Creating an incredible social media marketing campaign can be one of the best ways for any business to facilitate new growth. After all, social networks provide companies with the perfect platform for reaching consumers, generating new leads, and building client relationships.
59% of the world’s population is active on social media. That means every company is capable of reaching anywhere up to 4.7 billion people around the world with the right strategy. However, creating successful social media campaigns can sometimes be easier said than done.
As social platforms grow increasingly crowded, there’s more competition to deal with. Plus, consumer preferences are constantly changing and evolving, paving the way for new styles of social media marketing. As we move into 2024, one of the best ways to prepare yourself for a powerful social media marketing campaign is to look back at some of the top examples from the last year.
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Here’s your guide to some of the most successful social media campaigns from 2022 and the lessons you can take away from them.
What is a Social Media Marketing Campaign?
Before you can determine how to create a successful social media campaign, you first need to know what a social media campaign is. Essentially, social media campaigns are similar to any form of marketing campaign. They’re pieces of content delivered according to a planned schedule, with the intention of driving specific, measurable results.
Most companies create social media marketing campaigns to drive engagement, sales, and deliver insights into important topics. The most successful strategies often combine a compelling concept, story, or strong copy, with eye-catching graphics, video, and design elements.
Unlike typical marketing campaigns, which can apply across a variety of different channels, social media campaigns are specific to social media. The most successful campaigns consider the unique audience, features, and functions of the platform in question.
The Social Media Trends of 2024
Part of creating successful campaigns for social media is keeping up with the latest trends in the landscape. In the last year, we’ve seen a rapid increase in various new trends, such as:
- Rising Social Commerce: Studies suggest the social commerce landscape will be worth around $80 billion by 2025. Various channels, including Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook have begun to introduce new ways for customers to buy products directly from brands.
- Short-form video: In an information-rich landscape, today’s consumers have limited attention spans. They’re looking for rapid-fire content to provide them with information and entertainment. Reels on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok videos are on the rise.
- Human connections: Consumers have begun to look for more empathy, transparency, and human connections from the brands they’re interacting with online. Today’s companies need to be able to show their human side through meaningful, emotional content.
- The Creator Economy: Now worth just over $100 billion, the creator economy is just getting started. Many platforms have leaned into producing new creator marketplaces and tools to assist individuals in finding new ways to monetize their social presence.
- Memes: Creators on social media have begun experimenting with new ways to reach their audience through memes and playful content. Brands are focusing on developing a more meaningful “personality” to connect with their followers.
Moving into 2024, it’s difficult to say for certain what the social media landscape will bring.
Most experts, including Growth Collective marketing freelancers, agree the creator economy will continue to boom, and different forms of video content will grow more valuable, particularly with the rise of augmented reality apps. At the same time, we’re likely to see an increased focus on influencers, transparency, and accountability among brands.
8 Takeaways from Successful Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Now that you know what a social media campaign is and how they’ve begun to evolve in the last year, let’s take a closer look at some of the campaigns that had a major impact on the market in 2024.
1. Starbucks: Sip into Summer
During the summer months, Starbucks adopted a new tagline, “Sip into Summer” on Twitter and started looking for new ways to engage its target audience.
Community engagement has grown to be a massive and important trend in the social media landscape, particularly thanks to the rise of the “attention economy”. In the post below, the Starbucks brand encourages customers to respond by sharing their “perfect summer day”.
The single post earned 271 quote tweets, 115 re-tweets and 1,104 likes.
Takeaway: Find ways to engage your audience on every channel. You can ask questions on Twitter, create polls on LinkedIn, or even add emoji sliders to your Stories on Instagram. Most of the top social media channels use algorithms that prioritize engagement, so if you can connect with your audience regularly, you’re more likely to expand your reach.
2. Apple: Shot on iPhone
You may have spotted one of Apple’s billboards in 2022, showcasing a beautiful image with the accompanying hashtag #ShotOniPhone. This incredible social media marketing campaign was a unique way for Apple to draw attention to its powerful new camera while encouraging the creation of user-generated content from its cult following.
The campaign focused on collecting real images shot by iPhone users and showcasing them on Instagram and across other channels. The idea was to boost the credibility of the Apple brand and give consumers a fun way to get involved with the marketing strategy.
Takeaway: Get your customers involved in promoting your brand by encouraging user-generated content. 60% of customers now believe user-generated content is the most authentic marketing content out there. Plus, in the creator economy, people actually enjoy getting involved and sharing their own content with businesses online.
3. Loungefit: A Day in the Life
As mentioned above, one of the major trends influencing successful social media campaigns these days, is a focus on transparency, authenticity, and human connection. Loungefit, a company responsible for selling high-quality loungewear, has seen massive growth simply by sharing authentic and engaging content on TikTok.
The “Day in the Life” series from Loungefit founder Andre Smith walks customers through the process of designing and making new collections. These videos help to show the human side of the brand, and make it easier for customers to trust the company.
Takeaway: Focus on sharing more open and authentic content with your audience. Show them what’s happening in your business behind the scenes and don’t be afraid to show your human side. Customers want to build a real connection with today’s brands.
4. Spotify Wrapped
Every year, Spotify prides itself on helping users discover new artists and music relevant to their interests. The “Wrapped” campaign that takes place every year is one of the most successful social media marketing campaigns around.
Via the “Wrapped” campaign, Spotify offers users a curated list of their most-played songs from around the year, which they can share with their followers online. It also provides access to a fun click-through story which helps users to learn about their top artists, songs, and podcasts.
The good thing about Spotify Wrapped is it not only encourages user-generated content, but also pushes customers to spend more time exploring their usage of the app.
Takeaway: Create interactive experiences for your audience to encourage them to share posts related to your brand, and talk about your company. Customers love personalized content and gamification, so take advantage!
5. Folkor: Weekly product drops
Folkor sells pre-loved and vintage jewelry on the web. To improve their chances of reaching their audience, they regularly share the stories behind the pieces they sell in a unique and engaging format.
In the “Weekly product drop” campaign, Folkor generates excitement for upcoming releases before customers have a chance to buy them. Before a new collection drops every week, the founder teases customers with insights into what they can expect.
The great thing about this strategy is that it builds hype and excitement for limited-edition products before they’re available, inspiring rapid purchases.
Takeaway: Build excitement for your new products on social media if you want to start generating sales straight away. You can even host live video streams where customers can bid for the products you’re selling when they’re released if you want to take advantage of the live-selling trend.
6. Duolingo: Mascot on TikTok
Duolingo, the app dedicated to helping people learn how to speak a new language, has highlighted just how important it is to be active on the right social media channels right now. The TikTok channel for Duolingo has over 5 million followers, and it focuses heavily on the owl mascot designed to differentiate the brand.
Through a series of meme-style videos, Duolingo has connected to its audience on a deeper level, showing its unique sense of humor and personality.
Rather than focusing entirely on selling, Duolingo has leveraged its social strategy as a way of connecting with a younger audience and differentiating itself from its target audience. Its content is focused on entertaining its target audience with funny content, which around 63% of TikTok users say they actively look for on the app.
Takeaway: Experiment with new channels and learn how to use them to your advantage. Make sure you know what kind of content your audience is looking for on each social media channel, and ensure your tone of voice matches the identity you want for your brand.
7. Fluide: Trans Day of Visibility
Fluide is a company responsible for selling high-quality cosmetics for every gender and skin shade. The brand aims to amplify global acceptance and support to the LGTBQ+ community. In 2022, the company launched a series of posts honoring the Trans Day of Visibility.
These social media marketing campaigns involved a branded hashtag #TDOV, as well as support from influencers from throughout the community. The campaign was powerful because it helped to connect with social media users on an emotional level.
Fluide highlighted its commitment to a specific audience, and set itself apart from other brands, all with a simple campaign.
Takeaway: Find out what matters to your target audience. Social channels can be an excellent platform for inspiring customers, and generating new opportunities for brand relationships.
8. Scent & Fire: 2.22.22
Scent & Fire is an online e-commerce company that sells eco-conscious fragrances and candles, designed to relax users in stressful environments. One of its most successful social media marketing campaigns from 2022 drew attention to nothing more than a specific date.
In this campaign, Scent & Fire demonstrated their creativity by turning a specific date into an opportunity to convert more customers. The single post campaign gave customers 22% off for one day, which led to a massive increase in shares, comments, and purchases.
Takeaway: Sometimes, the best way to connect with customers over social media is to simply be relevant, up-to-date, and creative. The National Holiday Calendar is available online to help companies build their own strategies around specific dates. Just remember to ensure the dates you promote are actually relevant to your company.
Tips for Starting Your Next Campaign:
If you’re inspired by the successful social media marketing campaigns outlined above, the good news is creating your own powerful content can be easier than you’d think. As you head into 2024, learning from the lessons taught by the social media leaders of this year, try following these tips to create your own social media campaigns:
- Set goals first: Decide what you want to accomplish with each social media campaign before you post it. Ideally, you’ll want to aim for a range of targets beyond simply making money. Plan campaigns to boost thought leadership and credibility, increase brand awareness, or just encourage your customers to engage with your business.
- Think outside of the box: With so many competitors now active on social media, it’s not enough to simply follow the same strategy as everyone else. You need to think of ways to make your posts unique. This could mean playing with different types of social media content, offering unique giveaways, or even coming up with specific branded hashtags.
- Show your human side: As customers search for more transparency in the companies they buy from, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re showing your human side. Be transparent with your customers, allow them to see behind the scenes, and demonstrate your unique brand values wherever you can.
- Know your audience: More than ever, it’s important to understand what your customers are looking for on every social media channel. Get to know the kind of content each group likes, and adjust your social media marketing strategy to suit different platforms. Don’t just copy-and-paste content from one channel to another for a cross-platform campaign.
- Engage your audience: Constantly look for new ways to engage your audience and make them feel more connected to your brand. Run polls, ask questions, encourage user-generated content, and create interactive experiences. The more engaged your customers are, the more likely they are to become loyal to your brand.
- Monitor your results: As social media trends continue to evolve and change, it’s worth keeping a close eye on your analytics. Pay attention to which kinds of posts are gaining the most attention, and which channels benefit your business most. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different ideas to see what works best.
FAQs
What are the elements of a social media campaign?
Social media campaigns usually have at least five key elements:
- Purpose: The overall goal of the content you’re going to create
- Platform: Which platform are you going to be using, and what are its features?
- Content: What are you going to be promoting, and how?
- Engagement: How are you going to generate a positive response from customers?
- Optimization: How can you make your campaigns more effective with hashtags, filters, and other platform-specific tools?
What is the most popular form of social media marketing?
The most popular channel for social media marketing is currently Facebook, due to its phenomenal reach. The most popular type of social media content varies depending on the platform. For instance, videos (particularly short form) are extremely valuable on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
What are the top tools for social media marketing?
There are countless tools that can help with boosting social media marketing results. These include social media scheduling tools, social analytics tools, and social listening tools, which track conversations about your brand.
Learning from the Social Media Successes of 2024
Ultimately, building an incredible social media marketing campaign will always be one of the best ways to connect with your audience and generate long-lasting results. However, the factors which define whether a campaign is successful or not can vary from one year to the next.
As you plan your new social media campaigns, it’s always worth looking at the current market trends, and the results of other successful companies in your field for inspiration. Remember, if you need help creating the most successful social media campaigns, you can always hire a professional to help you. Find the right social media expert for your needs from Growth Collective's exclusive network of freelance marketers!
