Celebrating Company Milestones on Social Media
Congrats, your business has reached 500,000 Facebook fans or just celebrated its first (or 50th) year in business! Now what?
Social media offers the perfect platform to share these milestones and others with those who have indicated their interest in a company's successes by Liking their Pages on Facebook, following them on Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter, subscribing to their YouTube channel or engaging with them on any of the social networks. There are lots of ways to go about celebrating milestones on social media, but here are seven ideas we came across on the socialsphere.
Post a #TBT
Brands should consider using this popular hashtag (which stands for "Throwback Thursday") when they are celebrating something significant like perhaps a new funding round, an anniversary or even a new product launch. By "throwing back" to the company's early days, for instance, "fans" can see how far the company has come and celebrate their successes with them like a picture of a technology startup's founders in the garage they first called an office as the company celebrates its five-year anniversary.
While these are some of the best use cases for #TBT, company milestones can be more mundane such as celebrating another year of an annual event. In this case, a company could throw back to a picture of last year's annual conference to drive registrations for this year or like in the case of Macy's post last year, throw back to the 2002 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade to generate excitement for the upcoming one.
Change Your Cover Photo
In 2015, Website Magazine celebrated our 10-year anniversary so we uploaded a new cover photo each month to indicate this achievement, believing this is a good visual reminder of our authority on all things Web.
Celebrate Others
One of the problems of social media is that brands pat themselves on the backs too much and don't give enough thought to what followers actually want to see. Celebrating company milestones on social media is definitely toeing that line but one way brands can be more genuine is by celebrating the successes of close business allies or partners. Macy's, for instance, posted a picture on Instagram to mark the 30-year "birthday" of INC clothing. INC, however, is a private brand of Macy's, but the idea is there. Social media marketers can develop a list of some valuable partners and mark their "founded" dates and make a note of milestones on their social media calendars. While they're at it, marketers can inform partners of important dates for them to encourage promotion.
Give Hints
About to launch a new product? Marketers should give early notice to their loyal customers who have taken the effort to follow their brand online. Stich Fix, for instance, provided hints to its Instagram community that shoes would now be available within their on-demand subscription service (that curates personal clothing recommendations for women).
Be Transparent
Acquisitions are handled by companies in a variety of ways with some enterprises holding their dealings close to their chest while others are shouting from the digital rooftops. Regardless of whether it's a public company or not, enterprises should keep their community in the loop so they can have some insight into where the company is going. For instance, if an ecommerce platform acquires a social media listening software company, customers may get excited about the functionality that will be available in the future. The same is true in all industries. In 2014, Nordstrom bought Trunk Club, which offers stylists who find members clothing to fit their style, budget and existing wardrobe. As a loyal Nordstrom customer, that's functionality one would be curious about because it could positively impact their shopping experience at some point.
Host a Contest
Everyone loves free stuff and what better way to thank a community than to host a contest. Marketers will want to make sure the reward is something relevant to the company like selfie sticks for a social media platform like Nicho.
Share Office Pics
Companies should show off their personality on social and doing so for company milestones like an anniversary potluck is as good of time as any. Zendesk does this regularly like with new hires.
