Coka-Cola : Social Media Genius?

If you are involved in a social network such as Facebook, you will have likely seen your friends posting images of Coke cans with a name on it - either their own or another, such as the following:

Instead of running a campaign spammed with "Like Us" or "Visit our Facebook Page" all over it, Coke have positioned their products so that they fit within our daily lives. And guess what.. People are posting images of their products all over Facebook, Twitter and other networks (like this blog post) with out needing to be prompted to do so. Every day I am seeing an image of a Coke can in my news feed at least 3 - 4 times. Lucky I don't drink much soft drink, but I sort of feel like a Coke now..

Another example of Coke using social media and fitting within our daily lives would be their use of RFID technology in wrist tags at the Rock'nCoke 2011 festival. A RFID Reader was set up at 28 different points throughout the festival that allowed festival goers to "Like" certain activities just by swiping their wrist tag.

So if your business is looking to embrace social media, it is important that you realise the reasons why people use social networks in the first place (normally to socialise.. go figure!). So the question is, how can your product or service fit within the daily lives of people and prompt them to start a conversation with out actually directing them to "Like our Page" just for the sake of it...

It is worth planning out your campaign strategy before just jumping straight in. For example.. What are your goals? What is your message? What is the information flow? What is the purpose? What do you want out of it? What value does it provide your audience?

And remember to try to integrate the physical world with the virtual world, just as Coke have done.

Genius? I think so!