How a shipping company earned 650,000 Facebook fans in a year

In my quest to further understand social marketing and learn how best to improve our skills in marketing my movies, I found this article to be very interesting.

How a shipping company earned 650,000 Facebook fans in a year

This article suggests a more organic approach. Being more personable and honest. A strategy that's also best in life actually. Just be you, just be honest, just be a human being.

Here's a list of tips from the article:

1. Improvise. Wichmann hasn't planned a single post in the year Maersk has been on social media. "You just sit down at the keyboard or use your mobile phone when there is something to say, and then you do it as well as you can," he says. "Conversely, if you plan to send out a certain story next Wednesday at 12:00, it then turns into a marketing exercise. Then you lose the moment. And then you (or the agency) also spend too much time on it."

2. It has to be simple. "Don't convince yourself that everything you have to say-or your company has to say-is exciting," he says. "The users decide whether to spend time reading your post, or not, in a split second, based on a combination of what is said in the first few words and whether they usually find the company's information relevant."

3. Tell stories and more stories. Corporate, or brand journalism, is on the rise for a reason. "It's about ditching the marketing plans and taking on people who can unearth and tell stories in a lively and credible way. And this includes both good and bad news," Wichmann says. Tell the stories that reflect your company's reality. "It is therefore also imperative that the company really is 'good' and has nothing to hide. Otherwise this wouldn't be the smartest approach," he adds.