Social media is risky business for brands. Very few business put themselves out into the social sphere and embrace that social media risk. Best Buy is one of the few jumping into the choppy waters of social media.
Now I’m not talking about risk brought on by a social media #fail here (I did that on Social Media #FAIL blog), but another kind of risk, the risk of campaign failure. A very public one. In real time.
Best Buy launched a Black Friday 2013 campaign on the mirco-video platform Vine and created the hashtag #VineInLine. The concept behind this campaign is for the thousands of people waiting in line for Best Buy to open on Black Friday to record 15-second Vine videos then share them on Twitter using the specific hashtag. Best Buy retweeted those videos using that hashtag.
The response to the campaign was less than lukewarm. OK it was ice cold. There could be some reasons for that which come to mind. The main reason could be is their community isn’t really as strong as they expected. Plus, the reward of a RT turns out isn’t a great enough incentive for consumers to engage with the big box retailer. Especially if they isn’t a passionate community attached to the brand. Also, the low adaption rates for the Vine platform in the mainstream.
Take away for organizations regarding the #VineInLine campaign is that you need to:
– Understand your audience and what motivates them to action.
– Stop following the shiny new objects may not be ideal for your brand.
– Offer an incentive that people desire making them take the time and effort to participate in the campaign.
– Recognize that maybe consumers don’t really want to interact with you and it isn’t about the brand, but the user.
It all circles back to knowing your audience and how you need to deploy social media.
A campaign failure shouldn’t stop businesses from participating in social media campaigns like this. Not every campaign goes viral and/or is a huge success. Hats should tip to Best Buy for being brave enough to participate in the medium.
Thanks to Dawn Peaceful (@peacefulldawn) who pulled all of the Vines from that night and created a highlight reel.

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