Social media can play a crucial role in an effective product launch strategy.
How to use Social Media to Launch a Product
Use the following tips and tricks to maximize the power of social media in your next product launch.
Create a video
Video drives engagement and captures consumers’ attention, and video-based social media sites such as Vine and Instagram are soaring in popularity. Now is the time to harness the power of video content. Try to create mini ads or behind-the-scenes content in preparation for your product launch. YouTube is also a social media powerhouse these days, and is now the world’s second largest search engine and largest video-sharing site. An astounding 72 hours of video footage are being uploaded to YouTube every single minute. If your brand doesn’t have a YouTube channel yet, now is the time to get one.
Develop a unique hashtag
A creative hashtag can go a long way when it comes time to launch a product, especially if you’re running a campaign that relies heavily on user participation. All in all, a hashtag is a great way to generate buzz around a new product.
Create a quiz
Between BuzzFeed quizzes that tell you where you should live, and Starbucks quizzes that tell you your ideal fall drink, people love wasting their time on fun quizzes. Create a quiz that somehow connects to your launch, and ensure that people can share the results across social media sites. Take Heinz, for example. The company created a Facebook quiz app to promote a new Five Beanz variety. Users responded to questions about their personalities in order to discover which kind of beans they were. Every hour, five winners were picked and sent a customized bean. Silly? Yes, but effective? Absolutely. The company reached 10.8 million people on Facebook, and an additional three million people through Twitter, blogs, and news sites.
Encourage your fans and followers to spread the word
Social media is an excellent way to encourage your fans and followers to engage in new product launches, but that means you need to make it easy for your fans and followers to share your content. Keep in mind that it also helps to add share buttons to all blog posts and website content. In 2012, Cadbury successfully used social media (primarily Twitter) to relaunch the Cadbury Wispa in honor of the 2012 London Olympics. They created the “Retweet for Sweets” challenge, in which Twitter users could win a box of Wispa Gold if @wispa retweeted their completed Tweet: “I love #WispaGold because _____.” Engagement went through the roof, and the company was successfully able to incite followers to spread word about the launch. All in all, Cadbury saw a 25 percent increase in engagement rate, a 116 percent increase in product mentions, and a 1,800 percent increase in positive product mentions.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with extensive experience in the medtech industry. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
