London, UK - July 31, 2018: The buttons of LinkedIn, Facebook, Messages and other apps on the screen ... [+]
There’s a lot of noise on social media, and LinkedIn is no exception. One post after another flows through my feed on a daily basis, most of them mildly interesting.
Even some of the best and brightest on LinkedIn seem to do the same type of post, usually a talking head video explaining a business tip. As we mindlessly scroll past all of these posts, it’s easy to miss the ones that offer some value.
Recently, I noticed a small company called Retrato made a big promise to their LinkedIn followers. (The company name means “portrait” in Spanish.) All you had to do was follow, like and comment on a post and you’d receive a free code to create an AI portrait.
You’ve probably seen these around online lately; you start with real photos of yourself, and then the AI assembles a much cooler and more professional image you can then use on your social media profile. I was one of about 30,000 people who liked the post.
A few days later, the company contacted me with the code. In other words, it was a brilliant social media marketing campaign that actually worked. You can see the result here.
Joel Hernández is the founder of Retrato and he told me the campaign was a huge success. He estimates that the campaign reached around four million people. As you can imagine, offering 30,000 free codes is a monumental undertaking, but it created a lot of buzz.
“In between fixing bugs, providing customer support and upscaling our infrastructure, I'm going through every single message and comment, answering personally to people. Efficient? Definitely not, but I'm confident I'll get to the bottom of it eventually,” he says.
Hernández said his team expected some interest but were pleasantly surprised to see how much it caught on with users. He says there was also an unexpected benefit. “I love having this personal and open communication with users,” he says. “It opens a channel for extraordinary and detailed feedback, which companies would usually pay tens of thousands of dollars to unearth. It's an amazing feeling building things together.”
It might be just one post, but it shows how social media can lead to high exposure.
Too often, companies don’t think through social media campaigns and what will actually lead to engagement. That video of your team making funny faces or that 20% discount graphic you just posted won’t usually catch on. Even if they do go viral, it’s hard to gauge success.
Hernández wasn’t just offering a free tote bag or a chance to win a vacation somewhere. His LinkedIn post promised actual value. When I received my portrait code, I was able to load photos and create an AI image right then. I wasn’t just entering a drawing. That made me think the company followed through on their promise, and maybe I’ll keep using the app.
Because there is so much noise, the campaign was a success in garnering interest and a new fanbase, which can lead to long-term revenue growth, not just a lot of happy users.
