My first post for OxonDigital:

As this is my first post for Oxon Digital (Hi, *wave*) I’ve decided to keep it light and simple, showcasing some of the things that have caught my eye recently in the world of social media. These range from social campaigns being run by global companies to the smallest spark of a great idea.

For today, we will stick to things on Facebook. In future posts I will move out into the scary world beyond Facebook and look at some of the up and coming networks out there and maybe some of the dying ones.

British Airways

We’ll start with the big boy, British Airways. In a year, which has been more than a tad difficult for them, they have come out punching, putting some true faith in social media. Not to mention launching an advert on Facebook ahead of traditional media platforms. I want to talk about their current competition named “Tickets for Teamwork”.

To enter all you have to do is authorize the app then select your team of five Facebook members. Then, at some point between 23rd February and 7th March you will receive a Facebook notification saying that ‘check-in is open’. The team whose five members check-in in the shortest time win the tickets. Now, other than the obvious viral benefits of asking entrants to choose friends to be involved I like the idea of using Facebook notifications as the mechanics of the competition. Facebook features are often used in competitions, but this is a seemingly rare example of using a feature without breaking Facebook’s promotion guidelines.

Sakata

Like most people I had not heard of Sakata until I came across this innovative Facebook campaign. Sakata, one of the biggest sellers of Japanese rice crackers in Australia, have entered the UK market. However, there seems to be some debate over how to pronounce their name. So to put a stop to the arguments they are running a campaign on Facebook to let their followers decide. Watch the videos and vote for your favourite. Whichever video receives the most likes will be the way Sakata is pronounced in all future advertising and marketing activities. It’s nice to see companies engaging with their customers on such a fundamental brand level.

Apparel Giveaway

Unfortunately, the next two things I want to show you are no longer live. Apparel Giveaway is a new concept on clothing store, they collect items of clothing from known brands and give them away for free on a first come first serve basis. However this has nothing to do with Facebook. What they did that caught my eye was an interesting take on an age old community growth technique. They bought a lottery ticket, took a picture of it, and uploaded it to Facebook, promising to share the winnings with anyone who ‘liked’ the photo. It could be argued that this breaks the previously mentioned Facebook promotions guidelines, and could explain why it is no longer live, but I am still impressed with the creative thinking. Sometimes the simple things are the best!

Anti-Drugs Timeline

There has been lots of talk in recent months about Facebook’s change to timeline based profiles and the impact on users’ privacy. I thought I’d show you an innovative use of a Timeline. Unfortunately this one broke Facebook’s rules on fake profiles and was pretty quickly removed.

The profile was set up by the Israeli Anti-Drugs Authority to compare a year in the life of ‘Adam Barak’ while on drugs to a year clean. Throughout there is an eye opening contrast in his physical appearance and situation. Luckily the profile was captured and made into a YouTube video…