The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American. – Thomas Jefferson
It’s a great week to be an American. Whether you voted for the right or the left during the election, or celebrated the hard work and dedication of our men and women who serve at home and overseas, the red, white, and blue was prominent this week.
That patriotism carried into messages on Facebook this week as well. This year’s election featured more social marketing than ever before, both Romney and Obama invested heavily in paid Facebook, Twitter, and extensive email campaigns.
A number of brands came through to show support for voting and for Veteran’s Day too, some more branded than others.
Last week we looked at a number of brands doing a great job to break through the noise on Facebook, and this week we have three more politically charged posts to examine.
Social Fresh uses Expion to monitor the most engaging posts from the past week on Facebook. Out of all the big brands we monitor, we call out at least three Fresh Facebook Posts to feature here.
1. California Pizza Kitchen
California Pizza Kitchen opened up their doors to any serviceman or woman for a free meal today on Veteran’s Day. Using a large graphic (presumably one that has been used as an in-store flyer as well) they’ve given a large area for people to absorb the content. This was a mid-week post as well, providing longevity for the word to spread enough days before the promotion to give their fans a chance to schedule it into their lives.
Having adequate lead time in your content schedule is essential to creating and maintaining promotional buzz.
2. Applebee’s
Applebee’s also continued their tradition of serving meals to servicemen and women, though unlike CPK above, they decided to go with actual photos of servicemen inside of the Applebee’s restaurant last year. This adds a layer of realness to the post because they’re real people in real situations.
There’s more than meets the eye in this post however, as they have also included the link to their “Thank You Movement” campaign. If you haven’t visited the Thank You Campaign website, you’re invited to share your appreciation throughout the various social networks, but they’re also tracking the most thankful neighborhoods, using a Google Maps integration to display comments on an interactive map.
Just a note, Applebee’s followed up this promotion by posting a photo album from various stores celebrating today.
3. Planet Fitness
Sometimes it’s not just about celebrating the highs of the country, but taking a laugh at the little nuances that make life what it is.
To say that the social space has been flooded with positical ads is an understatement, and Planet Fitness, a brand of nationwide gyms who already take on meathead weightlifters and Über-Bros in their ads, have made that quite aware in this simple status update.
When you think about it, the judgment-free zone of Planet Fitness draws quite the parallel with politics on Facebook, and they simply state it with no photo, just a status update.
Frankly, I would have preferred to see something like this from them:
How did you or your clients discuss the elections or Veteran’s Day this week? Do you notice an increase or decrease in interaction on posts that are USA or Military themed? Let us know in the comments.
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Data provided by Expion, a social software company. Expion provides scalable enterprise-grade software to listen, content plan, publish, moderate, analyze, govern and share content on Facebook and other social channels across thousands of users.