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03 September 2008

A List of Social Media Marketing Examples

Hello - if you're here's for social media examples, you've come to the right place.

Here are some related resources you might find helpful:

If you find this information useful, you can stumble, bookmark, or digg this page.

Background on why I originally did this:

I've been thinking about how social media works.  For example, applying game mechanics to understand participation, thinking about users vs. customers, and deconstructing ego traps in PR campaigns.  This analysis makes me wonder if social media marketing matters and if so, does it scale.

I thought you might benefit from some of my background research on these topics.  And I'd appreciate your help in curating this list by providing more details and submitting additional cases.  

>> Last update: 23 November 2008
>> Total brands: 324

Examples of companies using and being used by social media marketing:

[Notice anything missing?  Leave a link and description in the comments below.  I'll add to the main list on a periodic basis.]

--
1 Jeremiah Owyang's A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk'd by Social Media
2 Mashable's 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action
3 Forrester's Groundswell Awards, 2007 and 2008
4 Mack Collier's Company Blog Checkup Series
5 Social Brand Index - Twitter
6 Credit: Gavin Heaton
7 Credit: Philippe Deltenre
8 Credit:  zeroinfluencer, David Bausola
9 Credit: Bruce Eric Anderson
10 Credit: Nick Ayres
11 Credit: Jeff Glasson
12 Credit: Luke
13 Credit: Mike
14 Credit: Robin Seidner
15 Credit: Tom Shea
16 Credit: Ed Nicholson
17 Credit:  Stefan Halley
18 Credit: Tom Hoehn
19 Credit: Debbie Weil and her list of 67+ Big Brand Corporate Blogs
20 Credit: Marta Kagan
21 Credit: Paull Young
22 Credit: Kevin
23 Credit: Paul Fabretti
24 Credit: Nick Huhn
25 Credit: dominic
26 Credit: Michael Pranikoff
27 Credit: Kyle Flaherty
28 Credit: Ed Terpenning
29 Credit: Chi-chi Ekweozor
30 Credit: Lisa
31 Credit: David Bressler
32 Credit: C.B. Whittemore
33 Credit: Torley
34 Credit: David Jones
35 Credit: Keith De La Rue
36 Credit: Sean Lew
37 Credit: Tom Cummings
38 Credit: Donna Tocci
39 Credit: Adam Singer
40 Credit: Yianni Garcia
41 Credit: Matt Cronin
42 Credit: Stephen Manning
43 Credit: Jim Dietzel
44 Credit: Clayton
45 Credit: Mike
46 Credit: Kira Wampler
47 Credit: Woody Meachum
48 Credit: Lee Aase
49 Credit: Toby Bloomberg
50 Credit: Adam Denison
51 Credit: Colleen Gatlin
52 Credit: Davezilla
53 Credit: Gina
54 Credit: Marcos Fargas
55 Credit: Marianne Richmond
56 Credit: Kevin Barenblat
57 Credit: Dan Entin
58 Credit: Bruce Ertmann
59 Credit: Sean Moffitt
60 Credit: Elana Bowman
61 Credit: Dan
62 Credit: Andrew
63 Credit: James O'Connor
64 Credit: Herve Kabla
65 Credit: Sachin Agarwal
66 Credit: Lou Cuming
67 Credit: Danny Urguia
68 Credit: Kathrin Lohmann
69 Credit: Rafa
70 Credit: John Galpin
71 Credit: Ken Kaplan
72 Credit: Kathy Mandelstein
73 Credit: BJ Cook
74 Credit: John Welsh and list of UK SMM examples
75 Credit: Nils Koenig
76 Credit: James Finnen
77 Credit: Miko
78 Credit: Yvonne DiVita
79 Credit: Juny Lee
80 Credit: Massimo Cavazzini
81 Credit: Gunther Lie
82 Credit: Alan Edgett
83 Credit: Kelly
84 Credit: Søren Storm Hansen
85 Credit: dlafont
86 Credit: Greg Weinger
87 Credit: Katie Mingo
88 Credit: Patricia Romeo
89 Credit: Kate Elzer-Peters
90 Credit: Jason
91 Credit: Penny Schouten
92 Credit: Gillian
93 Credit: Valorie Luther
94 Credit: Shannon Swenson
95 Credit: Rachel Happe's Social Media Examples via @MadLid
96 Credit: vidarbrekke
97 Credit: Kylie Lewis
98 Credit: Guy Kawasaki
99 Credit: Mikael Lindecrantz
100 Credit: Alex
101 Credit: Steve Radick
102 Credit: NewTarget Web
103 Credit: Jason Dojc
104 Credit: Chrissie Hsu
105 Credit: Aki Spicer
106 Credit: Liza Hausman
107 Credit: Eric Hoffman
108 Credit: Kami W Huyse
109 Credit: Sean Hudson
110 Credit: Eric
111 Credit: Matt
112 Credit: Larry Gee
113 Credit: Urs
114 Credit:  Harry Gold

Posted at 12:30 AM in Marketing |

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Comments

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BJ Cook

This list is great and I wanted add some more:

Rackspace - There are around 8 employees from Rackspace on Twitter including their Director of Customer Experience.

Burton Snowboards - http://twitter.com/storedotburton

Also there are a slew of participating brands on SuggestionBox.com that are engaging with customers through collaboration, voting and responding like:

Zappos - http://zappos.suggestionbox.com/
Flying Dog Brewery - http://flyingdog.suggestionbox.com/
Turbo Tax - http://turbotax.suggestionbox.com/
Addison Avenue - http://addisonavenue.suggestionbox.com/ (Credit Union)
Pep Boys - http://pepboys.suggestionbox.com/

Posted by: BJ Cook | 14 September 2008 at 01:58 AM

kenekaplan

Hi, Peter.

Wow, I gotta join this cool pile on with my view from inside Intel. Nice to see so many people helping their companies to share and participate online.

More and more of us inside Intel are listening, engaging and sharing what we're learning -- certainly internally but more and more of us are sharing externally with people who have similar interests or expertise.

We moved from a grassroots approach -- thanks to Intel pioneers like Josh Bancroft -- to internal blogs to external blogs and communities. Along the way, we've tried to create guidelines for Intel employees that educate us on how to do well by Intel and our culture/spirit of innovation. These are fascinating times.

Here are some places you can tap into to see how a variety of individuals and teams inside Intel are participating online:

Intel family of blogs (since 2006), featuring blogs in native languages from about six regions of the world: http://blogs.intel.com and our newest Inside Scoop lifestyle blog http://scoop.intel.com.

Intel Community for IT pros called Open Port http://communities.intel.com/openport

Example of our social media news release http://tinyurl.com/54qnnj

Photos on Flickr http://flickr.com/photos/intelphotos/

Videos on YouTube -- www.youtube.com/channelintel

Some programs/events include:
* Intel Developer Forum (since 2007) Facebook Group http://tinyurl.com/5d22gr and Twitter http://twitter.com/idf
* Intel in Education -- What Inspires You www.inspiredbyeducation.com and Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (closed) group on Facebook http://tinyurl.com/6oul4c
* Intel Insider Program -- small group of social media advisers: two blog posts http://tinyurl.com/6n5nsy and http://tinyurl.com/6yak3k
* Intel Studios (unsigned musicians)on Facebook http://tinyurl.com/6f47zo and main site http://studio.intel.com/Login.aspx

Sponsored activities:
* PopURL Collection for IT pros http://tinyurl.com/6enyab
* Digg Labs' visual Arc (2007) http://labs.digg.com/arc/
* Slashdot (2007) meet the experts http://intel.vendors.slashdot.org/

There are many more activities, and now we're working to create a company wide "excellence" team that can help us better team up internally and externally. This is our next phase and maybe everyone's biggest challenge: teaming up and sharing better then scale or spread our efforts/skills across teams (produce designers, manufacturing, business groups, PR, marketing, advertising) and geographies whenever possible/appropriate. Sometimes it feels like this is NOT a new challenge, but we do have new tools, evolving markets and new generations of people using technology to live as an extension of themselves...to live a lifestyle we want to live.

For this "scaling" to work, it seems this has to remain at the core: individuals gotta be passionate about the work they're doing and remain devoted to the things they love in life. Be real, not shill and share the experience of learning and discovering...and help others whenever you can along the way.

Posted by: kenekaplan | 11 September 2008 at 03:23 PM

Randy B

GymMeet is a social networking site dedicated to gymnastics. Please include it on your list.

http://www.gymmeet.com

Posted by: Randy B | 11 September 2008 at 01:44 PM

Randy B

GymMeet is a social networking site dedicated to gymnastics.

Posted by: Randy B | 11 September 2008 at 01:43 PM

John Galpin

Thanks for this really helpful. Couple i've come across on my travels recently:

LG:
www.lgblog.co.uk

Bayer:
Berroca (this is worth a look)
http://www.berocca.co.uk/bloggerrelief/

Posted by: John Galpin | 11 September 2008 at 08:38 AM

Rafa

I recommend visiting this page iecommunities.ie.edu. It is a virtual community with forum, blogs, socialnetworks, job offers, events, video, documents,.... It is private, only for students, alumni, professor and colaborates of IE Business School. Very interesting.

Posted by: Rafa | 11 September 2008 at 07:43 AM

Louise

This list is great, we've put a link from our blog. It shouldn't just be these sorts of major brands that are going for social media marketing - it can work for less well known brands as well - in fact, it might make them major brands!

Posted by: Louise | 11 September 2008 at 07:16 AM

Kathrin Lohmann

Peter,
interesting list, thanks for that!

Here are 2 more great examples:
http://blog.spreadshirt.net/de/
http://blog.lafraise.com/de/

Best, KL

Posted by: Kathrin Lohmann | 11 September 2008 at 05:09 AM

Danny Urquia

OPEN Forum website, originally launched by American Express OPEN in June of 2007.

Just underwent a facelift. Indispensable education and networking tool for small business owners looking for a place to access expert resources and swap ideas to help grow their businesses.

www.OPENForum.com

Posted by: Danny Urquia | 10 September 2008 at 09:57 AM

Lou Cuming

Peter,

Was glad to see that Kraft made the list because they are another company that has been utilizing social media and word of mouth marketing to engage with and influence consumers.

When they launched their new 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese with the “Breakfast from Heaven” marketing campaign with Jet Blue, Kraft knew it was just as important to incorporate social media. So the idea was born to use Philadelphia Cream Cheese Brand Team members Adam Butler and Tyler Williamson as the face of the brand - a first for Kraft. To take “Adam and Tyler’s Big Idea” online and continue the conversations with consumers, a strategy was developed that included viral videos, a blog component with community aspects, and marketing associates engaging directly with consumers in social networks and user-generated content sites on behalf of the brand.

The campaign achieved its goal of generating word of mouth for the new product, and interestingly, message board and blogging activity still continues to have life after the campaign on www.adamandtyler.com.

Lou

Posted by: Lou Cuming | 09 September 2008 at 11:24 PM

Sachin Agarwal

Dawdle (http://www.dawdle.com) maintains a pretty active blog - http://blog.dawdle.com and Twitter account - http://twitter.com/dawdledotcom

Posted by: Sachin Agarwal | 09 September 2008 at 07:58 PM

nando llorella

Hi,

Yesterday I published a list of all travel companies who have presence in Twitter, maybe it can help you to complete this list.
http://megustaelturismo.es/blog/2008/09/09/listado-de-empresas-con-presencia-en-twitter/

Posted by: nando llorella | 09 September 2008 at 05:56 PM

Herve Kabla

Peter, you missed the Chrysler blog:

http://blog.chryslerllc.com/

Posted by: Herve Kabla | 09 September 2008 at 05:42 PM

James O'Connor

Hello Peter,

Wonderful resource here. Found out about a General Mills social network when eating my Basic 4 this morning called www.eatbetteramerica.com. Offering healthy recipies, diet & nutrition info along with fitness tips, GM is engaging the community through the goal of better living. Just thought I'd pass it along!

Posted by: James O'Connor | 09 September 2008 at 10:41 AM

C.B. Whittemore

Here's another: The DC Goodwill Fashion Blog: http://dcgoodwillfashions.blogspot.com/

Posted by: C.B. Whittemore | 09 September 2008 at 09:32 AM

Andrew

Hi Peter

Terrific list! Thanks for sharing.

Gartner has a Twitter account www.twitter.com/gartner_inc and you can find a lot of analysts on Twitter too. Gartner also regularly creates Podcasts, which are accessible to everyone: www.gartner.com/gartnervoice

Thanks, Andrew

Posted by: Andrew | 09 September 2008 at 05:55 AM

Dan

Hey Peter,

The Skittles Facebook page responds to consumers's comments and questions both directly and through the wall. We've also created an application that lets them create original music and post it on their profile or snag the URL to share with friends.

www.facebook.com/skittles

Posted by: Dan | 08 September 2008 at 01:05 PM

Sandra Jakovljevic

Wow! That's a pretty substantial list.
Thanks. This could be helpful.

Posted by: Sandra Jakovljevic | 08 September 2008 at 02:18 AM

Peter Kim

Hi Elana. You wrote:

"How about giving people who work hard and are not ginormous companies some recognition and credit?"

I think you just did! :)

Will send your links into the main list with the next round of updates. Thanks for sharing!

Posted by: Peter Kim | 08 September 2008 at 12:06 AM

Elana Bowman

What about small business?!
Yes they are embracing social networking and media which is brilliant but honestly KFC, Starbucks, Ford ... most of the companies you have on here have probably got a team of people Tweeting and networking and they still don't have to face the daily issues a small business does.

So what about an ode to small businesses who social network and market and update, generally one person does the work of many?! How about giving people who work hard and are not ginormous companies some recognition and credit?

The Sydney Writers' Centre has
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-Writers-Centre/13402093390

Podcasts: free off iTunes http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/podcast.htm

a blog: http://thestorysofar.typepad.com/valeries_blog/

and a My Space page: http://www.myspace.com/sydneywriterscentre

We have competitions, answer our fans, send out a fortnightly newsletter and constantly network, update and improve.

Posted by: Elana Bowman | 07 September 2008 at 10:55 PM

Marcos Fargas

Hi Peter:
-Jobster: Facebook application http://apps.new.facebook.com/jobster/

Posted by: Marcos Fargas | 07 September 2008 at 07:24 PM

Chris Wilson

Sorry, the game is Cannon Challenge.

Posted by: Chris Wilson | 07 September 2008 at 05:03 PM

Chris Wilson

DCI's Discovery Channel created an iPhone app game called Cannon Game. Right now it is on the Top 25 free app list and is clearly sponsored by Discovery Channel.

Posted by: Chris Wilson | 07 September 2008 at 05:01 PM

Lisa Feeley

GM and EDiets and others also have videos up on www.igot2know.com.

Posted by: Lisa Feeley | 06 September 2008 at 11:56 AM

Marianne Richmond

Pete,

AWESOME resource!

HJ Heinz http://www.youtube.com/contest/topthistvchallenge

Purina: sponsored blog from Yvonne DiVita http://www.scratchingsandsniffings.com/

Marianne

Posted by: Marianne Richmond | 06 September 2008 at 11:55 AM

Simon

Fantastic list!

In the UK, Oasis are running a campaign that incorporates, but isn't exclusively, social media.

Posted by: Simon | 06 September 2008 at 09:14 AM

Marcos Fargas

Sorry, its www.actibva.com/

Posted by: Marcos Fargas | 06 September 2008 at 08:29 AM

Marcos Fargas

Hi Peter:
In Spain the bank BBVA has created a finance social network: www.activba.com

;)

Posted by: Marcos Fargas | 06 September 2008 at 08:25 AM

Gina

Hi Peter,

Nice list. I noticed you left off some of Best Buy’s online community engagements.

We use social media to connect with customers. I write a Twitter (http://twitter.com/gina_community) that provides customers with information ranging from our community relations work to updates on general technology issues. I also write a blog about technology and life integrations: http://gina-communities.blogspot.com/. There is some funny stuff there so you might want to check it out. We also have a Spanish language blog: http://karina-communities.blogspot.com/. Additionally, there is a Geek Squad user channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/GeekSquadHQ) where our agents help educate customers about technology.

Sincerely,

Gina, Community Connection Manager
Creating meaningful communication in a virtual world

Posted by: Gina | 05 September 2008 at 08:57 PM

Davezilla

Navy has an outstanding Ning community for mothers with kids in the Navy:
http://navyformoms.com

Posted by: Davezilla | 05 September 2008 at 08:20 PM

Colleen Gatlin

Great article Peter. So interesting to see who is doing what in the social world. Here's a few more areas that TurboTax is and has been engaged in social media for you to add.
Blogging: TurboTax Blog (already listed),Amazon TurboTax Blog http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A3OCVWHV411C0A
Microblogging: Twitter www.twitter.com/turbotax
Social Networks: FaceBook http://tinyurl.com/5oxw2v
Online Videos/Contests: TaxRap http://turbotax.intuit.com/taxrap/ Tax Laugh http://www.youtube.com/turbotax Inner Circle Community www.turbotax.com/innercircle
Ping Pong & Taxes made easy: www.chooseeasy.com
Ratings and Reviews: Customer Reviews (over 50k received) http://reviews.turbotax.intuit.com/7788/allreviews.htm
Online photo contest: www.cutesttaxdeduction.com
Social Technology: TurboTax Live Community https://ttlc.intuit.com/app/full_page

Best,
Colleen

Posted by: Colleen Gatlin | 05 September 2008 at 04:19 PM

C.B. Whittemore

Pete, I just thought of another example: Heather Gorringe and Wiggly Wigglers in the UK. With podcasts [http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/podcasts/], heavy Facebook community [http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3120520301] and blog [http://wigglywigglers.blogspot.com/].

Posted by: C.B. Whittemore | 05 September 2008 at 02:26 PM

JoeC

Pete,

This is a remarkable catalogue. Truly excellent work here. The value spreads far and wide.

Joe

Posted by: JoeC | 05 September 2008 at 01:56 PM

Randy Hamilton

Great list Peter. It's about time somebody put this all together.

Thanks
-Randy

Posted by: Randy Hamilton | 05 September 2008 at 12:19 PM

Adam Denison

Don't forget about GM's involvement on Twitter (@gmblogs) and on a variety of Facebook groups. We're also active on Flickr.

Great list!

Posted by: Adam Denison | 05 September 2008 at 11:22 AM

Tom O'Brien

OK, one more for nomination.

I might submit another example – our (MotiveQuest's) with BSSP and Mini. The project followed this course:

1. Social media analysis to identify the core passion of the Mini community and Mini’s Brand DNA from a consumer centric perspective

2. Campaign developed by BSSP was informed by this deep understanding of the motivations and drivers of the Mini community.

3.We they monitored changes in online brand advocacy (Online Promoter Score) to determine campaign effectiveness AND linked these changes to changes in Mini sales.

Case Studies here:

MotiveQuest Advocacy for Mini
http://tinyurl.com/58xm8d

Managing & Galvanizing Your Brand Community
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6xppw6

Thanks -

TO'B

Posted by: Tom O'Brien | 05 September 2008 at 11:20 AM

Samer Forzley

Great post, lots of excellent activity and ideas.

At eBillme we have a shopping confessions contest running on you tube, www.shopandconfess.com

Posted by: Samer Forzley | 05 September 2008 at 10:55 AM

Chris Rogers

Wow - great resource. Excellent examples of social media connected to the real world.

Posted by: Chris Rogers | 05 September 2008 at 10:08 AM

Tajiana

This is a great list! It must have taken a lot of time to compile. It gives excellent insight on the different industries and their tactics.

Posted by: Tajiana | 05 September 2008 at 09:24 AM

Fleur Hicks-Duarte

Great list, though I see that this only displays the 'broadcast' channels that social media utilises - are we not missing influencer outreach and engagement? I'm sure i'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but blogs, wikis and apps constitute only half of what we do as a social media agency...

However, our clients include:

Portland TV - blogs, wikis, outreach, trialling, social profile pages, viral seeding, game creation and seeding, social bookmarking, Tweets...

Bayard Presse - kids titles use blogging, outreach, newsfeeds and RSS and triallist campaign.

Dance 4 Life - charity programme of engagement and viral awareness in order to attract more teens into the programme.

Anyway, just wanted to put my 2 pence worth in regards not containing such a broad spectrum of opportunity that is social media to the 'Push' mechanisms. Don't forget the 'Pulls'...

Posted by: Fleur Hicks-Duarte | 05 September 2008 at 04:33 AM

Toby

Peter -thanks so for putting this together! Here are two more to add to your list:

Indium - 9 blogs including one in Chinese http://www.indium.com/blogs/

M/A/R/C - marketing research company owned by Omnicom
CEO's The Merrill Dubrow Blog
http://www.marcresearch.com/blogs/merrill/

Posted by: Toby | 04 September 2008 at 11:56 PM

Robert Lesser

Thanks Peter for a great effort in compiling this list of social media examples.

If I may suggest, there may be a couple of ways of deriving more value from this list:

1. Providing cross-industry comparisons

The adoption of social media will vary substantially by industry based on their customer centricity. More insight would be gained by comparing players within an industry. As a modest example, please take a look at my comparison of Oracle’s use of social media vs. SAP.
http://www.directimpactnow.com/leadgentools/blog/2008/06/what-to-make-of-new-oracle.html

2. Inclusion of all size of businesses
Social media is no different than other new media. Early adoption and innovative examples are often found with mid-size and small players. I think we all have the tendency to gravitate to the household names to illustrate social media examples, but these companies often are laggards. For example, my alma mater Dell launched a substantive social media effort only after losing market momentum, experiencing customer satisfaction issues and flaming laptops.

All that being said, I would be pleased to collaborate on this list in any way that I can.

Posted by: Robert Lesser | 04 September 2008 at 10:35 PM

Donna Tocci

You rock! Thanks for listening! :)

Posted by: Donna Tocci | 04 September 2008 at 07:17 PM

Kevin September

This was a really engaging social media program, that endeavored to lift the image of the often maligned McJob: http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/voice.html

I will look forward to watching your list grow - Thanks for undertaking this work!

Regards,

Kevin R September

Posted by: Kevin September | 04 September 2008 at 07:12 PM

Kathy Mandelstein

Thanks for including IBM and some of our Social Media Marketing Efforts. Actually Social Media is built into the way IBMers work internally, in our products from Lotus and Rational (jazz.net) and in the way we market ourselves. We have had IBM TV for two years, ibm.com/developeWorks has had both community spaces and Gizmos (widgets) since last year and we are a pioneer in not only Second Life, but most virtual worlds including a research effort with Avatar and asset portability between virtual worlds. Would be happy to send you a longer list of links if you are interested. Am an Austinite myself and enjoy your blog.

Posted by: Kathy Mandelstein | 04 September 2008 at 05:40 PM

Woody Meachum

Kudos. Here are a few that are top of mind:

Forum:
Pampers Village (UK)http://www.pampers.co.uk/en_GB/forumHome

Video Channels:

Sun Microsystems http://www.youtube.com/user/SunMicrosystemsInc

Iam/Eukanuba
http://www.youtube.com/user/eukanuba

-Woody

Posted by: Woody Meachum | 04 September 2008 at 04:43 PM

Kira Wampler

Thanks for the Intuit mentions. We actually have an extremely active and broad set of social media marketing efforts. Here's a list of several more. We're happy to share with folks what we've been learning on this over the years.

* Community: QuickBooks Community (http://quickbooksgroup.com/ ); JumpUp Community for new businesses (http://jumpup.intuit.com )
* Social marketing campaigns: Just Start campaign to encourage new businesses to form (http://iwilljuststart.com ) and The Jingle Generator, a fun way to help businesses get customers (http://thejinglegenerator.com )
* Micromedia: 25+ Intuit employees answering product questions on Twitter
* Social networks: very active presence on Facebook; the Intuit page shows all of our groups and apps (http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Intuit/25055115099?ref=ts ); first partner to test LinkedIn Poll functionality; Intuit's YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/IntuitQuickBooks )

Thanks! Kira

Posted by: Kira Wampler | 04 September 2008 at 04:32 PM

Mike

Here's another recent example for Johnson & Johnson, it's a Facebook application/page for Aucuminer to help improve contact lens compliance: http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=27415190831.

Here's an article that highlights several other examples of social media in the healthcare space, some of which are already included in your list: http://www.eyeonfda.com/eye_on_fda/2008/09/johnson-johnson.html

Posted by: Mike | 04 September 2008 at 04:32 PM

Fantastic Toe

washingtonpost.com is very much into social networking -- they have a number of content blogs as well as Twitterers.

Posted by: Fantastic Toe | 04 September 2008 at 04:10 PM

Clayton

Peter - Quicken Loans does a bunch of stuff.

Quicken Loans blog - http://www.whatsthediff.com
Quizzle blog - http://blog.quizzle.com
Quicken Loans Yahoo! Answers - http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile?show=S4swOoyDaa
Quizzle Yahoo! Answers - http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile?show=a15VNzUaaa&preview=true
Quicken Loans YouTube channel (we just posted some new customer reviews there yesterday) - http://www.youtube.com/user/quickenloans

Also use flickr, Facebook, Twitter

Thanks

Posted by: Clayton | 04 September 2008 at 03:13 PM

Blake Cahill

Pete - nice list as well as all the comment participation. Continue to be excited at the number of brands embracing and utilizing the social media channel and proud that we are working with quite a number of the participants on your list.

Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies

Posted by: Blake Cahill | 04 September 2008 at 03:10 PM

Matt Cronin

A couple clients of ours to include in your list:

Avis
Blog: wetryharder.co.uk

OpenSkies
Blog: blog.flyopenskies.com
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/FlyOpenSkies

Thanks
-Matt

Posted by: Matt Cronin | 04 September 2008 at 02:59 PM

Brandon Chesnutt

Peter,

Awesome list! I think pr firms who represent companies that are still on the fence about integrating a social media strategy can definitely leverage this list. Blogged it.

Thanks,

Brandon

Posted by: Brandon Chesnutt | 04 September 2008 at 11:52 AM

Yianni Garcia

Broadway Musicals + Social Media

1. Xanadu Musical - Cubby Bernstein Tony Campaign Manager

Home - http://cubbybernstein.com/
Online Video - http://www.youtube.com/cubbybernstein
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cubby-Bernstein/13888928369
Assistant's Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1269552940
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/ismellatony
Twitter - http://twitter.com/cubbybernstein
Broadway Space - http://www.broadwayspace.com/profile/CubbyBernstein

Online Theater forum outreach - Broadwayworld.com, BroadwayBox.com, Talkinbroadway.com, Musical.net

2. Spring Awakening Musical (8 Tony winner)

Online Video - http://youtube.com/totallytrucked

Blog - http://totallytrucked.blogspot.com/

3. BMW Rampenfest - http://rampenfest.com

Character Microsites
Brendl Events: http://brendlevents.com
Oberpfaffelbachen: http://oberpfaffelbachen.com
Peter's BakeSpace: http://petersbackerei.de/
Sepp the Stuntman: http://seppstunts.com/

Character Social Profiles
Jeff on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeff_Schultz/1048633227
Jeff on YouTube: http://youtube.com/user/jeffschultzusa
Franz Brendl on Twitter: http://twitter.com/brendlevents
Franz Brendl on Friendster: http://friendster.com/oberpaffelbachen
Evi on Cafepress: http://www.cafepress.com/rampenfest

4. Mountain Dew - http://www.dewmocracy.com/

Posted by: Yianni Garcia | 04 September 2008 at 11:18 AM

Ian Orekondy

Thanks Peter. Great list. Here are a couple of recent examples/cases for online retailers:

Woot.com - Integrating search and social media, as well as CRM and even mobile: http://www.searchandsocialmedia.com/2008/08/integrating-search-crm-social-and.html

Tennis-Warehouse - leveraging blogs and message boards to increase organic search rankings and traffic: http://www.searchandsocialmedia.com/2008/09/generating-organic-search-traffic-with.html

Thanks again for putting this list together. Great job.

Posted by: Ian Orekondy | 04 September 2008 at 10:36 AM

Adam Singer

Hey Peter - we ran a "beta test" for coffee @ http://beta.joffreys.com

Not a blog, but we inspired a whole lot of bloggers to join us. Read my wrap up of it here:
http://thefuturebuzz.com/2008/06/03/a-case-study-in-building-buzz-in-the-blogosphere-joffrey%E2%80%99s-coffee-tea-company/

If you want to include it, that'd be awesome =)

Cheers,
Adam

Posted by: Adam Singer | 04 September 2008 at 09:24 AM

Donna Tocci

This is quite a list! Some great information here. Thanks!

I'd like to point out, however, that the Kryptonite example you list here is not a link to anything that the company does. It's a 4 year old story about an issue the company had waaaaay back then.

However, if you'd like to list how Kryptonite uses social media today, please do! We'd love it.
Kryptonite's blog: http://unbreakable-bonds.blogspot.com
And check Kryptonite out on Facebook, too. There's a Kryptonite Locks group and the general manager, as well as many of the employees, have pages. They encourage people to connect with them there often.

And, while we're at it, Kryptonite's parent company, Ingersoll Rand is starting to use social media more and more. They've hired a Director, Web/Social Media (that's me!) this summer. You can follow me on Twitter, Plurk and Facebook. If you are a cyclist you can catch me on The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast, too.

Ingersoll Rand and Trane have Facebook pages with employees on both Facebook and Twitter. Just look out for more things to come in the future! It's an exciting time around here.

Keep up the great work on this list. Looking forward to seeing it grow.

Posted by: Donna Tocci | 04 September 2008 at 08:48 AM

Tom Cummings

Great list Pete! I just gotta throw in a shameless plug for something i've been working on. To add to the Forrester list, we just went live with our Interactive Marketing discussion boards this week: http://www.forrester.com/forrforum/forums/show/3.page

They're open to everyone as long as you register as a guest.

Posted by: Tom Cummings | 04 September 2008 at 08:32 AM

C.B. Whittemore

Pete, what about Masi Bikes and the Masi Guy Blog? http://masiguy.blogspot.com/

Posted by: C.B. Whittemore | 04 September 2008 at 08:25 AM

David Mattia

great list and great questions Peter. My very broad perspective suggests two things; that the foundation of social media is cooperation and trust and this is too easy to dismiss in the everyday rush...
and second, that generational issues are probably clouding efforts to create hard and fast guidelines as to what tactics produce sales now and will in the future.

Posted by: David Mattia | 04 September 2008 at 08:11 AM

Sean Lew

Peter, Great list!

BearingPoint:
Microblogging: http://twitter.com/bearingpoint
Corporate blog: http://newthinking.bearingpoint.com/

Posted by: Sean Lew | 04 September 2008 at 12:24 AM

Tony Thomas

Good list post and great conversation starter.

The thing that I would add. Some of these examples feel a little more like social network digital advertising rather than social media. It's how the companies engage through the social networking sites that determines whether its social media versus just having a brand page or facebook application.

But again, well done for stimulating lots of discussion.

Posted by: Tony Thomas | 03 September 2008 at 09:11 PM

Keith De La Rue

Peter -

Fantastic resource - thanks very much. (I found it via a Twitter friend.)

One great example from my side of the world is my former employer Telstra - see http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/. This is set up as a public forum on the telco industry, including staff blogs.

Another really neat viral marketing video is from Denmark - I have blogged about it here: http://delarue.net/blog/2007/06/get-used-to-21c/

- Keith

Posted by: Keith De La Rue | 03 September 2008 at 07:36 PM

David Jones

Lots of other Molson activity that you should check out:
Molson In The Community Blog: http://blog.molson.com/community
Blogger Events: Brew2.0 http://blog.molson.com/community/2008/06/27/how-about-some-brew-20/
Twitter use: MolsonFerg, ToniaHammer, MolsonRoss

Intel Game Faces Blog: http://www.gamefaces.ca/

Posted by: David Jones | 03 September 2008 at 07:00 PM

danslan

I was surprised that you left off one of the most noteworthy examples in recent months, the viral video campaign launched by virtual PBXers Gotvmail with Gary Busey. Most of the videos can be seen here: http://www.garybuseyonbusiness.com

These run the gamut from just plain silly (come on, grizzly bears?) to effectively dadaist (the Gotvmail song) but the thing I really find unique about these videos is that they skewer the whole "viral" style of marketing while participating in it at the same time. They got a celebrity like Gary Busey with a bona fide bonkers label to softly mock himself (and them, for paying him). It's an interesting tactic -- to make commercials that scream "look how low we've sunk! We're trying to go viral!" Anyway they got enough blog exposure off it for a million other companies to ape them...oh, the crappy commercials to come...

Posted by: danslan | 03 September 2008 at 06:14 PM

Torley

Oh dratticus, I left a comment but it's "held for review by the blog's author" — hope you'll see it soon, Peter. :)

Posted by: Torley | 03 September 2008 at 06:14 PM

Torley

Friendly greetings Peter! This is an exceptional compilation — thanks for putting it together. I feel that info presented like this might be better organized in a wiki than a blog post, but depending on what you have in mind, I understand.

You've listed several companies that use Second Life to do social media marketing. Thank-you. I work for the makers of SL, Linden Lab, as Resident Enlightenment Manager. I spread knowledge that increases understanding of Second Life, and encourage you to add these high notes:

Linden Lab:
* Blogging: http://blog.secondlife.com/ - A wealth of historical stuff, and an exceptional level of transparency into what makes us tick. I've made almost 200 posts there, and plans are underway to improve the works further! Numerous direct conversations have taken place and aided us to make things bettah, y0!
* Online video: http://secondlife.com/video - I'm the founder of our video projects, including over 220+ tutorials and promo vids. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBIdIiSY45U and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvY9cxAcHA4 My Second Life Video tutorials have over 4,270 subscribers and have been viewed 3+ million times on YouTube.
* Flickr: Over 650,000 pictures have been tagged "secondlife". We have 100s of SL-related groups run by Residents, such as http://www.flickr.com/groups/secondlife/ This is a great way for non-SL peeps to see what we're up to, get curious, and hopefully join in the fun!
* Virtual worlds: Well ha! We use ourselves, conducting in-avatar discussions which dozens of employees participate in with 100s of Residents (customers). Learn more @ http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Office_Hours Some of us also have specific focuses, such as my Here island, which is a glorious manifestation of artistic creativity and inspires Resis to get started with content creation! http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Here

We have numerous semi-official presences on other networks, e.g., many Linden employees have Facebook accounts, and our customers often use their Second Life names outside of the "inworld experience". I love knowing they're invested in their identities!

Should you have any questions about the aforementioned, give me a buzz! ;D

Posted by: Torley | 03 September 2008 at 06:13 PM

Tom O'Brien

Hi Peter:

How about Adobe's Layer Tennis?

http://layertennis.com/

Totally cool launch of Adobe CS3 among the graphic arts community. Worked by Goodby in SFO.

TO'B

Posted by: Tom O'Brien | 03 September 2008 at 04:39 PM

C.B. Whittemore

Pete, what a resource! Thanks for putting it together. It's amazing to realize how many organizations now have a presence [when they didn't not very long ago] and also across several different platforms. Fascinating.

As it relates to Wear-Dated and The Carpetology Blog, we also have a Friends of Wear-Dated page on Facebook [http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43899070542], a Wear-Dated fan page [http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Wear-Dated-carpet-fiber/22636341252] a YouTube series called "A Foot's Perspective" [http://www.youtube.com/user/cbwhittemore - also posted to Facebook] and Flickr group [http://flickr.com/groups/878962@N23/].

Posted by: C.B. Whittemore | 03 September 2008 at 04:20 PM

Lisa

AT&T has a Twitter news feed at twitter.com/attnews, an entertainment feed at www.twitter.com/attblueroom, and a soon-to-be launched small business channel at http://twitter.com/OnwardSmallBiz.

AT&T can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/ShareATT, on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/shareatt, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ATT/8576093908.

Posted by: Lisa | 03 September 2008 at 03:52 PM

Chi-chi Ekweozor

Great post, Peter! You’ve inspired me to do a similar thing on the Real Fresh TV site; we’ve been tracking social media usage amongst FTSE 100 companies since February.

Some UK examples for your list:

T-Mobile’s Transmission with T-Mobile music show on Bebo
http://www.bebo.com/tmobiletransmission

National Health Service (NHS) Scotland’s online community
http://www.mcs.scot.nhs.uk/home.aspx?referer=AAS&un=nousername

UK Government:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/DowningSt
Twitter: twitter.com/downingstreet

Orange Unsigned Act
Social Network powering Orange’s Unsigned Band competition
http://orangeunsignedact.co.uk/

Thanks for the heads up on BA twittering. Missed that.

Posted by: Chi-chi Ekweozor | 03 September 2008 at 02:09 PM

Ed Terpening, VP Social Media, Wells Fargo

Hey Peter,

Thanks for the mention! You may be interested to know we have even more social media efforts that you listed. Add to your list:

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/wellsfargo
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/stagecoachisland

And--this is new--we just launched both a Facebook Application and Fan Page in support of our virtual world:

Facebook Application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=13946451915
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stagecoach-Island-Virtual-World/28954954851

Cheers!

Posted by: Ed Terpening, VP Social Media, Wells Fargo | 03 September 2008 at 02:04 PM

antje wilsch

Great list, can't believe you compiled all that and are sharing. (thanks!)

Next list should be smaller copmanies without huge budgets who are doing great things that cost little in the same spaces :)

Posted by: antje wilsch | 03 September 2008 at 01:56 PM

Kyle Flaherty

Peter, as usual a thorough and terrific post. Wanted to just get my company in here since we are doing a bunch of stuff on the B2B side with social media.

Company Name: BreakingPoint Systems
URL: www.breakingpointlabs.com
Social Media Uses:
We use www.twitter.com/breakingpoint to engage with our community on our blog, www.breakingpointlabs.com. This includes videos and screencasts that have been really effective.

I few weeks ago I actually posted a case study about our use of social media, Part III can be found at: http://www.engageinpr.com/2008/08/06/social-media-case-study-iii/

Thanks Peter!
/kff

Posted by: Kyle Flaherty | 03 September 2008 at 01:26 PM

Philipp Sauber

Very interesting list, that's exactly what I've been looking for.
I wonder though, if there are more examples from Europe or the German speaking regions.

Posted by: Philipp Sauber | 03 September 2008 at 01:14 PM

Michael Pranikoff

Peter,

Thanks for the fantastic list. I will definitely share this to my network.

For PR Newswire - where I work:
Blog: ProfNet Post http://profnetpost.prnewswire.com/

Microblog - over 20 PR Newswire employees have Twitter accounts, but we have some general accounts: @prnewswire, @prnevents, @profneteditor

Facebook: Fan Pages for PR Newswire, ProfNet, PR Newswire for Journalists

Facebook Application: http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4738172484

8 Google Gadgets: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=PR+Newswire&hl=en&root=%2Fig&dpos=top&start=0

Widget: www.prnewswire.com/rss (also, over 300 RSS feeds available to the public)

Delicious: MichaelPranikoff, PRNewswire

Flickr: PRNewswirePhotos

We have a lot more, but this is a sufficient list for you for now.

Thanks again for doing this.
- Michael

Posted by: Michael Pranikoff | 03 September 2008 at 01:00 PM

dominic

You may want to add the Mini Cooper story

http://humanvoice.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/monetizing-web-20/

thanks

Posted by: dominic | 03 September 2008 at 12:40 PM

Nick

Great comprehensive resource, Pete - thanks! I initiated a few social media efforts during my tenure at yum...

- Facebook fan pages for Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC have amassed 300,000+ fans collectively
- Nielsen Online monitoring services help connect with consumers and mitigate a few "smoldering [PR] liabilities"
- Radian6 also helped monitor and measure social media with respect to brand reputation and customer/campaign insights
- a handful of corporate team members frequent the airwaves of twitter
- World Hunger Relief Week tapped into innumerable social media platforms and communications channels globally to create the world's largest hunger relief effort: http://www.fromhungertohope.com/

Also of note:
- CEO David Novak has an internal blog (in place before I arrived)
- kfcnation.com brings KFC team members together in a fun and collaborative dialog (@MelissaKing's baby, not mine)

Without a marketing department to speak of at corporate HQ, I didn't get to work with brand-level online SM marketing efforts very much. I was used more as a resource for corporate PR, preventative/reactive defense and/or counter-intelligence I guess. ;) Agencies typically handle execution for brand-based initiatives, so I can't really speak for those efforts. Hope this helps...

Posted by: Nick | 03 September 2008 at 12:23 PM

Paul Fabretti

Great post! Love to see what else is going on there. These kind of things help us all to explain, and in most cases, justify why clients should use social media.

Might I take the opportunity to add two of my client's blogs, the UK-based Shop Direct Group:

Shop Direct Group Corporate blog: http://homeofbigbrands.com

Love Label Blog (largest own-brand clothing range):
http://lovelabelblog.com

Posted by: Paul Fabretti | 03 September 2008 at 11:56 AM

Kevin

I work for Lulu.com and (amongst other things) we have a blog at http://www.lulublog.com, a twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/luludotcom, facebook fan and group pages, a facebook app for users to put their products on their profile, and we've recently partnered with weRead.com, a book sharing platform with a large presence across many social networks

Posted by: Kevin | 03 September 2008 at 11:44 AM

Paull Young

Hi Peter,

Another quick suggestion for you, my client at Converseon Graco Children's Products (a division of Newell Rubbermaid).

Graco's corporate blog (blog.gracobaby.com) has received the fifth best review to date from Mack Collier's reviews you mention in your post: http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2008/08/company-blog-checkup-graco.html

They've had employees involved in Twitter for months and have just launched a branded twitter account at twitter.com/gracoroadahead.

These tactics are part of an enterprise level social media strategy that was outlined by MediaPost here http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=88835&Nid=46288&p=393517.

Cheers!

Posted by: Paull Young | 03 September 2008 at 11:30 AM

Marta Kagan

Pete, this is awesome - cant wait to dig into the ones I was unaware of. Happy to add to it as well... Here's a few to start:
Absolut's YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/absolutworld, Nokia's "Mosh" site http://mosh.nokia.com/, and Samsung's efforts on Twitter http://twitter.com/SamsungMobileUS and http://twitter.com/theinstinct

Posted by: Marta Kagan | 03 September 2008 at 11:29 AM

Debbie Weil

GSK has a blog for alli: http://alliconnect.com/default.aspx

Full disclosure: GSK is a former client.

Posted by: Debbie Weil | 03 September 2008 at 10:46 AM

Stefan Halley

Great list. Thanks for putting it together.

The CEO of Cavidi is writing a blog on HIV viral load monitoring to raise awareness of the importance of monitoring and testing.

http://www.hivviralload.com/

Posted by: Stefan Halley | 03 September 2008 at 09:41 AM

Ed Nicholson

Great list, Peter. Thanks.

Tyson Foods has a couple of things going:

A social media-focused site engaged in building community around the issue of hunger
http://hungerrelief.tyson.com

Twitter account:
http:twitter.com/TysonFoods

Posted by: Ed Nicholson | 03 September 2008 at 08:54 AM

Tom Shea

GM also puts on...
-GMNext.com, which is a wealth of blog posts, videos and more
-IGotShotgun.com, branded Hollywood-type entertainment
-AveoLivinLarge Road Trip, a sequel to the Campus Challenge
-ImSaturn.com, social networking site for Saturn owners.

Posted by: Tom Shea | 03 September 2008 at 08:47 AM

robin seidner

Great running list here. For an internal example (plus some externals as well) I suggest you get in touch with Len Devanna at EMC. They have a number of blogs, were using Collective Intellect for monitoring (not sure if that continues anymore).

Also, Intel has a number of Tweeters, and was doing pilot projects of monitoring with Radian6, Nielsen and Collective Intellect.

Posted by: robin seidner | 03 September 2008 at 08:44 AM

Mike

The Guardian in the UK has a massive blogging presence with it's Comment Is Free:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree

Posted by: Mike | 03 September 2008 at 08:41 AM

Luke

Starbucks use Twitter as well:

http://twitter.com/Starbucks

Posted by: Luke | 03 September 2008 at 08:37 AM

Jeff Glasson

Peter,

Thanks for creating such a great list! My contribution is Kentucky Fried Chicken. They have a public facing micro-site for employees (aka KFC Citizens) that features the ability for employees to share their inspirational KFC stories. They also provide a variety of contests, games, and special employee offers. The contests occasionally involve the creation of user generated content like videos that get posted to YouTube. The micros-site also links off to the KFC Nation blog where KFC employees can guest post and share their experiences working at KFC franchises.

Overall, I think they are making some good efforts to create a national community among their employees.

Here are links to the two sites:

http://www.kfcnation.com
http://kfcnation.wordpress.com

Thanks, Jeff

Posted by: Jeff Glasson | 03 September 2008 at 08:22 AM

Nick Ayres

Peter - thanks for the list, this is a great resource. I wanted to add a few things for The Home Depot:

microblogging: We have several internal folks tweeting but the bulk of our corporate activity runs through @TheHomeDepot.

online video: we have a YouTube presence (http://www.youtube.com/homedepottv) as well as a presence on several other video sites including blip.tv, Howcast and Metacafe.

misc: We have product ratings and reviews on homedepot.com, and also have social bookmarking in several content areas.

Two non-The Home Depot pieces I've come across recently: check out Barry Judge's blog (Best Buy CMO) here: http://www.barryjudge.com. He's also on Twitter @BestBuyCMO.

Posted by: Nick Ayres | 03 September 2008 at 07:53 AM

Alfonso Guerra

I suppose you're just focusing on large firms because, except for the odd startup, you don't have a single company with less than $5 million in revenue.

There are quite a few of us very small businesses and entrepreneurs who also have an Internet presence including blogs; Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. accounts; IRC; and more. Keep your eye on the big boys to get an idea of what the me-too crowd does. No doubt they do it bigger and louder, but they have to: they're playing catch-up.

Posted by: Alfonso Guerra | 03 September 2008 at 07:52 AM

Bruce Eric Anderson (aka bruceericatdell on twitter)

@Peter - thanks for the exhaustive list. Prior to joining Dell's external blog team, I led our strategy and roll-out of our internal blogs - I didn't see any inclusion of internal but will give it to you in case you'd like to. I see that @Tim also asked about this.

Dell has nine official internal blogs (One Dell Way, Voice of the Americas, Talk2EMEA, APJ One, IT Connections, Global Services Community, The Marketing Blog, Global Communications and The Daily Direction) as well as hundreds of team or departmental collaboration blogs. The former are in English but also Chinese and Japanese (APJ One) and French Canadian, Portugese and Spanish (Voice of the Americas). These tools have unlocked conversations for the entire company and we are aggressively moving quite a few things off e-mail and onto the blogs.

We also have an internal version of IdeaStorm, called Employee Storm, where employees globally can submit ideas and vote on them.

We have dozens of Dell groups out on Facebook, and have many different YouTube, Flickr and Del.icio.us accounts.

Thanks again.

Posted by: Bruce Eric Anderson (aka bruceericatdell on twitter) | 03 September 2008 at 07:44 AM

Peter Kim

Thanks - SAP, Ford, and Microsoft examples added and credited.

Tim - the internal examples are tougher to find. On this list, JetBlue University and Dell's Employee Storm are two examples. Do you have any others?

Romain - good observation. That's why I've explicitly included the word "marketing" in the examples...the majority of these aren't yet conversational. I'll pursue this further in the near future...

Posted by: Peter Kim | 03 September 2008 at 07:26 AM

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