GET INSPIRED: HOW COMPANIES ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MARKETING

Beth J. Bates, a New Media Special Correspondent, put together a nice list of examples of how companies are using social media for their marketing and branding initiatives. I've added a couple of things of my own, so here it is:

• Cisco hosts a variety of blogs called “The Platform” inviting customers to join in the conversation.
• Dell hosts its own virtual island in Second Life to help better connect with customers globally.
• Ford not only has a social media marketing guru in Scott Monty, they also use a variety of social media tools including social media press releases, photos in Flickr and total accessibility through Twitter.
• With tax day right around the corner, H&R Block has aggregated its social media properties into a Facebook Fan Page. To date, they have over 1700 fans.
• Intuit created the TaxAlmanac wiki enabling anyone to share information on taxes.
• Jeep encourages Jeep owners to share information through a variety of services including Flickr, Facebook and MySpace. They have over 97,000 fans on Facebook.
• McDonald’s features a blog that showcases their contributions to social responsibility.
• Southwest employees connect directly with customers through their “Nuts About Southwest” blog.
• Zappos.com, in my opinion, has the best feel for how to use Twitter to strengthen your brand.
• Sprite launched a video campaign using YouTube and Facebook to appeal to younger audiences while jump-starting a career of a singer and songwriter from the UK, Katie Vogel.
• Agent Provocateu, British lingerie maker, stepped up its social media game using Twitter and blogging in time for Valentine's Day.
• Videoegg used live streaming in conjunction with Twitter to educate prospect about "new ways to make the digital media work harder for brand advertisers."

Get inspired :)