Page 92 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

Brand utilities

The basic idea behind brand utilities is that instead of providing the consumer
with some advertising, you build their trust (and get their dollars) by giving them
a utility application that provides actual value. If the utility serves a purpose, users
adopt the application and think more favorably of your brand. Dollars that would
have normally gone toward buying media go toward building the application
instead.

For example, Estee Lauder launched a Facebook brand utility called “Shine a Light
on Breast Cancer.” It lets breast cancer survivors and their families post “mes-
sages of hope.” It also lets you know where breast cancer events are being held
around the world. This connects people from all corners of the world to support
one another in the fight against breast cancer.

An application doesn’t always have to take the form of an application or a widget on
a social network. The famous Nike+ solution, which is considered the world’s largest
running club, shown in Figure 4-1, is a virtual community that helps users improve
their running via real-time coaching over audio, track the distances they’ve run,
compare themselves to their peers, and share their running statistics in social
media.

FIGURE 4-1:
Nike+ Running
Monitor on
Facebook.

76 PART 2 Practicing SMM on the Social Web