Empire Today : Getting Your Customers to Social Media Market For You

Sometimes a company can be marketed virally on social media platforms without actually hiring a social media marketer or putting together a social media campaign. Established brands which have a loyal grassroots following, either large or small, sometimes enjoy the benefit of that following establishing an online presence, whether in Facebook groups or Youtube Video channels.

As an example, I'd like to look at a company which is not in the sexiest of industries, but has established a strong brand to be named in the AdAge Top 200 Brands and also become a household name.

Empire Today (formerly known as Empire Carpet) had its beginnings in the Chicago area, offering next day carpet & flooring installation via television commercials. To build their brand, Empire Today established the Empire Carpet Guy character and also a very memorable jingle that sings their phone number ... 800-588-2300 Empire!

(More info on their background from Wikipedia )

If you're from the Chicago Area, you probably know this number by heart. If you're from other US metropolitan areas, the number has probably grown on you over the past couple of years as the company has gone national. Their commercial was featured in the Waynes World movies, on Conan O'Brien & Ellen DeGeneres and even Pearl Jam has played their jingle live in concert. That brand loyalty and enthusiasm has also carried over to the Internet.

Here are some videos which fans and customers of Empire Today have uploaded to Youtube. The videos are not product testimonials or encouraged by the Empire company, instead they represent emotional connections of brand loyalty with family, pets and everyday life.

Child Dancing to Empire Today Theme Song (Almost 2,000 views) :

Family Dog Howling to the Theme Song (Over 3,000 views) :

A quick search on YouTube even shows Chicago television fans uploading the old classic Empire Carpet commercials from the Chicagoland area. Likewise a quick search on Flickr also shows pics of the Empire Today branded bobblehead dolls that the company gives out as promotional freebies.

The end effect, positive social media marketing of the business within Google Video, Youtube and Google Universal Search Results all done for 'free' by the fanbase and brand loyalists of this company.

So, how can your company learn from this example?

First, stick to basic branding practices and incorporate a uniform logo, slogan, message, phone number, web address and even a company mascot in offline marketing practices.
Secondly, connect with your customers and residents in your area via contributing to the community or giving out free promotional items. Remember how Target gave everyone standing outside of the Today Show paper fans to cool themselves in the summer?
Give out free schwag at events that attract videos, cameras and publicity.

Does this work for smaller businesses? How can this work for a web site? Well, I tell you what, it does!

In the online marketing world, Best of the Web has followed a similar path, becoming a staple attendee at industry conferences, giving out great t-shirts, developing a brand image (and mascot), and being overall cool guys. The result is excellent branding and excellent coverage by blogs, photographers and some video coverage. Whenever I come home from a search marketing conference my first thought is to look on Flickr for photos from the conference and in almost every image, someone is wearing a BOTW.org t-shirt!

Now that's a great way to get your customers to market you socially without directly asking or paying them to :)

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Web Success Diva, June 6, 2008

I do not really see the same affect for small business, as with corporation and those with a solid brand presence online. But this is still a great look at the possibilities for any business.

Maria Reyes-McDavis

Yura, June 9, 2008

I totally see it for a local small business, though. Imagine the entire small town wearing t-shirts of a local bakery. Who would not buy bakery from them?

In fact, this thing specially works for small niches, aka businesses, because they are remarkable in a way.

Of course, the product has to be sticky (really good) for it to work in the long term, ofc.

Bill, June 10, 2008