The Big List of Social Media Case Studies (only hands-on examples, across industries)

After leaving Maersk Line to join Wibroe, Duckert & Partners, and after having met with numerous clients across industries, one question I get again and again is this:

“Maersk Line aside, can you give us some hands-on social media examples that are relevant to our company?”

Point taken. You cannot copy-paste what we did in Maersk Line, and sometimes the difference between e.g. a retailer and a shipping company is simply too big.

The difference between looking good and being good
There are of course so many social media cases out there. But I find it’s extremely difficult to judge how “best case” those cases really are. They might look very convincing from the outside, but as soon as you get behind the scenes you find that either they don’t add any true business value or that the resources spent don’t justify the outcome. Or both.

The opposite is also true sometimes: Some companies are using social technologies in quieter ways that you never hear about, even though they are in fact extremely effective, tied to the core business and really do create business impact.

The Social Pros Podcasts – insights from the social engine rooms
Thankfully, last year my good long-distance friend Jay Baer of Convince & Convert decided to launch an amazing podcast series called The Social Pros Podcast. I was lucky enough to feature in one of the first episodes, relatively few months after we got started on social media in Maersk.

social-pros-album-artThe Social Pros Podcast acts as a repository of good hands-on examples of how to work with social media from within a company. Examples you can really learn from. Most of the people featured in the episodes are “real people doing real work in social media”, i.e. social media managers or community managers.

The only problem is this: Where to start and where to end. There’s so much inspiration and knowledge in that series, but the list is simply overwhelming (almost 100 episodes in 20 months).

So, based on Jay’s podcast series, I decided to do the following list of companies doing great things in social media, sorted according to industry.

The list is based on The Social Pros Podcast, but that’s just a starting point. I plan to expand the list. And I also plan to write a few sentences about each case, when I get the time.

Let me know if you can think of companies that deserve to be on the list.

Finally, I hope below is good #youtility for people other than myself. If not, please forgive me – and keep browsing.

– – –

Entertainment

AMC Theatres
Feat. Justin Gardner

Cedar Point Amusement Park
Feat. Tony Clark

Agriculture

Monsanto
Feat. Janice Person

Dairy Management Inc.
Feat. Jamie van der Molen

Home & Gardening

Scott’s Miracle-Gro
Feat. Beth Dockins

Delta Faucet
Feat. Dave Morse

Lowe’s Home Improvement
Feat. Brad Walters

Electronics

Sony
Feat. Callan Green

Online retailers

Best Buy
Feat. Alix Hart

Healthcare

Aetna
Feat. Lauren Vargas

Energy

Alabama Power
Feat. Ike Pigott

Financial Services

Farmers Insurance
Feat. Ryon Harms

StockTwits
Feat. Howard Lindzon

Fifth Third bank
Feat. Shannon Paul

American Family Insurance
Feat. Michele Wingate

H&R Block
Feat. Scott Gulbransen

Citibank
Feat. Frank Eliason

Amerifirst
Feat. Dan Moyle

Telecom

U.S. Cellular
Feat. Sonny Gill

Travel

Hilton Hotels
Feat. Vanessa Sain-Dieguez

Southwest Airlines
Feat. Brooks Thomas

Transport & Logistics

Maersk Line
Feat. Jonathan Wichmann

Food & beverages

Bubba Gump Shrimp
Feat. Lauren Fernandez

Chipotle Mexican Grill
Feat. Joe Stupp

McDonald’s
Feat. Rick Wion

Dunkin’ Donuts
Feat. Jessica Gioglio

Happy Bitch Wines
Feat. Debbie Gioquindo and Keryl Pesce

WhiteWave Foods
Feat. Jennifer Beechen

Omaha Steaks
Feat. Paul Haskell

Jim Beam
Feat. Jason Miller

IT

Citrix
Feat. Justin Levy

Kuno Creative
Feat. Chad Pollitt

JDA Software
Feat. Cindy Kim

BazaarVoice
Feat. Ian Greenleigh

WhatCounts
Feat. Christopher S. Penn

Yammer
Feat. Maria Ogneva

Eloqua
Feat. Joe Chernov

Netbase
Feat. Lisa Joy Rosner

IBM
Feat. Sandy Carter

Red Hat
Feat. Chris Moody

3M
Feat. Greg Gerik

Cisco
Feat. Tim Washer

Automotive

Ford
Feat. Scott Monty

Audi
Feat. Andy White

Nissan
Feat. Erich Marx

Sports

Super Bowl
On the Super Bowl Social Media Command Center, feat. Taulbee Jackson

PGA Tour
Feat. Lauren Teague

ESPN
Feat. Katie Richman

Garmin
Feat. Jake Jacobson

TaylorMade Golf
Feat. Charlie Kautz

Tampa Bay Lightning
Feat. James Royer

San Francisco Giants
Feat. Bryan Srabian

Media

Gannett Company
Feat. Jodi Gersh

Content Marketing World
Feat. Todd Wheatland

Music

Billboard
Feat. Katie Morse

Education

2tor
Feat. Alexa Scordato and Harrison Kratz

Industrial

Caterpillar
Feat. Brian Stokoe

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