How Kraft Dominated Social Media With Mac & Cheese
Good social media marketing is fun.
We all know social media can be a powerful tool to connect with customers and sell your business.
But it’s easy to get lost in all of the noise. You’re not the only one trying to be heard. There are millions of businesses trying to be heard on social media too. What can you do to stand out?
You can do something unexpected. Something people don’t often see on social media.
Kraft Heinz, the massive corporation behind brands like Jell-O, Oscar Mayer and, relevant to this lesson, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, used social media to put a clever twist on the childhood game jinx.
(Jinx, if you don’t know, is a popular childhood game. When two or more kids say the same word or phrase at the same time, they yell “Jinx!”)
Back to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Twitter.
When two people unknowingly used the phrase “mac & cheese” in a tweet at the same time, Kraft sent them each a link pointing out the jinx.
The first one to click the link got 5 free boxes of Mac & Cheese and a t-shirt.
As you can imagine, the response was incredible.
Okay, but you’re probably thinking “I’m not a giant corporation like Kraft Heinz. I can’t just give away thousands of products.”
I get it. Neither am I. But there is a valuable lesson here. And that is your social media marketing can be more than just posting offers and updates.
People are used to passively scrolling through instagram or Facebook or Twitter or whatever social media they use, and not engaging.
In fact, studies have shown that’s how most of us use social media most of the time.
As the previous macaroni & cheese story illustrated, there is a big opportunity for companies that use social media marketing to playfully engage users.
So how could you do that?
First, think about how you currently interact with your customers. How do you speak to them during the ordering process? When they ask questions? In emails? In person?
(When I say ‘speak’ I mean all the ways you communicate with them, not just your voice.)
What opportunities do you have to speak to them in unexpected yet fun ways?
How can you adapt those fun interactions to social media?
Lot’s of possibilities, I’m sure. What are yours?
Hi, I’m Keith Monaghan.
I’ve created and managed e-mail marketing campaigns to millions of subscribers for companies like NBC Television and Lucasfilm (yep, the Star Wars people).
My work as a Market Researcher has helped creative teams with projects for Nike, The CW Network, Upworthy, THX, Specialized Bicycles, Umpqua Bank, and other companies you may have heard of (and many you probably haven’t.) You can learn more abut me and my work here.