Monday, June 8, 2009

Skittles: Bite-Sized Attempt at Social Media


One of many companies to recently jump on the social media bandwagon, Skittles developed a Web site redesign and coordinating social media campaign. On March 2nd, Skittles launched its new website as a social media hub, transforming its homepage into a Twitter ‘Skittles’ search stream. The Web site also showcased the Skittles Facebook fanpage and showed real-time search results on branded YouTube and Flickr pages. Taking advantage of the Web 2.0 technology and user generated content set off an instant buzz across social media platforms – and in the online marketing world. Supporters and critics weighed in on how they thought the campaign would fare, and watched as Skittles replaced its Twitter feed with its Facebook fan page on the main homepage the next day, most likely due to profane and inappropriate comments tagged with Skittles on Twitter, a space that is difficult to control.

Now, nearly two months later, the buzz has died down and most praise has been replaced with criticism. After seeing a 1332% spike in web visitors on March 3rd (as reported by Hitwise), the Web site’s traffic is still double what it was before the social media blitz (according to Alexa).

Skittles should serve as a case study for any marketer attempting to bring social media into its brand strategy. The main principals of social media include conversation and engagement. Creating buzz and promoting your brand to consumers through social media is one piece of the puzzle, but don’t forget response, rewards and engagement with both fans and critics. Keep in mind the ‘what’s in it for me’ for the consumer. Be sure to provide relevant information and rewards for your brand advocates, sparking an ongoing relationship that provides long-term results.

What do you think the next step for the Skittles campaign should be? How will they begin to engage their consumers through social media?

-- Brandi Heinz
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