New chapters in the case for social media marketing seem to be made on a monthly or even weekly basis. The medium has allowed for the close communication between businesses and their various audiences, including their valued customer base. Facebook revolutionized the business transition to social media, Twitter followed, and now the likes of Pinterest and Google+ are vying for their social relevance and value. Each brings a different element to the table as so they should, in order to differentiate themselves from one another and offer separate functionality. Talking to social media experts and search engine optimization consultants who integrate SEO and social media efforts into integrated campaigns, there are many valuable ways to engage with audiences in the social space. Now, the latest innovative use of social media is to use it not only to track what customers are saying about beloved discontinued products but also to ask what it is they want back - and then deliver on what they find out.

The cosmetics industry has been the first to utilize this to its fullest potential as touched on in a recent article in The New York Times. Pantene, for example, re-issued three separate hair product lines in January that were previously discontinued (Anti-Dandruff, Ice Shine, and Silver Expressions) with an aggressive marketing campaign that included a video and Facebook promotional giveaway. Similarly, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and MAC Cosmetics ran social campaigns on Facebook named "Bobbi Brings Back: Lip Color" and "MAC by Request," according to the NYT article. The campaigns asked fans of the brand to vote for the top shades of discontinued products.  With over 636,000 votes, fans were clearly motivated to action and purposefully engaged.

Essential Lesson for Businesses
The clear message in this application of social media is to find ways to purposefully engage with their varied audiences and customers. That is a point I have made previously regarding brands engaging with customers to resolve complaints on Twitter and Facebook. Here, the following takeaway can be drawn:

• Businesses must determine phenomena unique to their industry and address them, engaging customers and audience members regarding them. Cosmetic customers are especially inclined to hold onto strong sentiment toward old beloved products, and brands began to tap into this and capitalize on it to purposefully engage with customers on social media regarding this issue. Other industries can follow suit regarding discontinued products or identify similar phenomena unique to their vertical. Tracking audience and customer commentary on Twitter and other social platforms to do this is essential.

The benefit to incorporating social media efforts into the marketing campaigns put forth by businesses is seen time and time again by the SEO companies who partner with these businesses to deliver results for them.  The details of the experience tend to vary depending on the industry, however, the underlying theme is more engagement and greater customers loyalty, traffic, and conversion.

For more information regarding social media marketing and establishing that high quality engagement with your audience, reach out to us through our Contact Page, and we can guide you in the right direction.