When Social Isn’t Spooky: A Social Media Marketing Triumph
The frequency with which Facebook algorithms change, the evolving user experience on Twitter, the ambiguity of the social-search engine relationship…it can be enough to scare even the most informed businesses away from the social media marketing scene.
Thankfully, we have the success story of an innovative municipal organization to inspire us to keep on, keeping on. Here’s how one group embraced the unique landscape of social media to truly serve their audience – the entire city of Chicago.
Civic Group Looks to Social Media to Make a Difference
With their mission to trace food poisoning cases back to city restaurants, Foodborne Chicago scours the Twitter community for tweets about food poisoning in Chicago and responds to users for more information. According to the organization’s website, this approach to social media marketing helped to initiate 174 food inspections between April 2013-April 2014.
Moreover, it helps to strengthen the relationship between the city and its residents. Foodborne Chicago is an open source project supported by the Chicago Department of Public Health, which assumes the responsibility of tracking the tweets and then sharing the data with health inspectors.
An Example for the Rest of Us
While Foodborne Chicago may be a super-targeted campaign, it is a prime example of how an organization can truly benefit their audience through social media and online marketing tools that are available to them.
So, to get you started, we wanted to challenge you to ask the following questions about your business and your audience:
What are the problems that your audience is facing, and what powers do you have to address them?
How can you use one social media platform to gather data about these problems?
What will you do with the information once you have it?
With a nice little brainstorming session, you can discover areas where you may be able to make a difference in your communities – online and offline. Then, you can do more than simply posting status updates; you can be a solution in the circles that you influence.
