Knowing Your Audience

Social media is ever-changing and growing, which is why it is so hard for companies to keep up and market themselves on the web.  The most important tool with e-marketing is knowing who your audience is.  Older generations are more apt to follow e-mail marketing, whereas younger generations and those beginning their careers now are prone to social media.

Dutch beer manufacturer, Heineken, definitely knows its audience.  During a recent hiring wave, the company wanted to get its applicants, and company, to be innovative and unique.  Heineken took the top three from nearly 2,000 applicants and put the final decision in the hands of social media.  Unbeknown to the applicants, the company posted videos and blogs and set up a Twitter and Facebook account for "The Candidate" and allowed viewers to vote on who would be the next Heineken employee.  Finally, to announce the winner, a YouTube video was played during halftime at a soccer game in Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy which all three participants were attending.  

Social media is the "art of listening, learning, and sharing" and Heineken is a perfect example of that.  This campaign not only produced an exceptional new employee, it also created hundreds of new customers and followers of the company and its beer.  

Check out "The Candidate" here and think of ways you can be innovative and stand out from the sea of "applicants", if you will, that are populating our lifestreams and micromedia.  

See ya next time!