Seven Traits of Successful Social Media Campaigns

During a recent BlogWorld Expo panel led by AdFreak's David Griner called Like it or Spike it, several traits emerged for successful social media campaigns:

1. Be authentic. In this medium, platitudes don't work.

2. Make it brainlessly easy for people to participate. Don't make people jump through too many hoops.

3. Make sure there is a clear and concise call to action. Too many brands are unclear in their explanation of how people should participate.

4. Avoid blatant self promotion within the campaign.

5. Don't make your call to action something that takes people away from your offering. Don't make people go look something up online or look for a tweet during the broadcast of your television show.

6. Don't stuff the ballot box. If you're hosting a photography competition, don't fill the gallery with your own brand's submissions.

7. Do not under any circumstances ask every employee in your company to flood a Facebook campaign with Likes or drop hundreds of positive comments on a YouTube video.