Social media campaigns are the hottest trend in advertising. There is a growing audience through any number of social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, and many businesses are savvy enough to know that to launch or promote their latest and greatest product or service, they need to leverage their social media knowledge well. As can be expected, there are some companies that do this better than others, but what were the best social media campaigns of 2012? 
1. Bully – the movie
The hype surrounding this horrifyingly real film exploded on social media back in March 2012, when the film’s producers wanted to establish a grassroots movement surrounding the movie. Their goal was to have 1 million tweets about the movie – that means 1 million tweets containing the hashtag #Bullymovie. The initial tweet was simple enough – a statement that 13 million American kids get bullied yearly – but 17-year-old Katy Butler took the campaign personally enough that she started her own campaign on Change.com, and on March 27, Bully’s producers achieved their goal of 1 million tweets about the movie. While the campaign tugged on everyone’s heartstrings – no one wants to think about kids being bullied – it was also a very strategic and tactical campaign. It worked so very well simply because it was geared around the awareness of an extremely serious issue in society today, and illustrated how Twitter or any social media platform, for that matter, could be used to great effect in an attempt to engineer social change.
2. Grey Poupon’s Society of Good Taste
This was a unique campaign geared towards raising the awareness of the Grey Poupon brand. Instead of asking users to simply “like” the page, users had to apply for “membership” onto the page, and an app geared into the page would scan the user’s likes and friends and determine whether or not the user had good enough taste to be a part of the “Society of Good Taste.” It was a very intriguing campaign that worked very well for Grey Poupon and helped determine whether the user was really there for the brand.
3. Nike #MakeItCount 2012
With an increasing number of North American people battling obesity, health and fitness topics are trending in greater numbers throughout the social media universe. Nike leveraged that, and the public’s love of sports heroes, to create the Make It Count campaign, which featured photos, videos and content that was very powerful and was directly in line with the Make It Count message. The nice thing was the campaign tied directly in with Nike’s “Just Do It” mantra. It launched in January 2012 in time for people to exercise their resolutions and demonstrated how the athletes were pushing the boundaries, just as the company was encouraging its customers to push their own boundaries when it came to trying new health and fitness routines.
Summary
Social media is certainly pushing its own boundaries when it comes to advertising campaigns. Whether they are inspiring others to undertake grassroots campaigns to stop societal problems or encouraging the public to check out a company website, companies know if they launch a social media campaign, it’s going to be a successful one. The campaigns are either remembered for their humor, their inspirational tones or their ability to drive business. Regardless, it’s clear that social media campaigns will continue to be a trend in advertising for years to come.
