The Revolution

The Boom Of Social Sites

IKEA: Facebook Showroom

Social Media is a powerful and engaging device, connecting in so many different ways, and accessible to anyone, at anytime. Or atleast that's what we're getting told all the time. It's very easy to suggest something is the future, or a valuable asset to an industry. Social Media is almost like a revolution, the new age, the anticipated and well documented evolution of Marketing. But very rarely have we seen it's true value and potential in a real time situation or campaign. There has been the odd campaign that has worked the benefits of Social Media very successfully, but not enough to show it's true colors and capability. That is until now.

Forsman & Bodenfors are known for some great creative work, and they've recently devised a Facebook campaign for a new Ikea store in Malmo, Sweden. Simplicity of an idea is sometimes it's biggest strength. Some of the best campaign strategies are simple, and none more so than using the simple default “tagging” tool on Facebook to help create a buzz for an online competition.

The agency used the basic tools that were available to them along with a limited budget, combining them effectively into the social space that is Facebook. By merging these features they were able to reach, or in this case, attract thousands and thousands of people to their profile and engage with them in a fun, simple and interactive manner. Even the ad itself of the original idea is now demanded and doing the rounds on the Interweb.

This clearly shows the ability of Social Media and it's uses in a connecting and integrated manner. Facebook was the platform, however with the videos, blogs and countless 'tweets', Social Media became the 'medium'.

A campaign very precisely executed and simply escalated.

Size Matters

A brand exists entirely in peoples minds. Therefore a brand is whatever they say or think it is. Words can only go so far in emphasizing meaning or substance. However visual aide and simple imagery can help decifer the most complex, or ubiquitous of data.

So here's a few brands to see how well you know your brands...and yes, the most obvious of words have been excluded, but I'm sure it won't be too difficult...

From looking at some of the 'tags', surely certain brands need to look a whole lot closer at their brand image and consumer perception.

It's 'our' information and we'll share if we want to

Social media is undoubtedly changing the shape of how we interact and behave on the internet. And now it seems that those changes are shaping the way we share information and content across the web.

The graph below shows how our behaviors have developed and changed in the way we share content. From traditional Email interaction it is now evident that social media in the way of Facebook and Twitter, is becoming a more prominent force in content and link sharing.

Facebook, which may be of a surprise to us, is used more for sharing information and content than Email. This shows the value of interaction and sharing, and the passing of information from content-sharers, which fulfills our need for 'realtime' information and news.

Twitter is about half as popular as Facebook in third position after Email, with only about one-tenth of users in comparison to Facebook. However, the way in which Twitter interacts with it's users and the ease of content and information sharing, combined with the ease of accessibility, it will most certainly become the number one realtime sharing force in the very near future.

Information we want, when we want it, how we want, where we want it.