Social media moves fast.  Tweets, updates, status… they are there for a moment and then pushed down the list as others post their messages. As marketers, your goal is to keep your message in front of potential customers.  So how do you prolong the life of a social media message?

Cross-pollination.  By “cross-pollinating” or leveraging the different marketing tools available and using them to work together, you can develop a campaign that creates lasting buzz and extends the life of social media messages.

I came across a set of on-line commercials for the Wheat Thins brand called “The Crunch is Calling”, that are a fantastic example of maximizing exposure and prolonging a social media message.  Not only is the idea clever, but the short commercials are fun to watch.  The concept of each on-line commercial is based on a consumers single tweet on Twitter.

Wheat Thins took each tweet to the next level, by actually physically tracking down the consumer, responding to their tweet in person in creative ways and filming the response.  These recordings were then turned into short on-line commercials and YouTube videos.

Below is a clip of one of the videos.  You can see all of the videos here.

Wheat Thins was able to extend the life of single tweets, adding a personal touch through in person follow up and incorporating on-line video.  One tweet that was viewed by hundreds will now be seen by hundreds of thousands.

Take your social media messages to the next level by tying them in to a variety of other marketing avenues.  Social media moves quickly, but your marketing message can live a long life.

Unless you’ve been hiding away on a deserted tropical island, you have probably heard some talk recently about the “new” Old Spice Man.  The nightly television newscasters are talking about him, women are calling in to their local radio stations to find out how to meet him and he has been the topic of the day across many internet sites.  Why all this buzz about a brand, that until recently was, well… old?

Talk about the power of utilizing social media to drive word of mouth and help reinvent a brand.

Acting on an off-the-wall idea of creating instant buzz by responding in real time to consumers questions/comments with short videos, Procter & Gamble produced funny YouTube videos about Old Spice.  The team leveraged Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and blogs sending out invitations to ask questions of The Old Spice Man.

As people responded, their comments were pulled in and tracked and those who had interesting questions or were high-profile users on social networks were responded to directly in real time with a personalized short video featuring the dashing shirtless actor and former football player Isaiah Mustafa.  Over 200 videos were posted to YouTube over the course of two days and featured everything from a marriage proposal to messages to celebrities.

Check out this one which includes the real-life marriage proposal:

You can see all of the videos here.

It turned out to be a huge success.  Old Spice received over 83 million YouTube video views and grew their Facebook fan base by 616K all in the the course of two days.

I love it when a campaign goes viral.   But what, besides a touch of good luck, makes a campaign like this so successful?  When a campaign becomes an overnight sensation, it’s always beneficial to look back at what worked and why.  Here are a few take-aways and tips from this campaign that can be applied in making other social media campaigns a success:

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Imagine what used to be your traditional print ad… moving, growing, talking and interacting with your customer.

With the development and growth of Apple’s iPad, traditional print publishers have been rushing to develop an app version of their publication that will allow them to offer issue downloads and digital subscriptions via the iPad.  The iPad has created some new and exciting opportunities for traditional book, magazine and newspaper publishers, which in turn is opening the door for advertisers in these publications to offer a completely new level of customer interaction with the content in their ad.

The iPad gives marketers some creative and unique opportunities for engaging consumers and developing meaningful experiences through advertising.  The ads are embedded in the publications app, which allows marketers to really focus their efforts and provide content rich, interactive ads, enhancing the consumer experience with animated graphics, 360° product images, video, music and games.

However, to fully take advantage of the new platform, new ad formats will need to be designed, developed and customized specific for the iPad.  It will not be enough to simply make existing ads larger. It’s leveraging the rich media capabilities of the iPad that makes this a truly unique opportunity.

Just last week, Wired magazine announced the launch of their first digital edition of the magazine, specific for the iPad.  The result of this yearlong effort is a pretty amazing interactive consumer experience.  You can catch a glimpse into the power and possibility of this form of multi-dimensional interaction here for yourself in Wired’s video about their new iPad digital edition:

As print publishers begin to move into this arena, advertising opportunities will grow.  Now is the time to begin thinking about and planning for interactive content that can be incorporated into the iPad platform.  By doing so, you will be prepared and ready to take advantage of the opportunities as they arise.

Have you been watching videos online today?  Chances are you have!  And so have the vast majority of other internet users. Online video viewership has exploded over the last year and continues to grow at a rapid rate.  Take a look at these statistics collected by comScore and Nielsen:

- Some 31.2 billion videos were delivered to US Internet users in March 2010

- 180.2 million people watched online videos during the month of March

- Viewers watched an average of 173 videos during that month

- Time spent viewing video on social networking sites increased 98% in the past year, from 503.8 million minutes in October 2008 to 999.4 million in October 2009

Recently a colleagues Facebook status caught my eye: “The Zumba video I produced for Xtreme Fitness/San Jose, is up to 250,000+ hits on Youtube!” Now yes, I love Zumba, but 250,000 views for a video about a local fitness club??  That’s terrific!  I called my colleague, Chris Hennessy owner of Custom Video Connection and producer of the video for his thoughts as to what makes a video a success.

Chris attributes the entertainment factor, a little humor and keeping it real as playing a key role.  Video that provides a reality type feel helps the viewer relate, creating an actual user experience.  It allows companies to attach personality to products or services.

Chris received comments from viewers around the world who connected with the message and the realistic experience it created for them. They could actually picture themselves in this Zumba class.  You can see the video here for yourself:

Online video communication provides an excellent way of reaching prospective customers in promoting your company’s products or services.  The advantages are many!

As more and more people turn to the Internet in search of information, video offers an entertaining, interactive, personable experience while fulfilling the user’s need for new, useful and educational information.  A prospective customer will be able to relate more to your company and to what you’re promoting, making them more receptive to what you have to offer.

If you aren’t using video in your marketing mix, consider utilizing it to communicate product related information, demonstrate processes, how-to’s or customer testimonials.  And once video content is created, it can be spread via social networks to all areas of your market.  When done well, it can be a huge success for your company.