If you’re on Facebook, expect to see this post shared with you in the next few hours.
Two sisters want a new dog. Their last one had tragically died of cancer. But their parents didn’t want another dog.
So, what’s a pair of digital natives to do? They got their dad to agree that if their main photo got one million likes, they can have a new dog.
That was six hours ago. They already have more than 680,000 likes on just one of the photos. Another has over 300,000. Here’s hoping their dad is good at keeping promises.
What can we learn from this? That heartfelt, ‘grass-roots’ content wins. This is a natural, emotive and real piece of content.
Social Object Theory, in relation to social media, means that there must be something to have a conversation about. Simply creating a brand page on Facebook and filling it with inane or pithy content, is not a social media strategy.
If you want to see a prime example of how not to operate a social media strategy, check out the Condescending Corporate Brand Page.
Sure, not every brand can put a call out for likes for a photo so that two sad little girls can get a puppy. But every company can be honest, authentic and have something worthwhile to say on social media.
There are too many ‘me too’ social media content strategies, if they can be called that, happening with our leading brands.
Where’s the authenticity? Or, putting it another way, where are the corporate equivalents of a puppy post?
Hat tip to Dr Nguen Van Falk for the link to the puppies campaign.
AMENDMENT (15.46pm 16.01.13): It took 6.5 hours. The girl’s dad counted the likes on all images, and one million likes were reached.
