Creating a Social Media Buzz

 
Are you looking to create a social media buzz?
LinkedIn created one last month, and all it took was a little flattery. They answered the most basic question “What do people like talking about?” and set a campaign in action.

Answering social media questions.

The answer to their question “What do people like talking about?” was…  themselves 😉
So LinkedIn took advantage of their database and metrics and sent out an email advising a number of their users “You are in the Top 5% Most viewed profiles of 2012.” Some people even received “Top 1%” emails.
 
 
Of course, when people received these emails they started to talk about it. They shared the information on their LinkedIn profiles and posted on Twitter. LinkedIn quickly entered the Twitter trending topics. Just as quickly, people pointed out that due to the number of users LinkedIn had, quite a lot of people received these emails. However, that wasn’t important. Did LinkedIn achieve the results that they wanted?

Keeping LinkedIn profiles updated.

From anecdotal evidence we have seen, many people logged straight into LinkedIn. They updated their profiles, accepted connections and had a bit of a general social media tidy up. For a few users it reminded them that LinkedIn is a useful tool for business.
We have also seen reports of people who didn’t get the email yet also logged in. Whether this was a case of “I want what they’ve got and I’ll get it next time” or a case of remembering about old LinkedIn accounts through the chatter, they also updated their LinkedIn profiles.

Achieving Social Media Goals

Whatever the motivation, LinkedIn succeeded in getting people talking and pushing their service up in the consciousness of social media users.  The initial emails got people talking, the subsequent follow up “but so did lots of people” kept the conversation going, the next round of “it shows how popular a service it is” extended it even further, spreading the message further than to just the people receiving the emails. It was a lesson in sharing on social platforms – how to achieve social media goals.
A very clever piece of marketing, don’t you think? How could you use something in your business to whip up a storm and create a social buzz?