Cracking the social media success code
Posted on 01/27/10 by Erin Coller | Filed under Online, Weblog
In the context of communication overall, social media applications are a major innovation in general, though they aren’t exactly new or groundbreaking on their own anymore. We are keeping an eye out at Zenzi for cool new innovative ways that people and companies are using social media. There is no special code or guaranteed path to success or popularity with social media – much like viral videos — some of the biggest successes just happen because of a creative idea and an audience that catches on and takes it by storm. There are multiple elements that need to click into place to create a successful social media campaign, and one of the biggest elements, at least with the most exciting and unique examples out there, is innovative ideas.
One of our favorite classic examples of an incredibly successful social media campaign is the Kogi Korean BBQ Taco Truck in L.A., which was touted as “America’s first viral restaurant” by Newsweek. While their Twitter (@kogibbq) following is impressive with over 50,000 followers, it’s not just this number that makes them a ridiculously huge Twitter success story. It’s the fact that through Twitter and their website, within just a few months of opening for business there were often hundreds of people waiting on some street corner in L.A. for the Kogi BBQ truck to pull up. The trucks now make the rounds to the bar scene as well, tweeting about one of their two trucks’ next stops, where hungry people armed with iPhones and Blackberries eagerly await the arrival of their late night snack.
These stories are what have landed this fancy taco truck (the regular variety are a dime a dozen on the streets of L.A. during the lunch hour) in publications such as Time, Inc., GQ, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit and Gourmet. To start with, the food is delicious and different, and combine that with a savvy social media strategy designed to work in line with the company’s goals and business model, and you have a successful, innovative social media campaign that has truly taken on a life of its own. Twitter may have played a role in creating an entirely new fast food trend. Kogi BBQ has definitely set a new standard for a perfect recipe for success in social media through an innovative business model that has better served their customers by using Twitter to speak to their customers’ stomachs.
