Social Engagement with Facebook – Social Marketing Case Study Series

In this slight diversion from the usual series on B2B marketing, we present a view on how to run an effective social marketing campaign on Facebook targeted at individual customers, as opposed to businesses.

Challenge

HGST (a Western Digital company, formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) needed to reach out to the Australian market with their G-Technology products that were designed for the creative industry and particularly Mac users. As G-Technology is a premium range of external storage solutions that offers reliability and style beyond mere storage, the target audience is those who appreciate this and value the importance of reliable storage and backup – often, creative professionals who work with large volumes of valuable files.

HGST believed that it is key to engage the target market in its own field; besides traditional PR campaigns, they wanted greater exposure and more quality engagement with their potential customers.

Action

To drive public preference for G-Technology products, we proposed the use of Facebook as a platform for social engagement with the Australian creative communities. The G-Technology Facebook Page was launched to attract creative individuals and begin building interaction with them.

We then held the G-STREET Photography Contest, calling for photographers to submit works captured with either digital and film cameras or mobile devices to the Facebook Page. Fans and followers voted for each submission and were encouraged to share these with their own friends and networks, to further spread the word.

But this was not purely a popularity contest. For professional judgment, we invited eminent Australian street photographers Tamara Voninski, founding member of Australian photography collective Oculi, and Misho Baranovic, founding member of international mobile photographer collective Mobile Photo Group, to decide the winners. The duo’s complementing fields of expertise – Voninski’s in digital photography, Baranovic’s in mobile photography – made them ideal choices for judges and advisors.

The winners, both judges’ choices and popular votes, were presented with G-Technology products. However, the main prize was to have their work featured in an exhibition at a prestigious art gallery in the heart of Melbourne.

This was planned as the second phase of the campaign, to recognise and appreciate the work of Australian street photographers. Apart from the winning photos, judges Voninski and Baranovic featured the best entries alongside their own works. The G-STREET Photography Exhibition opened on April 19th, 2012, at No Vacancy Gallery, QV Building, in Melbourne, with close to 200 people in attendance. At its end, the participating photographers expressed their appreciation not only for the event, but also for the social network platform that helps them to connect and collaborate with others in the same creative field.

The photography contest and exhibition cultivated a well-connected creative community on G-Technology’s Facebook page. We have since then been maintaining the page as a community hub – not only a source of information shared through relevant and engaging content, but also a go-to place for sharing of opinions and discussion of photography matters. It remains active today with an enthusiastic audience of contributors and participants.

The Outcome

Through this social media engagement experience, HGST acquired:

• Leads with a strong preference for G-Technology due to its association with bold, unconventional, no-limits creators of content
• A marketable community of passionate, creative individuals with strong loyalty to well-designed, highly functional, and reliable products
• A pool of potentials for market research or customer relationship programs for specific target groups.
• Brand awareness built upon shared experiences (creation, working with respected photography icons) and editorial content.

Have you found success through social marketing on Facebook or other platforms? Tell us!