frustrated fans posted comments like “I shared
but got no coupons”, “There is a technical error and coupons are
not being delivered even though I shared”
Like
Comment Share
1267
3599 people like this.
LAST CHANCE Click here: http://bit.ly/12JTtch
A change in ad copy that clarified that the call to action was not
“Share” but “Click” sent the engagement numbers soaring. The
ad registered an instant jump in click through rates and happy
consumers clearly understood that the coupon offers were
redeemed on the microsite.
Get your $2 coupon
Click the above link
By ensuring fans reached the microsite, the Brand was able to
continue the engagement via offering multiple other resources.
A large CPG company
recently discovered that
despite a gripping ad and
lucrative offer, more than
A closer look at some of Comment Share
Like the
60% of their Facebook
fan comments and an people like this.
49
fans and visitors who
analysis of how consumers
“liked” the ad did not
clicked on Facebook showed
really share or
up a surprising result.
redeem.
11
03

6. BACK
Images, images, images!
There is ample evidence to show that nothing gets more exposure and real estate than pictures that can move us or
connect with us. Take advantage and use every opportunity to place eye-catching images to your posts.
Look at the campaign by Spartan Stores. Need we say more?
04

7. BACK
Be Relevant
If you’re not current, you don’t exist! A brand tuned into its consumer’s interests is instantly relatable. Facebook marked
the beginning of summer by posting the top places people were “Checking in”.
NDTV, a leading news channel in
India, became a household name to
billion plus people by connecting
with a cause the nation cared about.
After outcry over a series of tiger
poaching incident, the organization
started a “Save the Tiger” campaign
on its website and social media
pages and mobilized and connected
millions of fans.
From landmark events like the
Olympics to holidays, awards shows
and movie releases, there is enough
happening around your consumers.
Join the conversation with them.
From landmark events like
the Olympics to holidays,
awards shows and movie
releases, there is enough
happening around your
consumers. Join the
conversation with them.
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8. BACK
Mix It Up
Coupon, sweepstakes and promotions are most popular with consumers on social media but these may not be the
most shared. Some fans love to share quizzes and trivia more than a coupon. Fans often want both, so give them both
but be sure to provide value. Nobody wants to spam a friend especially on social media. There must always be
something in it for both. It could be a handy discount on an expensive new product, a donation to a cause that they
want to publicly align with or entertainment. In fact gaming is also always popular.
It could be a handy
discount on an
Nobody wants to spam a expensive new
friend especially on social product, a donation
media. There must always to a cause that they
be something in it for both. want to publicly align
with or entertainment.
In fact gaming is also
always popular.
Mountain Dew does this exceptionally well with its “Dew Crew” campaign, which rewards users for sharing and posting.
A consumer products brand, targeting teenage girls got sharing numbers soaring with offers to win sweepstakes as
well as opportunities to show off fan personalities with photo contests. Diaper brand Huggies topped popularity charts
with its Easy on, Easy Off challenged.
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9. BACK
The Final Take
Advocates create three times as much engagement as typical fan bases. Court them wherever and however it works.
These best practices are just some of the steps in the path to creating superfans. Stay tuned for more such insights
from us.
SocialTwist is a powerful, easy-to-use referral marketing platform to grow and engage brand advocates and
their social networks.
Learn how we can help you today!
Call us at +1.866.660.6044 or email sales@socialtwist.com
www.socialtwist.com
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